Strawberry Buttermilk Cake

Admittedly not bread.  Not any sort of bread, but really really good.  Sorry, not sorry.  I wanted a cake to use up some buttermilk I had and some of the fresh strawberries I had hanging around, and this delivers.  It is an adaptation of an adaptation starting with a Martha Stewart and comes by way of Smitten Kitchen with a few small tweaks by me.

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Strawberry Buttermilk Cake

I love the flavor of sweet strawberries balanced with the amazing tang of buttermilk. That being said, I think you could add any other berry, or even head over to stone fruit territory, like peaches and a hint of cinnamon, or apricots and almond. Maybe nectarines and rosemary scented sugar (rub chopped rosemary needles into the sugar with your hands) would be a nice option as well.

Ingredients

  • 6 tablespoons butter softened at room temp
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon table salt
  • 3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 pound strawberries hulled and halved or quartered if large

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350.  Butter a 10-inch cake pan or pie plate.

  2. Mix flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, beat butter and 3/4 cup sugar until pale and fluffy with an electric mixer, about 3 minutes. Mix in egg, buttermilk and vanilla until just combined. Add dry mixture gradually, mixing until just smooth.

  3. Spread into prepared pie plate. Arrange strawberries on top of batter in a single layer. Sprinkle remaining 3 tablespoons sugar over berries.

  4. Bake cake for 10 minutes then reduce oven temperature to 325°F and bake cake until golden brown and a toothpick comes out free of wet batter, about 50 minutes.  Some of the top will continue to look gooey from the fruit, so its best to test in a non fruit covered section to see if the toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool in pan on a rack, and serve warm or at room temp with whipped cream, ice cream or simply as is.