Strawberry Cake

I had The Husband get some strawberries for me earlier in the week and he picked up over 2lbs of them! I always feel so wasteful letting fruit and vegetables go bad because we don't end up eating them fast enough.

We had gone through about a pound of the strawberries and the second pound was close to the end of its prime.  I had bookmarked this Martha Stewart recipe a few days ago and it was definitely time to go ahead and make this summery cake.

This is another really solid, delicious Martha recipe.  I love the rustic, no-frills look of this cake.  It is just as tasty as it is lovely.  It tastes like strawberries and cream, but it cake form. It's not overpoweringly sweet either - perfect as dessert or for brunch.
I followed this recipe to a T, excpet for using a spring form pan instead of a pie plate (I had 9 and 9.5 inch pie plates, not a 10 inch, so I went with the 10 inch spring form pan instead).  Don't skip the sprinkling of the sugar over top the cake before popping it in the oven - this creates an amazing crunchy crystalized sugar crust that really makes the cake!

Strawberry Cake

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 plus 2 tablespoons sugar

1 large egg

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 pound strawberries, hulled and halved

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 10-inch pie plate. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together into a medium bowl.

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

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 remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over berries.

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.