Strawberry Summer Cake

I haven't had the slightest urge to take on any cooking or baking, let alone, attempting new recipes. I'm mostly tired and usually find other stuff that is more pressing but last Wednesday I decided I needed to make this Strawberry Summer Cake. I had basically everything on hand and we had an impending tornado warning/severe thunderstorm alert and, so, to keep from freaking out I baked!

The recipe comes from my absolutely favorite cooking blog Smitten Kitchen! She has a book coming out either in the Spring or Fall of 2012 and I can't wait. I love her pictures, her posts, and her recipes! Honestly, I wish we were friends! Ha! I followed this recipe to the "T" without changing anything up. If you want to see SK's original post it's linked above.

Strawberry Summer Cake

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for pie plate

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon anilla extract
1 pound strawberries, hulled and halved

Directions

1. Preheat of to 350 degrees. Butter up either a 9"-10" pie plate or springform pan (which I used)

2. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.  In a larger bowl, mix 1 cup of sugar with the butter, for about 3 minutes, until fluffy. Mix in the egg, milk, and vanilla until just combined and then gradually mix in the flour mixture until it's smooth.

3. Pour the mix into the pan and then arrange the strawberries, cut side down, on top and as close as possible. Then sprinkle 2 tablespoons of sugar over the berries.

4. Bake cake for 10 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 325 and bake for 50-60 minutes or until the tester comes out clean. Let it cool in the pan.

Smitten Kitchen suggests serving it with whipped cream, which I didn't try but I'm sure is also good! I served it with sprinkled powder sugar, which gave it just enough sweetness, and I also thought about using vanilla ice cream as another alternative!! Definitely an easy cake and one that I will be making again. It was D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S!