French cake

It’s Spring and the strawberries are wonderful this season! Bret knows I love strawberries and, even though he doesn’t care for them, he brought home 4 pounds of beautiful, fresh, perfectly ripened strawberries.

I still have some frozen from last year and want to use the fresh ones up in something special to showcase the sweetness of these babies.

I wandered around the internet and found this French Strawberry Cake by Jill at FoodstasticMom.com. The cake has everyday ingredients and, besides chopping the strawberries, is quick and easy to throw together.

A French cake is moist with a tender crumb and an almost custard-like interior. It’s traditionally made with apples, but I think I prefer it with fresh strawberries. Don’t forget that final sprinkle of sugar over the top. It makes for a beautiful, crunchy top!

If your strawberries are excessively juicy, gently pat them with a paper towel before adding them to the batter. You don’t want to add extra moisture to the cake (soggy cake = ewwww) and for that reason I also don’t recommend frozen strawberries.

For some reason I was a klutz in the kitchen today and made various mistakes while putting the cake batter together. I put a teaspoon of the baking powder in with the butter/egg mixture instead of the flour (and believe me, you can’t dig it out of there…). I also left about 1/4 cup of flour on the counter and didn’t realize it until after the batter was in the pan.

I scraped the batter back into the bowl, added the rest of the flour, then returned it to the pan. THEN… forgot to sprinkle the sugar on top before baking, so after five minutes in the oven, I pulled it out and sprinkled the sugar on it.

I just knew it was going to be a disaster, but this cake is very forgiving and came out beautifully! I adore the texture and how it’s totally jam packed with fresh strawberries. A little whipped cream on top and you have the perfect Spring (or Summer) cake.

It’s delicious and I highly recommend it if you have extra strawberries. Better yet, run out and get some strawberries so you can make this French Strawberry Cake.

French Strawberry Cake

Yield: 8

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Full of strawberries, this cake is very moist with a combination cake-custard like texture.

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Ingredients

• 1 stick (1/4 lb) butter
• 1 1/4 C sugar, divided
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/3 C all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/2 C sour cream
• 14 oz. fresh strawberries, small chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Place parchment paper in a 9" round cake pan and lightly spray sides with cooking spray.
2. In a stand mixer bowl, beat the butter and 1 cup of the sugar together until pale and fluffy, 5 to 7 minutes, scraping down the sides as needed.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat well after each addition. Add the vanilla and mix until combined.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together. Add 1/3rd of the flour to the butter mixture, briefly mix, then add one-half of the sour cream, beating until just blended. Continue with the next third of flour and the other half of the sour cream and mix until just combined. Finish with the final third of the flour.
5. Remove the bowl from the stand and gently fold the strawberries into the batter. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup sugar evenly over the top of the batter.
6. Bake until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out fairly clean, 40-50 minutes, checking at 40 minutes. There may be a little moisture on the pick, so don't over bake.
7. Run a sharp knife around the edges of the cake to loosen, then let the cake cool completely in the pan. Remove the cake from the pan and peel off the parchment paper. Serve with whipped cream.

Notes

Tips and Stuff:

The original recipe calls for unsalted butter.  If using unsalted butter, increase the salt to 1/4 tsp.

Use full-fat sour cream (or full-fat plain Greek yogurt).

Don't bake it until dry - the cake is very moist.  Mine took almost 50 minutes.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1 slice
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 259Total Fat: 4gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 54mgSodium: 134mgCarbohydrates: 52gFiber: 2gSugar: 34gProtein: 4g

Nutrition Values are Approximate