With my recent strawberry picking exploits I ended up with a lot of berries. I didn’t want to make jam so I needed some ideas. I thought about doing some sort of strawberry rhubarb combo but that didn’t happen. As per usual I took to the interwebs to see what my options could be.
I settled on this Martha Stewart recipe for a Strawberry Cake. The ingredient list is beyond simple and there is nothing special about the technique at all. Right up my alley!
One thing to note about this recipe is that the 1lb of berries isn’t a hard and fast rule. My berries were on the smaller side so 1lb ended up being WAY too many berries for this cake.
The cake ended up being OK but nothing to write home about. It was almost too simple and didn’t have any degree of indulgence to it. It’s the kind of cake that you’d serve with tea after a nice lunch or when you have company over and need a simple bite. Don’t get me wrong, the cake was technically good in terms of moistness, flavour etc. It just didn’t deliver on hitting the spot that I needed it to hit. I think if I were making this again I would consider adding in some poppy seeds or something for a little extra kick.
Strawberry Cake
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pie plate
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 pound strawberries, hulled and halved
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 10-inch pie plate. In a sieve combine the flour, baking powder and salt and sift into a bowl.
Combine the butter and 1 cup of the sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix using a medium-high speed until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Reduce the speed and mix in egg, milk and vanilla.
Reduce speed to low and mix in flour mixture a bit at a time. Pour the batter into the pie plate and arrange the strawberries on top, cut side down. Sprinkle with the remaining sugar.
Bake cake for 10 minutes and then reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees and bake for about an hour more or until the cake is golden brown and firm. Allow to cool in the pie plate on a wire rack.
(Recipe from Martha Stewart)
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The cake looks amazing with all those strawberries! Tea cake is a nice change from all the heavily iced chocolatey baked goods out there, but I guess it is all in what you are craving or expecting at the time. Thanks for sharing.
delicious looking cake and lovely way to use fresh strawberries
What a beautiful photo of the cake! I recently made a cake inspired by this Martha Stewart recipe but found it to be quite delicious. Granted I made quite a few tweaks: I swapped some of the granulated sugar for dark brown, used heavy cream instead of milk, and used half sliced rhubarb half strawberries, and the zest of two oranges. I highly recommend trying it out again with some or all of those changes. To see exactly what I did: http://bowllicking.com/2011/06/23/strawberry-rhubarb-cake/.
Your recipe sounds great! Thanks for stopping by.
I think moist and flavorful means you made a good cake. Sometimes you want something simple, if you are having a delicate tea you want something that will not overpower it.
I wanted to bake a cake today with strawberries in it…something I’ve never done before so I wondered who had. Well, you and Martha apparently. I appreciate your honest commentary and it mirrors sort of how I felt when I read her version. So, let the testing begin! I’ve added some sour cream, lemon rind and lemon juice to the batter and I’m hoping that will, ‘kick it up a notch’ but also thinking I might drizzle some lemon glaze to make mine a real Strawberry Lemon Cake. In the oven now and fingers crossed!
[…] Martha Stewart had done it and several others bloggers (Smitten Kitchen, Two Peas and Their Pod and What’s On My Plate) had as well, using her recipe so I was tempted…but I also appreciated the honesty of the […]
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