I’m convinced food tastes better outside. I don’t know if it’s the fresh air or the fact that everything somehow feels more special on a picnic blanket, but I’ll happily eat the exact same slice of cake in the backyard over my kitchen table any day.

The roads around here have been filling up with little wildflowers lately, and every time I pass them I have to stop and admire them. I always tell myself I’m just going for a walk, but somehow I end up coming home with a handful of flowers and usually more berries than I intended to buy. Apparently I have absolutely no self-control when it comes to farm stands.

I started thinking how lovely it would be if a cake felt the same way those summer afternoons do, simple, colorful, and just a little whimsical.

This is a soft vanilla cake filled with juicy blueberries and raspberries, finished with a light honey glaze and scattered with edible flowers. It’s the kind of cake that looks like it belongs at a garden party, but it’s just as happy sitting on a blanket in the grass with a mason jar of lemonade.

Cakes don’t have to be perfect to be beautiful. In fact, I think they’re prettier when they’re a little imperfect. Let the glaze drip down the sides. Don’t spend twenty minutes trying to place every flower exactly right. Scatter them around, take a step back, and call it done. That’s usually the moment it looks the most charming anyway.

If you make this cake, I hope you find an excuse to take it outside. Bring a book you’ve been meaning to read, or invite a friend over for tea. Or do what I do, cut yourself a generous slice, pick a shady spot under a tree and tell yourself you’re only staying for twenty minutes. We both know it’ll turn into two hours.

If you happen to come home with an armful of wildflowers afterward, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

With love,

Autumn