Mam's Black Cake

This came out great but I did not use raisins. Instead I used 2 cups of blackberries and 2 cups of blueberries. I cups of black berries is definitely not enough. I wasn't really sure about the blackberry and raisin combo. WE all liked this cake with the extra berries. also - I made this is a 9 x 13 pan. took almost an hour to bake. I checked it every 5 minutes after 35 minutes.

Very good. This is a spice cake with blackberries in but the flavour is very much there. Comparable to Blackberry Yummies, also on this site. The directions are a little haphazard, with ingredients listed in a totally random order. I melted the butter. I made fake buttermilk with 2 cups milk 2 tbsp lemon juice leave on counter 10 minutes. 1/2 teaspoon cloves (they're strong), 3/4 teaspoon nutmeg. Used 2 9-inch round cake pans instead of 3 8-inch. Glazed with mixture of 4 tablespoons frozen juice concentrate (Passionfruit or something tropical is good) mixed with 1/2 cup or more of confectioner's sugar. Mm!

Didn't have any raisins, so I doubled the blackberries. First off, the cake was beautiful. Nice brownish color, with purple ribbons in it. EXTREMELEY moist. More so than I would've expected from the recipe (a good thing). Unfortunately, the blackberries seemed to be lost amongst the spices. Don't know if not having raisins did that, but I would think the raisins would compound the berry-loss even more. Definately worth trying again. Next time I'll cut the spices (at the very least the nutmeg and clove) in half and see what happens. And the part in the description about being taken from Mam's handwritten recipe collection made my eyes moist. I've got a collection of cards from my grandmother, who died a couple of years ago. Sometimes I love pulling them out and making what she made when I was a kid.

Delicious! I took the others' advice: doubled up the blackberries & omitted the raisins. I also made the "fake" buttermilk by adding 2 T. lemon jce. to 2 cups milk & letting it sit for 10 min. I chose to use the entire amts. of cinnamon, nutmeg & cloves but it is VERY strong-flavored! Personally, I love it. But it might not be a bad idea to decrease the spices to 3/4 t. or maybe even 1/2 tsp. if you don't care for the strong flavor. It does overwhelm the blackberry and leaves a clovey taste in your mouth. :)

I found this recipe because I was looking for something without eggs. I wasn't expecting a moist cake because it didn't have any eggs in it. Was I surprised! Wow! I used blueberries instead of blackberries. It feels very healthy to eat this yummy cake. Goes very well as a snack or dessert with ice cream or coffee. Again, NO EGGS! yay.

The whole family loved this recipe. I doubled the blackberries and omitted the rasins, nutmeg and cloves. If you cant eat the whole cake at once it freezes well. I will defanetly make this again.

I made some changes (surprise!, lol). I wanted the blackberries to be the star. So, double the blackberries and no raisins. Fake buttermilk (who keeps buttermilk in the fidge?!?). 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg and cloves and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. The spices are there - but in the background and supporting the flavor of the blackberries. I used a 9x13 glass pan and cooked for 55 minutes; PERFECT.

I made this cake following the recipe, including the raisins. Because there was no photo, I wasn't sure I wanted to make three 8-inch cakes, so I used a 9x13 pan and baked it for 45 minutes. It was golden, dense, moist, and delicious with coffee--I ate it for breakfast for days on end! It was sweet enough with the fruits, and didn't need any sort of frosting/glaze. I would definitely make this again!

I found this recipe somewhat difficult to follow (was the butter meant to be melted or softened?). It was probably my lack in expertise that led to such problems, and I'm sure this cake would suit those with a bit more experience in the kitchen!

I'm a novice at cooking and thought this recipe was pretty good. I don't have a basis of comparison as I haven't ate many other coffee cakes, let alone one like this. I halved the amount of sugar the recipe called for and made up for that in apple sauce. It still came out very moist as others have said and I thought good. But I'd say if you're going to do this still use a bit more than half the sugar. It could have been a bit sweeter. It was very soft and I ended up just mixing a little honey and warm water to brush over the top of it, and then popping it back in the oven for a few minutes to let the crust get a little crunchy. This worked well. It was a very pretty cake. I think I'd recommend doing it in a loaf pan rather than cake pan, though, I feel like that would go with the softness better.

A nice moist cake. the only disappointment i had is i was looking for something with a little more raspberry flavor. however i did use wild blackberries and i have to cook and strain them to remove the seeds.

one of my favorite recipes....i make it every year with fresh blackberries from the farmers' market...i usually omit the raisins and add more blackberries, though.

I make this recipe whenever I find fresh raspberries for a cheap price. I'm very fond of it. Normally I make it with all whole wheat flour.

This is a delicious cake. I added a little bit of vanilla extract to the batter and doubled the blackberries. Unfortunately, I made this cake in a bundt pan and it cratered once removecd from the pan to the wire rack to finish cooling. Not sure what I did wrong. If anyone has any feedback, please let me know! Other than that, delicious and moist cake.

I did not have raisins and used dried cranberries in place of them. I baked them as 8 baby bunts instead of the three layers and then glazed them with a simple brown sugar glaze(butter, brown sugar & vanilla) and sprinkled them with them with toasted pecan pieces. They were a huge hit!!!! Tho we discovered quickly even a baby bunt needed to be shared. Thank you sooooooo much for sharing this recipe!!!!!!!!! It will become a permanent one in my desert file!

Good and suprisingly moist. We like the spice amounts as they are. I also melted the butter, figured it would make it easier to work with. Made the recipe as cupcakes instead of cake, great snack!!

Very good cake. Everyone at work really liked it. I followed the directions exactly ( I did melt the butter). Will certainly make again. Thanks for the great recipe.

This was such an easy recipe. I used Splenda in place of the sugar and that was the only thing that I changed. I will use this recipe again. Thanks

I substituted blueberries for the raisins. The cake was very moist, and a great way to use up my extra buttermilk. Next time I will make this as written and frost with a cream cheese frosting. I also melted the butter, like several others did.

I used dried blueberries, but otherwise followed the recipe. So easy to make! And delicious...

Loved this! After reading other reviews, made the following changes: melted the butter, cut the nutmeg and cloves in half, and dusted the top with powdered sugar after it cooled just to make it pretty. Since it made 3 cakes, I was able to share two with my friends' families too. :) Super delicious and much more moist than the thick batter had me expecting. A keeper!