How to make buttermilk at home ?

Ever been happily making a recipe only to find that it needs buttermilk ? Your first thought is how the heck are you gonna make buttermilk at home ? well here is a very simple recipe on how to make buttermilk:

Procedure:

1. Place one cup (240 ml) of milk in a bowl.

2. Add 1 tbspn of white vinegar (or) a pinch of lemon juice. 

3. Allow the mixture to stand for 5 min. 

4. Now your buttermilk is ready to be used in your recipes !

Blackberry sponge cake

So heres what you need to bake an amazing and scrumptious blackberry cake ! :
Prep time - 40 min  Ingredients:

For the sponge 
1. Unsalted butter- 170 gms
2.Sugar - 230 gms
3.Eggs- 4 
4. All purpose flour (Maida) - 200 gms
5. Vanilla essence - 1/2 teaspn
6.Baking powder - 2 teaspn
7. Buttermilk - 50 ml(optional) 

For the filling :
Blackberries - 200 gms
(You can also use blackberry or any other fruit  preserves which can be found at any super market )

Procedure :
1.Take a large bowl and place the butter in it . Now grind the sugar into fine powder .

 2. Add the sugar into the bowl with the butter .Mix the sugar and butter to get a creamy texture as shown below. 

 3.Fold the eggs and the flour into the mixture.
  
4.Add vanilla essence, baking powder and buttermilk and mix well . 

 5. Your batter should look quite runny as shown below.

                                                      
6. Grease a baking tray( here i have used a cake mould) and sprinkle it with some flour so that the cake doesn't get stuck to the bottom. Pour the batter into the tray such that only a quarter of the tray gets filled.

12. Now place a layer of the blackberry preserve on top  and cover it with some more batter and swirl it with a spoon to have an appealing look as shown below. Make sure the tray is 3/4 filled (not more than that) with the batter.
                                     

                                             
 13. Pre heat the oven at 200 c  . Now place the tray in the centre rack and bake at 150 c for 30 - 35 min.

14.When the cake leaves the sides of the tray, it is ready to be served !!

WHY IS BUTTERMILK USED IN BAKING ??
A.  Buttermilk brings a pleasant tang to cakes while adding very little fat. It gives baked goods a softer texture and more body. If you use buttermilk  as a substitute for milk in baking , you'll need to change the amount of baking powder due to higher acidic content in buttermilk. For every 50 ml of buttermilk used instead of milk you will want to use 1 teaspn less baking powder . Here in the above recipe , you can use 50 ml of buttermilk with only 1teaspn baking powder.

NOTE:
It is important in baking that the ingredients are placed in the order on the recipe.