Pomelo Cake with Blackberry Sauce

Weekend trips to the grocery store have become somewhat of a tradition for us as a couple. Wandering up and down each aisle deciding what will be on the menu for week is fun for us...ok, we may be weird, but there is just something about discovering a really interesting ingredient that we haven't used yet in the kitchen that gets our creative juices flowing. Charisse loves the colors and variety in the produce section while Eric usually gets stuck in the cheese and chocolate section of the market. During our last outing food shopping, Charisse picked up two pomelos but honestly had no idea what she was going to do with them. For those of you who are not familiar with this large citrus and like Eric ask "What the heck is this?" A pomelo is a cousin of the grapefruit. It is large in size with a green peel and has a tart kick that it's sweet cousin doesn't have. A few days later, after the cheese and chocolate had been eaten, the pomelo still sat in the fruit basket when Charisse decided to attempt to use it in a sweet dessert. That night called for cake and Eric called out "Let us eat cake" in his best British woman voice, which sounded like an Australian dog being hit by a car. With a bundt pan in hand Charisse whipped up a dense but not overly sweet cake that incorporated diced segments of pomelo into the batter. After 40 minutes of baking and 30 more minutes of cooling, it was time for the tense moment when the cake is inverted and with fingers crossed and a bit of good luck, pops out in one piece. Unfortunately for Charisse lady luck was not with her this time and our poor pomelo cake broke into multiple chunks. After much pouting, Charisse put the boo boo lip away and reassembled our humble bundt; not the prettiest sight in the world. It was at that moment we decided that in order to hide the seems of our cake, a nice dark sauce should be drizzled over the top and no one would be the wiser. And so a beautiful combination was born, pomelo cake with blackberry sauce was served up and enjoyed by all. Just a tip for all of you readers out there that can't find a pomelo, a grapefruit may be substituted for an even sweeter cake. 

Pomelo Cake with Blackberry Sauce
What You Will Need

1/2 cup butter 

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

grated rind of half a pomelo

1 1/2 cups flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

5 - 6 segments of pomelo, diced


Blackberry Sauce


What You Will Need


12 ounces blackberries (I used frozen)

1/4 cup water (If using frozen blackberries then only use half of the water)
3 Tbs sugar


Preheat oven to 350*


Grease and flour bundt pan and set aside. 


Cream together the butter and sugar until well combined and fluffy. Add eggs and milk and mix. Whisk together all of the dry ingredients and slowly add into the wet batter until smooth. Gently mix in pomelo zest and diced segments. Pour into bundt and bake for 40 minutes. Allow to cool before popping out of the bundt pan.


To make the blackberry sauce, puree the berries with water and sugar. Press through a fine sieve to remove the seeds and chill. Sauce will thicken as it chills.