French Strawberry Cake
No need to make any frosting with this classic cake.
Fresh strawberries are such a joy to have in the house. Whether you’ve gone picking strawberries yourself -a rare treat these days- or if you bought them from the farmer’s market or grocery store, these colorful berries are almost-universally loved. Ask people what their favorite fruit or candy flavor is and most will probably answer enthusiastically that strawberry is the best. And, if you happen to have an entire pint to make a cake with this French strawberry cake is the perfect summer treat.
This special dessert is not unlike many fruit cakes that are popular all across Europe. Instead of frosting the traditional way to top this dessert is easiest: with just some plain, granulated sugar.
This creates a sort of sugar crust on top. For the batter a rich combination of eggs, butter, and sour cream serves as the backdrop for the fresh berries. But, the berries are 100% the stars of this show and they infiltrate every luscious bite of this cake.
This is a cake that puts the berries front and center.
Because we’re not using any strawberry flavoring, only real strawberries, there needs to be a lot of them folded into the batter. These fresh berries add a lot of flavor and moisture to the cake, but this second point has one draw back…This cake is best eaten on the first day you make it as the berries can make the cake soggy after a while.
Well, some might consider this a downside, but in reality you’ll likely never have to deal with this problem as this tender, moist cake is bound to be eaten straight away!
French Strawberry Cake
Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
- 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
- 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar, divided
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 16 oz fresh strawberries, sliced
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 350˚F. Cream together butter and 1 cup sugar using electric mixer until pale and fluffy.
- Mix in eggs and vanilla. Blend until uniform in color.
- In another bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add a little flour mixture to butter mixture and stir. Add some of the sour cream and mix again. Repeat until all dry ingredients and sour cream have been incorporated into batter. Fold in strawberries.
- Pour batter into 9” greased and lined springform pan. Level with back of spoon. Top with remaining sugar.
- Bake for 35-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cover with foil partway through baking if top browns too quickly.
Recipe adapted from Foodtastic Mom.