The gods of Olympus feasted on ambrosia, a name now bestowed on a different fruit. But I’d wager that taking a bite of a fresh strawberry would make even Greek deities weak in the knees.
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For me, strawberries always mark the true start of summer. I can easily gorge myself on an entire pint when they first appear in local markets. Their flavour is like none other; the watery imitators that appear like a deep blush across supermarket shelves in the winter boast size but lack tang. Nothing compares to the sun-ripened sweetness those scarlet beauties hold.
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The cover the 60th issue of Edible magazine intrigued me; an excuse to buy more strawberries and eat cake? Sounds perfect. Despite the lovely article & photos, the recipe which accompanied them did not match the cover. With the mention of an 8” by 8” pan, I knew I had my work cut out for me.
Though, I didn’t re-create the exact cake from the cover, I did discover one that it as simple and satisfying as the berries that decorate it.
Vanilla Cake & Strawberries
For this post, I used the recipe from thespruceeats.com for Fluffy Homemade Vanilla Cake.
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/3 cups sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter (softened and divided into 2-tablespoon pieces)
- I ended up using margarine as I did not have room-temperature butter on hand, and my attempt to microwave a bar ended up more a half-frozen-melted-blog. Butter will add more richness to the cake, but margarine works in a pinch
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup 2 percent milk
- I used 1% milk and the cake turned out just fine
- 2 large, room-temperature eggs (Rockweld Farm Ltd) – $6.25 a dozen
- 1 small box of strawberries* (Mandair Farms) – $5
- *Any other seasonal fruit will do; take advantage of what your market has to offer! Blueberries are just starting to appear, and will pop equally well atop this cake
- 250mL whipping cream
I won’t go to into the details of the cake prep as: a) The Spruce Eats writes the recipe in an easy-to-follow manner, avoiding any specific baking jargon while including useful tips, and b) because I baked this recipe in the early morning during June’s heatwave, and I forgot to take step-by-step photos.
One thing I will note is that my adjustments to the recipe (as noted in italics in the ingredients list) had no adverse affects on the cakes. I also opted to line my baking pans with butter & parchment paper, rather than the butter & flour combine recommended by the website.
Once baked, I allowed the cakes to cool on the counter.
You may be asking why the final cake was only one layer, when I clearly baked two. The other one was tested at my office, where my coworkers proved willing guinea pigs who were happy to taste-test the cake. I served it with whipping cream & strawberries as well, minus the decorative presentation.
After being decisively gobbled-up, I presented the final cake to friends at a weekend BBQ. For the topping, I just used whipping cream (whipped by hand as I’d foolishly left my hand mixer at home, adding granulated sugar to taste). I spread a thin layer on top to act as icing and placed sliced roundels of strawberry as decoration, leaving the leftover whipped cream and berries to be added as desired.
Anne McNamara says
Yummm!!! Raewyn, this looks fantastic.