Strawberry Summer Cake

Looks like we went from winter to summer and skipped spring altogether. It almost feels like July and August in the first week of June itself.

I have a few good friends. And we do stuff together like going out to eat or to shop or take kids to fun places together. Couple of such friends told me that they were planning to go for 'Strawberry picking' to a nearby farm. I was excited since I had so much fun last year when we went for 'peach picking'. The day comes and I was suppose to leave at 9.30 AM with kids. It was scorching hot this Sunday and I backed off from the idea itself. I neither like extreme cold nor extreme heat.
So, when I checked with my friends, they were still going. I told them to pick about 2 pounds of strawberries for me and stayed home. It seems that there weren't much to pick that day and whatever they picked were very small strawberries. They probably didn't do very well in this heat I guess. Berries were not plump, not sweet either. Instead of eating them as is, I turned them into a cake. I had not seen such small strawberries in any stores. That is how small they were.

One year back - Cookies roundup
Adapted from Martha Stewart via Smitten Kitchen
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups
Baking powder - 1 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 1 cup
Turbinado sugar to top - 2 TBSP
Butter - 6 TBSP at room temperature plus more for the pan
Milk - 1/2 cup
Egg - 1 large
Vanilla - 1 tsp
Strawberries - 1 pound hulled and halved

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F (175 C). Butter a 10" pie pan. I had a 9" tart pan and I used that. It didn't over flow, but did bulge on one side a little. In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt. Set aside. Cream butter and sugar till well mixed. Add egg and continue to beat. Add milk, vanilla and beat to incorporate. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry mixture and beat till everything comes together. Pour into the prepared pan and smooth with a spatula to cover the entire pan. Place the strawberries cut side down all over the cake leaving very less space in between. Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 325 F (160 C). Bake for one hour or till a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake (not through a strawberry) comes out clean. It took me 10 minutes at 350 and 65 minutes at 325 F to bake this cake. That could have been because of using a small pan. If you use a 10" pie pan or a cake pan, you should be fine in 10 minutes at 350 + 60 minutes at 325. Cool on the rack in the pan completely. Slice when cool. About an hour or so.

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