With the summer season quickly approaching. the Bellingham Farmers Market was full of fresh, local strawberries. Although I personally I am not huge strawberry person, even I couldn’t resist the sweet berries. So this week I decided to do a desert dish incorporating them. Since I am not the best at baking, which is more of an exact science than cooking, I used a recipe I found as a jumping off point for this strawberry coffee cake. As you’ll see from my recipe I made some personal tweaks to the one I found online. I like to incorporate seasonal fruits into my baking to add extra flavor and interest. Another great thing about baking with fruit is that it is a way to make use of fruits that may be slightly over ripe because once they are baked nobody will know the difference! Ingredients: ½ a cup of soften butter 1 ½ cups of white sugar ¼ cup of brown sugar 1 egg 2 teaspoons of cinnamon 2 cups of flour 2 teaspoons of baking powder 1 teaspoon of salt ¾ cup of milk 2 cups of thinly sliced strawberries Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Combine ¼ cup of softened butter, ¾ cup of white sugar and egg in a bowl.
- In a separate bowl mix together 1 ½ cups of flour, baking powder and salt.
- Alternating with ½ of cup milk, add the dry ingredients into the butter, sugar and egg mixture.
- Pour the entire mixture into a greased round baking pan and arrange the sliced strawberries on top.
- For the topping, mix ½ cup of flour, ¼ cup of white sugar, cinnamon, brown sugar and the remaining milk together. It should be a slightly chunky texture.
- Sprinkle the topping mixture over the layer of strawberries, covering the entire pastry.
- Bake for about 30-35 minutes, until the topping has a nice brown crisp to it.
