Strawberry Summer Cake Take II

Last summer I wrote about this amazing strawberry summer cake - this summer will be no different! I cannot get enough of this cake. It's so light and fluffy, not too sweet, with the bursts of berries and a soft, moist crumb - divine. If strawberries are still in season where you live, MAKE THE CAKE! Honestly, I don't see why this cake wouldn't work with blueberries, too - which means I'll just have to try that myself once the blueberries are in season over here. Last year The Mr. was out of town when I went berry picking and made the cake, so I ate probably 3/4 of the entire cake myself (over the course of a week, but still). This year I had to share it with him - it lasted a few days, but we tried our hardest to show restraint. I cannot eat just one piece of this cake - it's that good. Definitely in my all-time top 10 desserts. And big bonus: it's super quick and easy to make, and I'm betting you already have everything in your house that you need to make it. Score. 

This year I used less sugar - otherwise the cake is basically the same. I didn't try this, but I think a little lemon zest would be tasty here - if you don't like sweet desserts definitely cut back on the sugar. I also beat the butter and sugar for a bit longer - I preferred the texture of this year's cake to last year's. So just little tweaks, but I think they made a big difference in the end result.

Strawberry Summer Cake

adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for pie plate
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2/3-3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup 1% milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 lb fresh strawberries, hulled and halved

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 10 inch pie pan or a 9 inch deep dish pie pan (alternatively you can use a 9- or 10-inch springform pan, but a regular 9 inch pie pan is too small, your cake will overflow).
2. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in a small bowl. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and 1 cup sugar until fluffy, about 5-7 minutes. Mix in egg, milk, and vanilla until just combined. Add dry mixture gradually, mixing until just smooth.
3. Pour into prepared pie plate. Arrange strawberries, cut side down, on top of batter, as closely as possible in a single layer (I had a lot of overlapping here in order to stuff all those strawberries in, so no worries if your berries are overlapping a lot). Sprinkle remaining 2 Tbsp sugar over berries.
4. Bake cake for 10 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees and bake cake until golden brown and a toothpick poked in the center comes out free of wet batter, about 50-60 minutes (there will be gooey strawberries on the toothpick, just look for batter). Let cool in the pan on a rack. Serve as is, sift some powdered sugar over the top, or serve with lightly whipped cream, whatever floats your boat. The cake will keep at room temperature for a few days (I put mine under a glass cake dome, it kept it pretty fresh). 

 

I'm swooning over the strawberries - you would, too, if you could smell this cake. This will make your whole house smell heavenly.

 

Just one piece...

 

 

 

...perfection.

 

 

 

 

All done. More, please.