Strawberry Cake a la Martha Stewart - Blue Monday

I hope you've had the opportunity to visit the beautiful and informative blog, NJ Epicurean. Several days ago, Jen, its creator, featured a strawberry cake that was originally developed by Martha Stewart. Martha's recipe and reviews of it can be found here. Strawberry yields are still high in our community, and abundant and inexpensive berries gave me the incentive I needed to try this very simple cake. We've just finished dessert and I'm happy to report the recipe produces a great snack cake. It can be quickly assembled and works well as a stand-in for strawberry short cake. The only drawback, if there is one, is that cake is very sweet and may be off-putting to those who favor European-style cakes and pastries. The cake is best served warm with a dollop of cream or a scoop of ice cream. Everyone who has reviewed the recipe also reports it is slow to stale. If properly wrapped, it will keep for several days in or out of the refrigerator. The cake takes about 10 minutes to make and that ease of assembly puts it squarely into my recipe files. I hope you will try this. Here's the recipe.

Strawberry Cake

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pie plate

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon grated orange zest

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 pound strawberries, hulled and halved

2 tablespoons pearl sugar

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 10-inch pie plate.

2) Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together into a medium bowl.

3) Place butter and 1 cup sugar in bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low; mix in egg, milk, orange zest and vanilla and almond extracts.

4) Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture. Transfer batter to buttered pie plate. Arrange strawberries on top of batter, cut sides down and as close together as possible. Sprinkle pearl sugar over all.

5) 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. Yield: 8 servings.

content source