The Original Strawberry Cake

Wow, wow, wow.

I made this cake (after being duly inspired by Martha Stewart’s version) years ago, and People Took Notice (yes, in caps).

I shared the recipe with you a while back with raspberries making center stage (remember the Crazy-Good Raspberry Cake?), but knew that strawberries needed their day in the sun (ha!). I will never lose my love for the Strawberry Bread, which is kind of cake-like in nature and involves more of a strawberry puree, but when you want an absolutely amazing white cake that happens to have berries strewn across the top, look no further.

Enjoy the rest of berry season!

Adapted from Martha Stewart’s recipe…

6 tablespoons unsalted butter (room temperature)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar (plus 2 tablespoons for sprinkling over batter)

1 egg

1/2 cup milk (regular or almond milk)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups/ containers strawberries, hulled, chopped in half, rinsed and dried
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease/butter a 9 or 10-inch pie plate, and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, sift flour, baking powder, and salt together.
3. In a separate medium bowl, mix butter and 1 cup of sugar on medium-high speed until fluffy (about 2 – 3 minutes). Reduce speed and mix in egg, milk, and vanilla.
4. Gradually add flour mixture, mixing on low speed until well combined.
5. Pour batter into buttered pie plate, and arrange strawberries (cut sides down) on top of batter very close together (so you see as little batter as possible). Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over berries.
6. Bake cake for 10 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 325° and bake for about 60 minutes (yes, that long), until cake is golden brown and firm to the touch in the middle. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pie plate on a cooling rack. Store at room temperature, loosely covered (to prevent from getting soggy) for up to a couple of days.
Tips:
- Other fruit, you say? Yes! Place cut-side down, and enjoy. Use peaches, blueberies- any fresh (sort of dry) fruit, and place close together on top of the cake batter.
- Frozen fruit allowed? Me thinks no, since it would be too soggy. If you try it and it works (meaning that the heavy frozen fruit doesn’t plummet to the bottom of the pan) please let me know…
- Fruit placement… yeah, there’s no point in getting fancy, since the batter has a mind of its own as it rises. The outer ring stays in tact (see picture) but the rest goes all to hell as the batter takes over in its vanilla glory. Don’t mess with it- it knows what it’s doing.
- A word on buttering the pie pan: grease all the way outside to the edge and over the lip, so when the cake rises you won’t have to argue with it when you cut it later.
- What size of pie plate? Okay, here’s the deal: the batter will fill a 10″ pie plate, so if you have one, then good for you. You’re set. If you’re like me, and you only have a 9″ one (other than the deep-dish one you use for the Decadent Deep-Dish Pecan Pie), then keep a bit of the batter behind and pour it into 2 – 3 muffin tins that are LINED WITH CUPCAKE LINERS. (As discussed, don’t try to pop these out of the pan you bake them in, as the cake is a but stubborn and sticky- not sticky in a gross way, it’s just not the type of cake that pops out of the pan like a muffin is all too willing to do. Don’t judge this cake because it’s stubborn.)
- Enjoy with a bit of excellent vanilla ice cream…
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August 30th, 2014 | More Sweets Please | No Comments | Tags: Cakes, Fruit