Strawberry Summer Cake

I have a confession to make - I'm not sure I totally love Deb's cakes. Not Little Debbie (I love those!) but Deb from Smitten Kitchen. Making this statement is tantamount to blasphemy as the mother of a daughter who has her own cooking blog dedicated to doing everything the smitten kitchen kind of way.

It just seems that every cake I've ever made from Deb's site tends to turn out more dense than I'm used to. More notably, Martin never likes any of them - probably because, in addition to their very heavy texture, they lean toward the not very sweet side.

Cindy and I recently hosted the women in our ladies ensemble group at my house for a "reunion" of sorts. Now that we belong to three different churches, we no longer meet as a functioning singing group, although it turns out we have a gig for October...or was that November? This meeting at my house was to fellowship together, swim a bit, discuss what we'll sing, do a preliminary practice on those songs, and EAT.

We chose the cake thinking it would have a nice summery taste. When I think of summer, I think light and fruity. OK...the strawberries definitely fit the fruit requisite but the cake itself was...just as I've described....dense and not very sweet. We used some excess strawberries to make a sauce, sweetened with sugar, and put that over each piece. Add a big scoop of ice-cream and the cake got a whole lot better tasting.

It's not that this is a bad cake - not by any means. I think it makes a great morning treat to be eaten with a big ole' cup of coffee. Matter of fact, that's how most of Deb's cakes should be presented, if you ask me.

Strawberry Summer Cake

(recipe courtesy of Smitten Kitchen)

6 tablespoons (85 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for pie plate

1 1/2 cups (188 grams) all-purpose flour (can swap 3/4 cup or 94 grams all-purpose flour with 3/4 cup or 75 grams of barley flour, see Note)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon table salt

1 cup (200 grams) plus 2 tablespoons (25 grams) granulated sugar

1 large egg

1/2 cup (118 ml) milk

1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract

1 pound (450 grams) strawberries, hulled and halved

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Butter a 10-inch pie pan or 9-inch deep-dish pie pan (what I used). I did not test this with a standard 9-inch pie plate but looking at the margin of space leftover in my deep-dish pan after baking the cake, I suspect you’d be safe. Updated 6/13/11: This cake does not work in a standard 9-inch pie pan; it will overflow. Big apologies to anyone who learned the hard way! This cake would work, however, in a 9- or 10-inch springform or cake pan. The 10-inch would make a thinner cake than pictured.

Whisk flour or flours, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, beat butter and 1 cup sugar until pale and fluffy with an electric mixer, about 3 minutes. Mix in egg, milk and vanilla until just combined. Add dry mixture gradually, mixing until just smooth.

Pour into prepared pie plate. Arrange strawberries, cut side down, on top of batter, as closely as possible in a single layer (though I had to overlap a few to get them all in). Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over berries.

Bake cake for 10 minutes then reduce oven temperature to 325°F and bake cake until golden brown and a tester comes out free of wet batter, about 50 minutes to 60 minutes. (Gooey strawberries on the tester are a given.) Let cool in pan on a rack. Cut into wedges. Serve with lightly whipped cream.

Do ahead: Cake can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 days, loosely covered, but good luck with that.