I read it from a book before that strawberry cakes are the perfect cakes for celebrating birthdays or any milestone in your life. Strawberries represent something similar to a new beginning, a fresh take on life. This is the reason why the freshest strawberries are always put on cakes for occasions. Of course you can use any type of berries for this recipe if you want. You can experiment with this based on your preferences. I tried making this cake using raspberries before and it still tastes great.
Check out what our friends from Love and Olive Oil have to say about this recipe:
“And let’s be realistic, local strawberries don’t last more than a few weeks in my house, whether freshly picked or preserved; they’re just too delicious.”
I’m sure it’s not just in our household where strawberries were vanishing like crazy. My sons feast on them with their milk while my husband loves making strawberry shakes in the morning. This recipe is one creative way of making use of those strawberries at home.
Ingredients
For cake:
1 cup Gold Medal all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon Clabber Girl baking powder
1/2 teaspoon Clabber Girl baking soda
1/4 teaspoon Morton salt
1/2 stick Land O Lakes unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup Domino sugar
1 teaspoon McCormick vanilla extract
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 large Eggland’s egg
1/2 cup Borden buttermilk
1 handful fresh Driscoll’s strawberries
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon sugar (If you don’t have lemon sugar on hand, just use plain sugar)
For preserved strawberries:
1 pound cleaned and hulled Driscoll’s strawberries, but kept whole
1/2 cup Domino sugar
1/2 a lemon, juiced
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour an 8-inch spring form cake pan or a 9-inch regular metal cake pan. If using a spring form cake pan, cut a round piece of parchment paper to fit the bottom of the pan and place in the pan.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside. In a larger bowl, beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla and zest. Add the egg and beat well.
At low speed, mix in flour mixture in three batches, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, and mixing until just combined. Spoon batter into prepared cake pan, smoothing out the top. Scatter strawberries evenly over top, loading in as many as you would like. Sprinkle the top of the batter with the lemon sugar.
Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove the spring form or invert from your pan, and cool. Some prefer to serve this cake warm with a bit of vanilla ice cream. I opted to put mine in the fridge and serve it with freshly made whipped cream and preserved strawberries.
To make the preserved strawberries, place the strawberries in a heavy, medium-size pot with the sugar and the lemon juice. Bring to a boil over medium heat – as the fruit begins to juice, the sugar will melt. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for about 30 minutes, skimming off the foam, if you’d like. Stir it every 10 minutes or so – do so gently because you want the strawberries to stay intact. The strawberries are done when they’ve shrunken and the syrup has thickened a bit. Serve drizzled on top of the slices of the buttermilk cake and store any leftovers in the fridge for two to three weeks.
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Quick Tip: Chill a little before serving.
Thanks again to Love And Olive Oil for this amazing recipe.
