Berries are back in season, and I was delighted to find a big carton of them for only $4 at Costco last weekend. With so many strawberries in my fridge, I was excited to finally have enough to bake with them. Just in time, I saw this beautiful cake featured on Cup of Joe (original recipe is from Smitten Kitchen), and I made it for dessert after our spinach salad last weekend. It was pretty tasty right out of the oven, but it becomes marvelous the day after. This will be my go-to summer cake from now on. Pro tip: Store it uncovered at room temp so the top stays delightfully crunchy.
Strawberry Summer Cake
(Recipe from Smitten Kitchen - there is also a 9" round cake version on her site)
- 9 tbsp (125 grams) unsalted butter at room temp
- 3/4 tsp table salt
- 1 1/2 cups (300 grams) plus 3 tbsp (40 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup milk
- 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 2 1/4 cups (295 grams all-purpose flour)
- 1 1/2 pounds (680 grams) fresh ripe strawberries, hulled and halved
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat the sides of a 9x13" cake pan with butter or nonstick spray. Cover the bottom with a rectangle of parchment paper (we skipped this step and regretted it later).
- In a large bowl or stand mixer, beat butter, salt, and 1 1/2 cups sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and beat until combined.
- Add milk and mix until combined. It will look like a curdled mess, but keep beating it until it looks a little less curdled. The cake will turn out fine in the end.
- Sprinkle baking powder evenly over batter and beat into batter for 20 seconds longer than seems necessary to make sure it's evenly distributed throughout the batter.
- Add flour and beat or stir just until combined.
- Spread batter into prepared pan. It will be relatively thick for a cake batter. Arrange strawberries cut side down as snugly as you can get them to fit. If you have extra, squeeze them in. Sprinkle evenly with remaining 3 tbsp sugar.
- Bake for 45-48 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pan and serve. As I mentioned above, the cake is particularly good the day after.
No comments