Meet Buckle Cake: The Old-School Dessert Born From Pure Resourcefulness

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You've undoubtedly heard of an apple crisp, peach cobbler, or a coffee cake – but what if you could enjoy a bake that was similar to all three? Enter, old-fashioned buckle cake. While there are discussions about the origins, it's widely recognized as a dessert that arrived with American settlers. Whether it stems from an English cake recipe brought by folk who arrived in New England or arose in the Midwest or the South is up for debate. One thing's for sure, this old-school dessert deserves a spot on today's tables.

A buckle is a moist single-layer cake (like a coffee cake), studded with jammy fruit (like a cobbler), and topped with a streusel (like a crisp or crumble). The fruit is either placed on top or mixed into the batter. Before being popped into the oven, it gets a sprinkling of coarse turbinado sugar or a streusel for the perfect crunchy bite. The best part of this cakey dish is its resourcefulness and versatility. It utilizes only a few household staples and can be made year-round. While it's often associated with blueberries, just use whatever ripe fruit is available. 

So, where did this dessert get its name? The theory is that the weight of the fruit settles to the middle or bottom while the cake batter rises to the top. As a result, the streusel on top slightly buckles from the movement. There are mentions of buckle in "Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book," her original 1950's recipe book, and again, later in 1996, when the Los Angeles Times posted a story and recipe. Even earlier evidence can be found in a World War II tome called "Kitchen Army Nutrition and Receipt Book," published in Nova Scotia. The dish rose in popularity during the 19th century when homes began to get stoves, and flour and baking soda became readily available.

Both cobblers and buckles are baked fruit desserts, but where they differ from one another is in the structure of their topping. A cobbler has a thickened layer of fruit, such as peaches or berries, mixed with sugar, lemon, and sometimes cornstarch, similar to a pie. Biscuits or batter are then dropped over the top, with the uneven spoonfuls of topping creating a cobblestone look as the fruit peaks through. It's a fruit-forward dessert, with a higher ratio of fruit to batter, similar to a crumble or crisp (only without the streusel or crumble topping), with origins in the South.

If you're a novice baker and slightly intimidated by fancy dessert recipes, have no fear because, just like a buckle, the cobbler is one of many great beginner bakes. Like most foolproof recipes, both require only a few standard ingredients and whatever fruit you have on hand. And once out the overn, both go exceptionally well with a dollop of homemade whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.