Strawberry Cake

I had a full punnet of strawberries in the fridge that were about to turn and was looking for something to do with them. Also, it was Great British Bake off evening so I needed to have cake! A bit of Googling and I found a recipe from the Smitten Kitchen blog by Deb Perelman. It was was simple, straightforward and I had all of the ingredients already. It is what Deb calls an ‘everyday’ cake. It’s not the kind of cake you make when you are looking to impress anyone or for a special occasion, but for those days when you just want a nice piece of cake.

I adapted the recipe slightly by using less fruit and less sugar and to me it was perfect. Don’t leave out the sugar on top as it gives it a nice crunch. I would imagine it would work well with other berries. I have a bag of frozen strawberries in the freezer which I only usually use for smoothies but I’ll try them in the cake next time and see if that works.

Adapted from this recipe

Serves 8

Ingredients:

• 85g of unsalted butter, plus extra to grease the pie dish
• 200g plain flour
•  1½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 175g caster sugar plus 1 tbsp
• 1 large egg
• 125ml full fat milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 300g strawberries, hulled and halved

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan/gas mark 4.
• Butter a 9 inch/23cm pie dish. Make sure you grease the dish very well, I didn’t put in enough butter and the cake was a bit stuck to the dish.
• Sieve the flour into a bowl and mix in the baking powder and salt.
• In another bowl, beat the butter and 175g of sugar until pale and fluffy. When it is ready, mix in the egg, milk and vanilla until just combined.
• Gradually add the dry mixture and keep mixing until fully incorporated into the butter mix. Don’t over-mix as this can lead to holes in your cake.
• Pour the batter into your prepared pie dish and spread evenly.
• Arrange your strawberries on top of the batter. Sprinkle the last tablespoon of sugar over the berries.
• Bake in the oven for 10 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 170c/150c fan/approx. 3-4 fan.
• Bake until the cake is golden brown. Test with a cake tester or toothpick somewhere in the middle where there is no strawberry. If there is no batter on the tester and the cake has started to come away from the edge of the dish, then the cake is ready.
• Let it cool in the dish on a rack.
• Cut into wedges. Serve with lightly whipped cream.