It feels good to have a break at times. I was trying to arrange a stay-cation earlier this month, but due to conflicting schedules, I got it done over this weekend. I was praying that the weather wouldn’t be harsh, as usually April ends start getting quite hot and humid. Thankfully, everything went in our favor. Not that the weekend started off well. HD tried to help extra and in the process, my house was hit with a mini sandstorm and our vacuum cleaner conked off. Who wants to go on a stay-cation after cleaning the whole house? He sensed my panic attack and immediately moped the whole place, though that did very little to salvage my stress. But still, we somehow put it behind and pushed ourselves out.
Once out the house, the mood was different. The drive was good. We relaxed a bit. Then the dad and the girls were in the swimming pool till sunset, while I stretched myself on the beach bench staring at them. Every time I think I will get into the pool but when I see other people around, my thought goes otherwise. We moved out for dinner and then to watch the last portion of Avengers, mainly because they wanted to see it. But I didn’t, so it was a torture for me. Hehe… Then some sleep, breakfast, one more round of swimming pool and our staycation came to an end. I am just relieved that this small break came like a breath of fresh air. It revived my tired bones and definitely has given me a much needed push, Alhamdulillah. I hope I can hold on to this till I travel home during the summers… 🙂
Coming to today’s recipe… There was a time when this cake, initially published here, had become a range. Every other food blogger or Insta-influencer was making it. I couldn’t resist the temptation and ended up keeping it on my bookmarks for a long time, till I landed up with a box of strawberries which weren’t very edible. Living in the UAE, you are blessed to see every fruit all throughout the year coming from all over the world depending upon their timing of cultivation. At the moment we see an influx of strawberries coming from Egypt and Morocco. If you haven’t tried the Moroccan ones, please do. They usually come in a 1 kg crate and are so sweet, that you could end up eating the whole thing in one sitting!
So this box of strawberry was one of the Egypt produce but close to the season end, so it wasn’t that sweet. Usually, Azza devors her strawberries so when she didn’t touch this box, I knew I had to do something with it before they rot. I was tempted to make some jam, but suddenly I remembered this cake and got to baking it. This cake feels more like a pudding than cake. The crumb is so soft that it breaks when you try to catch it in your hand. The bleeding of strawberries gives it an oomph and lovely flavor. I didn’t have any patience, but topping this with some whipped cream or even some egg custard would take this cake a notch up. It is a must try, or at least once-try for everybody. Off to the recipe…
Strawberry Summer Cake
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 85 gm butter softened
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla essence
- 1/2 cup milk
- 200 gm box of strawberries washed and hulled
- 2-3 tbsp brown sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease and flour a 10 inch pan.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
- Beat butter and sugar till creamy and fluffy.
- Add the egg and beat till combined.
- Add in the vanilla and milk and beat briefly.
- Add the flour in two batches and beat till all mixed.
- Pour into the prepared pan and dot on the top with the strawberries. Sprinkle the brown sugar all over.
- Bake in the oven for 50-60 minutes till skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool in pan and serve warm.
We are done and dusted with strawberry season here and I envy you baking this yummy cake 😀
Thank you so much Taruna…
Lovely cake..Looks so good!
Thanks a lot Ruxana…