strawberry cake

 

I recently baked this fresh strawberry cake to celebrate and welcome the coming of spring. Fresh strawberries have been showing up at the grocery stores, some were still on the tart side but they were perfect to use for a sweet cake like this. Thanks to Once Upon a Chef for the idea. All I did was follow her exact recipe and instructions. The cake turned out lovely, as shown above. 

 

Even less than perfect strawberries may be used, just wash and dry them thoroughly and slice. Set aside the strawberry halves while mixing the cake batter.

I used about a pound of strawberries to top the cake before baking. Just lay them out evenly on top of the thick cake batter. They don't really have to be pressed well into the batter, as I later found out, some of the strawberry halves got buried inside the cake. I used a 9" round cake pan which worked out just fine. I made the sides taller with extra strips of parchment paper just in case the cake rose higher. It turned out I didn't have to do that after all.

I like that the batter was thick so it was easier to arrange the strawberries on top and yet the texture of the cake turned out moist and fluffy. Just avoid overmixing the batter. For the recipe, just head to Once Upon a Chef website and search for Simple Summer Strawberry Cake recipe.

a slice of the sweet strawberry cake