The key feature of this cake is of course the presentation of the berries. So often cake with soft fruit completely hides it in the folds of the batter, only for a single berry to peek here and there, or becoming a blurry smashed layer. Tarts with a fancy berry arrangement on top are a different story, and not really cakes as such - I do like to make a clear distinction between a cakey cake (usually tackled with your fingers) and dessert which involves cream, frosting, layers an often complete lack of pastry (spooned or forked, by law). But tarts, tartlets and pies are not what we’re here about this time.
Back to our berry cake - this is lovely, the sooner served after leaving the oven, the better, as with time the berries start to leach juice a bit and the thing looks much messier. Fancy patterns can be applied and the berry assortment is entirely ad lib. The pastry is really lovely too, and - however little truck I hold with hipster flours and no-gluten fads - the buckwheat flour adds a lot of value. But we knew that, didn’t we, long before the world started growing beards and spiralizing the environment.
I used Melissa Clark’s recipe from NY Times Cooking. The only criticism I might have, if pressed - too few berries!