This is a Must-try triple Berry Cake Recipe. It has a buttery crumb topping, a juicy layer of strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries, and a soft, airy cake.
There’s a surprise ingredient here that creates light and fluffy forkfuls of cake (and no one has to know it’s SUPER EASY). Watch the video tutorial and you will be a pro in no time.
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Triple Berry Cake Recipe
We absolutely love this single-layer, easy summer cake recipe. It’s similar to our most popular Lemon Blueberry Cake, this easy-peasy Strawberry Cake, or our gluten-free Almond Cake! They are quick to make and they disappear even faster. You don’t need any special equipment and most are baked in a single Springform Pan.
Easy Berry Cake Video Tutorial
Watch Natasha Make this easy Berry Cake. If you haven’t already, please subscribe to our YouTube channel and select the bell icon to receive notifications when we post a new video.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Let’s start with the obvious—it’s easy, versatile (see all of the variation ideas below), and stunning! It also has a surprising ingredient that gives this berry cake a fantastic crumb.
Have you tried using sparkling water in baking? The more carbonated the better! The air bubbles make baked goods fluffier, including pancakes, waffles, and batters like tempura. You can use unsweetened and preferably unflavored sparkling water, club soda, or seltzer water here.
Variations
We love this berry cake because it’s very forgiving and you can use a variety of fruit to make it your own. I hope this becomes a new favorite for you.
- Stone fruit – peaches, nectarines, plums, cherries
- Tropica fruit – peeled and diced mango
- Berries – Raspberries add sweet-tart flavor
- Try this combination: peach and blueberry cake – use 1 cup peeled and sliced peaches and 1 cup blueberries.
Can I Use Frozen Berries?
We prefer fresh fruit here, but you can incorporate frozen berries into your cake with a few adjustments. Keep in mind frozen berries may be more likely to sink deeper into the cake.
- Do not thaw – use berries straight from the freezer.
- Coat in flour – toss the frozen berries in 1 Tbsp of flour to help keep them from sinking down.
- Adjust the Baking Time – If using all frozen berries, it would probably take 5 to 10 minutes longer to bake. Check at 45 minutes for doneness with a toothpick and add more time as needed.
How to Make Berry Cake
- Quick prep – preheat your oven to 350˚F with a rack in the center of the oven. Dot the bottom of a springform pan with butter and line it with a circle of parchment paper (the butter will help the parchment stay in place).
- Beat together eggs and sugar on high speed for 5 minutes. It should be thick and pale in color. Stir in olive oil just until incorporated.
- Whisk together the flour and baking powder in a small bowl. Add half of your dry ingredients to the batter. Mix on low speed just until incorporated so you don’t deflate your batter.
- Add zest and vanilla and mix on low speed. While mixing on low, slowly pour in the club soda. Stop mixing as soon as it’s blended in.
- Add the remaining flour mixture then spread the batter into your prepared pan and top with your berries.
- Make the Crumb Topping – combine the crumble topping ingredients in a medium bowl and use your fingers to rub the mixture together until coarse crumbs form. Bake for 45-50 minutes until golden brown on top and a toothpick comes out clean. Do not overbake or your cake may be dry.
How to Test a Cake for Doneness
Not all ovens are created equal – some run hotter or cooler than others which is why I highly recommend investing in an in-oven thermometer. They are inexpensive but will improve your baking. My own oven is 25 degrees cooler than it should be when it’s preheated. Most cake recipes will provide a range of baking times. If you want to ensure you are baking a moist cake, it’s always best to start checking a cake at the earlier time given.
How to tell when a cake is done? It’s as simple as inserting a toothpick or thin wooden skewer into the center of a cake. You know the cake is done if there are no streaks of wet batter clinging to the toothpick. A few crumbs are ok but not wet batter.
More Berry Recipes
If you loved this Berry Cake and fresh summer berries, here are some more great summer berry recipes. I especially love them baked into desserts when they release their natural pectin and become jammy and syrupy, like in our Blueberry Pie – so good!
- Strawberry Sauce
- Blueberry Bread with Lemon Glaze
- Strawberry Cheesecake
- Blueberry Crumble
- Strawberry Pretzel Salad
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Easy Berry Cake with Crumb Topping
Ingredients
Ingredients for Berry Cake:
- 3 large eggs, room temp
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup light olive oil
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, measured correctly
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 Tbsp lemon zest from 1 large lemon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup seltzer water or club soda
- 10 oz mixed berries, 2 cups*
Ingredients for Crumb Topping:
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 4 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
Instructions
How to Make Berry Crumb Cake Recipe:
- Prep: Preheat oven to 350˚F. Line the bottom of a springform pan with a ring of parchment paper. Grease sides lightly with butter.
- In a large mixing bowl using an electric hand mixer (or stand mixer), beat together eggs and sugar on high speed 5 minutes until thick. Stir in 1/4 cup olive oil.
- In a separate small bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder. Add 1/2 flour mixture to the batter, mixing on low speed just until incorporated.
- Stir in 1 Tbsp lemon zest and 1 tsp vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, add 1/3 cup club soda, mixing until incorporated.
- Add remaining 1/2 of flour mixture, transfer to prepared pan and even out the top with a spatula. Place berries somewhat evenly over the top.
How to Make Crumb Topping & Assembly:
- In a medium bowl, combine the crumble topping ingredients. Rub the butter and flour together with your finger tips to create crumbs. Bake 45-50 min. until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Ours was perfect at 48 min and be sure not to over-bake or the cake will turn out dry.
Notes
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
Good Things
Did you do a double-take? 👀 I love how my husband Vadim adds fun video edits that keep people smiling. Going forward, I’m going to use this space below the recipe card to share something good, something that will make you smile, inspire you, and stir up joy. It will probably evolve 😉. In a world that seems to have a lot of bad news, I’ll be here to share something good.
P.S. Stay tuned for Friday’s new video for a Strawberry Salad from our new cookbook. I can’t wait to share it with you! Loads of Love, -Natasha
Can you freeze after baking?
Hi Tina, we have refrigerated and we have also left it out, covered at room temperature overnight and either way works. I haven’t tried freezing it yet to advise.
Hi Natasha! I live in Denver, CO., what changes do I need to make to this delicious recipe??
Thanks, Angie
Hi Angie, I’m assuming you’re referring to the elevation change? I don’t have experience baking at high elevation, I recommend and online search for changes due to that.
This cake looked so luscious I just had to make it! I was never so disappointed in a recipe in my life. To be fair I didn’t have ap flour so I used bread flour and instead of strawberries & blue berries I used Cherry tomatoes & raisins. Just kidding, I followed your recipe to the T and it was fabulous! By the time I thought to take a picture it was all gone!
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us!
Natasha – do you have a cookbook?
Hi Sonja, not at the moment but I am already working on it. I’ll definitely share it with everyone when it’s ready.
This cake would have been perfect had it not fallen in the center and was seriously under baked with raw batter in the middle. I followed the recipe to a T and even put it back in the oven for an extra 5 minutes. So something is seriously wrong with this recipe since my oven is calibrated for perfect baking temp and even tweaking it did not help. It is sad to waste such expensive ingredients.
Hi Krysty, I haven’t had that happen before. Make sure to have the oven fully preheated before putting it in and use the same size of baking dish as recommended in the post.
That’s what I’m looking for, what size pan to use. Your instructions just to prepare the pan etc. What size is used. Thanks
We used a 9″ Springform pan for this recipe.
I had used frozen berries and had to cook much longer as the middle was not done. It was delicious even though the edges were a little overdone. I plan on making again tomorrow and will use fresh berries instead so I don’t have that issue!
I forgot to add that I used a white claw (!) as I didn’t have any club soda. It had a little white claw taste but was still good!
Good to know that, Ann Marie. Thanks for sharing that with us!
Hi, Natasha. Want to try this recipe tomorrow. Is the butter for the crunchy topping cold? In order to be easily incorporated with the other ingredients? Thanks!:)
Hi Lavinia, the recipe calls for: “4 Tbsp unsalted butter softened” which is room temperature.
Thank you! I made it today and it is delicious! I should have added a little more flour (mine was a kind of wet flour) ’cause the fruit deepened into the batter and the batter was not so well grown. I’ll know this next time.🤗
Would it be possible to use lemonade or fizzy water instead of soda ? Many thanks in advance.
I can’t wait to try it x
Hi Teresa, most fizzy water will work like a club soda. That should work.
Hi Natacha! I made this cake for our sunday brunch and it was amazing, everybody loved it. It was so so good that it was all gone after a few hours. I think that it’s one of the best cakes that I made. I’m going to make it again this week for my mum. I’m sure she’s gonna love it. Thank you!
Hello Ana, thank you for sharing that with us. I’m so happy to know that everyone loved this cake recipe. I hope your mom enjoys it too!
It’s is lovely :). The bake is not too difficult and results in a fluffy sponge with nice crumbles. It took me a bit longer to bake but the result was still a moist cake.
I’m glad you loved the end result, Caroline. Thanks for your great feedback!
Hi Natasha,
I always like either milk or sour cream in my cakes. Can I skip the club soda and add sour cream or milk instead? if yes, how much?
Thank you
Hi Karina, I honestly haven’t tried that so I’m not sure how it will affect the outcome of the cake.
Thank you dear
Made this this morning to send with my daughter back to college. They were a big hit. The only change was I made them as muffins instead of a cake. Love your recipes Natasha!
Awww that’s the best! Thank you so much for sharing that with me, Jackie! I’m all smiles!
Hi Natasha!
Such a lovely recipe again! My husband requested cherries in it and A LOT of cherries so I doubled the amount. I served it with vanilla sauce and cream. It was amazing!
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us, Aqilah!
You are terrific… Just watching you, you have to try to make it too. You are great, and your handsome husband is sosooo lucky. Keep up the good work.
Victoria P
You’re so nice! Thank you Victoria!
So yummy, it came out moist & flavorful. I added a glaze made with cream cheese, lemon juice & powdered sugar. It didn’t need it but it was definitely over the top! Thanx for sharing this great recipe, will pass it along & most definitely make again! Wish I could leave the pic I took of it before I gave it to a friend!
That’s just awesome!! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, April!
I was wondering if you could use frozen fruit…..when fresh is not in season?
Hi Vinny, Fresh berries work best for this cake. If you are unable to get all 3 berries fresh, you can sub one of them with frozen but they may be more likely to sink deeper into the cake or discover the top of the cake. You can also use ONLY strawberries, or only blackberries or blueberries and have it just a single berry cake. It will still be just as delicious. If using all frozen berries, it would probably take a little longer to bake but check at 45 minutes for doneness.
I am interested in making this cake for a graduation barbecue. I think blackberries have seeds and if they do how would you get them out?
Thank You
Hi Melinda, there isn’t an easy way to remove blackberry seeds from whole berries unless you turn it into a puree and strain. It might be much easier to just use a different berry.
Strawberry’s and blueberries have seeds too, actually all berries. Natasha is right to puree them and strain them, but I think it would be ruining the look of this cake. When you cut a slice of this cake and see those beautiful berries, it’s a piece of art and delicious too.
I’m very excited to try this recipe for Easter dinner. I can’t seem to see what size springform pan we should use. Would it be a 9 inch?
Hi Judi! We linked the pan in our description 🙂 We used a 9″ Springform pan
Hi Natasha. I love all your cooking and baking. I would love to try make this cake for my own birthday. But I have gluten issue. Can I substitute Bob’s Mill 1:1 gluten-free flour for all purpose flour? Thank you for your time
Hi Natalie, I haven’t tested this as a gluten-free cake but one of our readers, Kari, reported the following great results making this gluten-free: “I used a Pillsbury gluten-free cake mix and then I just incorporated the rest of the recipe like normal. For the crumbs I used cup 4 Cup gluten free flour.”
I’m thawing out my strawberries from last years crop now and will make this tomorrow. But I wanted to let you know that I could not print the recipe. My printer printed out a few lines from the second page and that was it. So what I did was Save it as a PDF and then opened the document and printed it and both pages came out perfectly. I thought it was my printer, now I know it’s your Print button. Just wanted to let you know. Can’t wait to taste this tomorrow. I am adding some Tapioca to the strawberry’s and a little Orange extract to give it some kick. But in the summer I will have blueberries, blackberries and fresh strawberries and will be making this again with fresh.
I’m happy you enjoyed that, Gloria! The print friendly recipe is at the bottom of each post. Once you scroll there, click on the print icon in that recipe card which will open a print screen, then you would need to click file —> print. I hope that helps! If not, please let me know exactly what steps you are taking and where you are navigating to print our recipes.
The print icon is in the recipe card on the right hand side. I click it and it brings you to a friendly print page and when I printed it two sentences came out. I got the print to work by saving it to a PDF. I have used computers, programs, printers, scanners for over 30 years, trust me, the print icon didn’t work. But I’ll try it again, my computer was updating at that time.
Thanks, waiting on the club soda so I can bake this cake, can’t wait.
Hi Gloria, can you tell me which browser and device you were using to print the recipe? I am not able to recreate the issue on my end but I definitely want to make sure it is working for everyone. Thanks!
Yes, I use Microsoft Edge the newest version, 11, I think. I tried it again yesterday it did the same thing as the day before. It has to be because I am using Edge. I’m glad your testing it because I’m sure it’s not my printer, internet or me. By the way, the recipe came out perfect using frozen strawberry’s. I did keep it in a little longer (per my son’s instructions, against mine) and it was a little dry but not too dry. I did take photos. I will make it again in the summer when my garden is full of fresh berries. It’s a keeper, printed and in my recipe box. I use an old bread box for recipes. I like to print them out.
Hi Gloria, sometimes the blogging platform doesn’t update as quickly as a brand new web browser which seems to be the issue here. Hopefully the developer will release an update shortly to solve that issue. In the mean time, I would suggest trying the chrome browser as I am not seeing any issues using that one. I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Hi Natasha,
My daughter is allergic to blueberries so I was wondering if I could substitute the blueberries with raspberries.
I think that would work okay! I hope she loves it!
Help I don’t have a springform pan! Would a cake pan work?
Hi Lucy! A springform pan works best to remove the cake. It’s also deeper than a traditional cake pan so it holds more batter. But yes- you can use a cake pan too.
Hi Natasha, I’ve made the cake but it came out rather dense and dry; it raised a lot, but it’s not fluffy like in your photos; it stayed in the oven for 48 minutes.
I’ve measured the liquids with the small individual cups for flour instead in a glass measuring cup ( I’ve noticed after it’s a big difference between 1/3 small cup of water and 1/3 cup water measured in the big glass cup). Also, by error, I’ve added the two halfs of flour one after another and then the soda water in the end.
I’ll try it again, but I see most of the comments indicate the same problem : being dense and dry.
Maybe more liquid should be added? As well I think it’s not sweet enough.
Thanks for your great recipes, the peach cake and blueberry muffins came out perfect every time.
Ingrid
Hi Ingrid, I’m so happy you are enjoying some of our most popular cakes! I am always happy to help troubleshoot – we test our recipes multiple times prior to publishing and this one consistently had a soft fluffy texture. I wonder if any of the elements of the recipe were altered (measuring correctly is important so that may be it). You might consider the temperature of the ingredients, tools used for mixing, altitude. You can add a frosting to the cake if you prefer more sweetness. This is the type of cake that can be served at a brunch or after breakfast and is not intended to be overly sweet, but you could add a little more sugar if desired.
thanks for sharing the receipe of Berry Crumb Cake.It looks super delicious. I have been waiting a long time for a dessert recipe.
You’re so welcome, Daima!!