Strawberry All-Day Cake

Yesterday I commandeered the NH kitchen again due to a serious emergency--a strawberry emergency. A beautiful carton of Moulton Farm strawberries was on the verge of spoiling in the fridge. Something had to be done, obviously, so I made this strawberry cake. It turned out fabulously! Dense and not overly sweet--more like a coffee cake than a strawberry-flavored vanilla cake--hence my name for it: Strawberry All-Day Cake. Cake appropriate for breakfast, afternoon tea, or after-dinner dessert (or early mid-morning snack, or second breakfast coffee, or late night treat, or Sunday brunch . . .).

Recipe after the jump:

Strawberry All-Day Cake
(Adapted from Martha Stewart's recipe)

*The original recipe called for a 10" pie pan, but I used a springform pan instead. The presentation is nicer, I think. You probably don't want to use a 9" pie pan--I think it would overflow and make a mess of the oven*

6 tbl. butter + an extra tbl. or two for buttering the bakeware
1 1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup + 2 tbl. light brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 c. soy milk
1 tsp. vanilla
about 1 lb. strawberries, hulled and sliced in half

Preheat oven to 350F and butter your pan. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and set aside.

In an electric mixer, beat butter and 1 cup brown sugar together on med-high until well combined. Reduce speed and mix in soy milk, egg, and vanilla. Slowly add and mix in flour mixture.

Pour batter into buttered dish and place strawberries on top, cut sides down. Place them very close together (The batter will rise in the oven, pushing them away from each other). Sprinkle 2 tbl. of brown sugar over the top.

Bake for 10 minutes at 350F then reduce heat to 325F and bake for about an hour. It will be firm to the touch and brown when done. Cool on a wire rack. Eat often.

Breakfast Cake