May 25, 2010

Easy peasy

Guys! They’re heeerre! The strawberries are here! The plump little juicy buggers have arrived in the markets, my trusty sign that spring has arrived. They’re nothing like those ramps. These I can get excited about. When they’re good, I like to just eat them fresh, whole and plain. If a little tart, I prefer to macerate them in brown sugar and balsamic. But best yet, I am excited to make this cake. Thus, I was quite excited that the arrival of strawberries coincided with my coworker’s early May birthday, and I had an excuse to add a little butter, sugar, and milk to my fruit. Once again, I whipped this together on a school night and toted it into the office; it disappeared quickly.

I love Martha Stewart. I’m not an obsessive fan or a follower — though I did relish my gift subscription to Martha Stewart Living in high school (perhaps more so than my Vogue!) and I am totally over her stay at Camp Alderson. I like her because she’s reliable; I trust her. Namely, if I need a recipe, I know I can turn to her, and she will never lead me astray. And she certainly didn’t disappoint with this one. In fact, despite my love for banana baked goods, this is perhaps my favorite easy peasy fruity cake. Then again, everything’s my favorite …

Unlike most strawberry cakes, where the strawberries don’t actually lie in the cake, but hidden in pillows of cream, the strawberries in this cake are studded in the batter. It’s a bit like a strawberry shortcake all mottled into one luscious, moist, strawberry-speckled cake with a delicately crisp sugared crust. Better yet, the cake is quite resilient and lends itself nicely to different flavor combinations. Out of season, I suppose you could use frozen berries, but I have had much better success with sliced pears, ginger, and cardamom.

Martha’s Strawberry Cake
Adapted from Martha Stewart.

After having made this numerous times, I once subbed whole wheat pastry flour in lieu of the AP flour because that’s all I had on hand. However, it turned out the be quite the happy discovery. The whole wheat lends the cake a graham-like taste, which I quite like. Feel free to use regular AP flour. It works just as nicely.

I also use a coarse sugar to sprinkle at the top, instead of regular granulated sugar, as is done in the original recipe. Once again, feel free to use either, but do not forget this step. The sugar caramelizes into a gentle crust — my favorite part.

  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 cup whole milk
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 pound strawberries, hulled and halved
  • 2 Tablespoons coarse sugar, such as demerara or turbinado, or a sanding sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 10-inch pie plate or 9-inch round pan.
Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together into a medium bowl. Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Mix in egg, milk, and vanilla. Add flour mixture and carefully stir to mix. Pour batter into prepared pie plate or pan. Arrange strawberries across the top of the batter, cut side down and as close together as possible. (You may think you have too much fruit, but be persistent and squidge them all in.) Sprinkle coarse sugar over the berries.

Bake cake 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake until cake is golden brown and firm to the touch, about 1 hour. Let cool in pie plate on a wire rack. Cut into wedges. Cake can be stored at room temperature, loosely covered, up to 2 days.

Note: For a pear version, I use one large ripe yet firm pear, sliced into 1/4-inch slices, and a 1/2 teaspoon each of ground ginger and cardamom.

Serves 8-10.