Last Saturday a friend and I trucked all the way out to western Howard County, MD to pick our own strawberries. And pick we did. 15.freakin'.pounds. How did you let this get so out of hand, you may ask. You see, dear reader, the problem is that picking strawberries is fun! I get kind of obsessed with finding all the ripe ones, refusing to leave one edible berry for the bugs. And of course there's the time-honored fruit picking tradition: one for the box, one for my mouth, one for the box, one for my mouth, two for my mouth, one for the...You get the idea.
So I returned home, unable to convince my dear friend to take more than a mere 5 pounds of fruit, with 10 pounds of sweet, juicy, straight outta the straw strawberries. I was okay with it at first -- I planned on making freezer jam and surely that would require a lot of fruit! Wrong. Then I thought, ohh chocolate covered strawberries! Delicious! 4 dozen! My coworkers loved me! Still, I was left with a cascading mountain of berries in my fridge. I froze some, I ate heaps of them on rice krispies cereal for dessert, I packed myself a container of berries several times for lunch. And yet. Last night when I opened the fridge, there they were, staring at me with accusing little seeds, "You're not going to let us go to waste, are you? You don't have much longer!!"
Ominous little things. But they were right, there was a little over a pound left, and I just couldn't let them go to waste. So I took the suggestion of a friend at work. I turned, in my desperation, to Martha Stewart.
Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against Martha. Apparently she's a firecracker. And she named one of her dogs Genghis Khan. I love a good dog name. But her baked goods are not of the vegan variety, and at 8:15 at night, I just didn't feel like thinking. Just show me an already vegan strawberry cake recipe, internet, would you please? But all I found were strawberry box cake (BOX CAKE?!) recipes, or pureed strawberry bundt cakes. I wanted the last of my little berries to shine, unadulterated, decorating the cake with their jewel-y redness. And so, Martha.
The conversion was easier than I thought. Sub almond milk for the milk, and 1/4 c. of So Delicious Greek Style yogurt for the egg (I have a couple cups in my fridge and have decided that as plain yogurt, I'm not a fan, so I was happy to find a way to use it!). I also reduced the amount of sugar a bit, because these strawberries are super sweet, and I wanted their naturally sweet strawberry flavor to shine through. So, without further ado, I give you:
Strawberry Cake!
adapted from Martha Stewart
Ingredients:
1 ½ c. all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¾ c. cane sugar
1 tablespoon turbanado sugar (I just happened to have some, but regular or brown sugar will do I'm sure)
¼ c. plain (or vanilla) non-dairy Greek Style yogurt
½ c. almond milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 pound strawberries, halved
Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and get our your
10-inch pie plate (mine's glass).
Put Earth Balance and ¾
c. cane sugar in a bowl and mix on medium-high
speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low; mix
in non-dairy yogurt, almond milk, and vanilla.
Reduce speed to low and gradually mix in
flour mixture. Transfer batter to pie plate. Arrange strawberries on
top of batter, cut sides down and as close together as possible. Sprinkle the 2 tablespoons sugar over berries.
Bake cake 10 minutes at 350, then reduce oven
temperature to 325 degrees. Bake until cake is golden brown and firm to the touch,
about 1 hour. Let cool in pie plate on a wire rack.
I let this cool overnight, and had a slice with my coffee for breakfast the next morning. It was absolutely delicious!
PS - After I layered as many berries that would fit on top of the batter, I still had a ½ cup of hulled strawberries left. I literally scooped them up in my hand, and shoveled them into my mouth. Take that strawberries, I win!
