To celebrate Memorial Day weekend, I’m sharing one of my favorite summer dessert recipes — Smitten Kitchen‘s Strawberry Summer Cake. My Facebook friends may remember pictures of this from my food album that was the precursor to this blog. I first made this last spring, and it’s now a favorite in our home. It combines two of my favorite foods (cake and strawberries!), requires only a few ingredients, and is very simple to make, so much so that I would encourage those of you who are usually nervous about baking to try your hand at this.
The cake is moist and has a great vanilla flavor without being too overwhelming or sweet, and the strawberries become a little jam-like during the baking process. They lend a little tartness to the cake, too. While strawberries are in season, run to your nearest farmer’s market or grocery store and grab some so you can make this cake! 
Smitten Kitchen’s Strawberry Summer Cake
Makes one 9- or 10-inch cake
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for pie plate
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon table salt
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup milk (I used 1%)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 pound (conveniently, that’s one 16-ounce clamshell) strawberries, rinsed, hulled and halved
- One 9″ deep dish or 10″ pie plate.
Please note that if you use a regular 9″ pie plate, the batter will overflow while baking. If your pie plate is 9″, make sure it’s a deep dish plate, which is usually two inches deep. I used my prized Emile Henry 9″ deep dish plate, given to us as a wedding gift by a dear friend almost eight years ago now.
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease the pie plate with a little butter and set aside. In a small bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt together.
In a larger bowl, beat butter and one cup of the sugar with an electric mixer (handheld is fine) until the mixture is pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Mix in the egg, milk and vanilla until just combined. Slowly add the dry mixture, mixing until just smooth.
Pour the batter into the prepared pie plate.
Arrange strawberries, cut side down, on top of the batter, as closely as possible in a single layer, overlapping if necessary.
Sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over berries.
Bake the cake for 10 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 325°F and bake until golden brown, and a fork inserted into the center of the cake comes out free of wet batter, about 50 minutes to 60 minutes. It took me 60 minutes after lowering the temperature. Please note that the strawberries will always stick to the fork; that’s fine, you just don’t want wet batter on there.
Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool on a rack.
If desired, serve with lightly whipped cream or some powdered sugar on top.
Enjoy your slice of summer!
Can’t wait to make it!
Posted by Sandra | May 25, 2012, 2:48 pmThis looks very yummy! I was asked to bring fruit salad or dessert to a get-together on Sunday…I think this will do very nicely
Posted by Shelly | May 25, 2012, 2:59 pmOooh!!! This will be great! Don’t forget the whipped cream or ice cream to accompany it
Posted by Saucy Mommy | May 25, 2012, 3:04 pmI have a bucket of strawberries from my garden in the fridge. Must try this over the weekend!
Posted by Tina | May 25, 2012, 5:18 pmYes you must!!! Garden strawberries would be the bomb in this v
Posted by Saucy Mommy | May 25, 2012, 5:21 pm*!!!! not v
Posted by Saucy Mommy | May 25, 2012, 5:21 pmTried this cake yesterday when the in-laws were over and it was a big hit! Thanks so much for the recipe, I will be making this over and over again this summer
Posted by Tina | May 27, 2012, 4:30 amI’m so happy it turned out well for you, Tina!
Thanks for letting me know. 
Posted by Saucy Mommy | May 27, 2012, 7:08 amI love that there are REAL strawberries in this strawberry cake! It looks amazing!
Posted by Brittany | May 25, 2012, 6:51 pmThank you so much! I love the fresh berries, too — that’s what compelled me to try this recipe!
Posted by Saucy Mommy | May 25, 2012, 7:08 pmLooks yummy, can’t wait to make it! Thanks for sharing your hard work!
Posted by Kimberly | May 26, 2012, 8:10 amThis really looks good. Strawberry season hasn’t yet started here but when it does I may just make this cake. Thanks!
Posted by Mary | May 26, 2012, 8:37 amThis looks delicious, think I’ll give it a go asap!
Posted by Candy | May 26, 2012, 12:00 pmany suggestions on how to make this work for those of us who sadly only have an ordinary 9 inch pan?
Posted by Michelle | May 26, 2012, 8:16 pmYes! Either just use a small cake pan (like an 8″ square brownie pan or a round cake pan) or just pour less batter into the 9″ pie pan. If you do the latter, I’d just pour a little more than 3/4 of the batter into the pan, and start testing the cake for done ness around 40 minutes total time (so start checking 30 minutes after reducing the temp).
Posted by Saucy Mommy | May 26, 2012, 10:25 pmI used an 8 inch pyrex pan, which was kind of deep, and worked well. really tasty. I too am a fan of Smitten Kitchen’s recipes.
Posted by Michelle | June 1, 2012, 4:26 pmYay!!!! I want to be Smitten Kitchen when I grow up
Posted by Saucy Mommy | June 1, 2012, 6:57 pmSo I have a bunch of cut up frozen strawberries from last years crop. Do you think I could use those in this cake?
Posted by Kelley Schalo | May 30, 2012, 5:25 pmKelley, I don’t see why not! They’re gonna get baked and mushy, anyway!
Posted by Saucy Mommy | May 30, 2012, 5:44 pmHave you ever tried putting other berries in along with the strawberries or just using a different berry all together? I love blackberries and I’m wondering how it would be?
Posted by Shelly | June 1, 2012, 4:32 pmShelly, I haven’t, but I think that’d work well! It’s just a basic cake, after all, so I think any berry would work. Might need to sprinkle more sugar on blackberries but that’s about it! Let me know how it turns out!
Posted by Saucy Mommy | June 1, 2012, 6:59 pmSo I tried to make this again today since my sis was visiting. This time for some strange reason, the cake batter was very thick, and the cake ended up very dry… I have no idea why. I checked and double checked, I did not forget any ingredients…. no clue what might have happened.
Posted by Tina | June 2, 2012, 8:17 pmHmm!!!! Was your butter completely soft when you started? How about the egg, was it at a colder temp than last time? I find that when my butter or eggs are not completely at room temp, it really affects the final product. That’s all I can think of, other than perhaps a mismeasurement of one of the ingredients! Sorry it didn’t work this time! Coincidentally, I also made this today
Posted by Saucy Mommy | June 3, 2012, 5:15 pmThank you. I had a bunch of strawberries and this was truly the easiest recipe i found out there. Everyone loved it.
Posted by Oxana | June 25, 2012, 12:16 pmYou’re welcome! Thank YOU for the feedback. I’m so glad you liked it.
Posted by Saucy Mommy | June 26, 2012, 7:42 amYum! I used an 8 inch Pyrex and put the extra in a smaller pyrex for a mini cake. It worked out well that way. I’d say it took 40 minutes after turning down the oven.
Posted by finleykate | June 14, 2013, 7:16 pm