June marks the start of the strawberry season up here in Oregon. The return of the strawberry really does scream “summer has arrived!“. (If strawberries could scream that is….). The lines outside the booths selling them at the farmers market this morning looked like something out of 1980’s Moscow. (I would have taken a picture but it was way too crowded!) Despite all that wading through the crowd in the heat, it is definitely worth it for a pint or flat of the season’s first strawberries. The different booths offer samples to customers, so you can decide for yourself which farm offers the best berries. The added bonus? Most of the strawberry farms are from Corvallis, so if you wear your Oregon State gear, (which my husband always does) you will probably wind up with a few extra berries!
Fresh berries from the farm really do taste better! They are redder, naturally sweeter, and juicier than the ones at the grocery store, because they get to ripen on the vine before being taken to market. So go and buy some strawberries now while you can, whether it be from your local farmers market, farm, or roadside stand!
Coming home with this bounty of strawberries, I was so excited! Would I make lunch with them? Dessert? Or would I just eat them all plain, straight out of the basket? After calming down from my strawberry euphoria, I realized that I could do all those things and if need be, go back and push through the crowds to buy more.....
I have a confession to make. As much as I have stated in this blog and proclaimed aloud to my family, that I hate baking, I have started to like it. Maybe it is the controlled process, the concentrated measuring, or the gleeful smile on Jon’s face when I pull something sweet out of the oven, but baking has really started to appeal to me. This weekend, I really had an urge to make some sort of lemon cake. The two recipes it came down to were by Ina Garten (The Barefoot Contessa) and Molly Wizenberg (The Orangette). Molly’s French style lemon yogurt cake won out for two reasons: one, her chocolate chip banana bread recipe totally rocks, and two, I read that she met her husband Brandon via this recipe. Um, how romantic is that? So I had to make this cake, and of course I also had to make a strawberry sauce to serve alongside it! The way I make my strawberry sauce is more of a jammy consistency then a refined sauce. If you would like the sauce to be more syrupy, add another ½ cup of sugar, if you don’t want seeds, then pour sauce through a mesh strainer. This cake is wonderful, lemony, and crumbly, without being overly sweet. We found excuses to eat it all weekend, justifying our gluttony by insisting that the strawberry topping somehow made it healthy. I made this cake Saturday afternoon and it was gone by Sunday evening!
Makes 8 Servings
For the Cake:
1 ½ Cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 Teaspoons baking powder
2 Teaspoons lemon zest
Pinch of salt
½ Cup plain WHOLE milk yogurt
1 Cup sugar
3 Large eggs
½ Cup vegetable oil
For the Lemon Syrup:
¼ Cup powdered sugar
¼ Cup lemon juice
For the Lemon Icing:
Meanwhile, combine strawberries, sugar, water, and lemon juice and bring to a boil in a small saucepan. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes. Let cool.
In a small bowl, combine the lemon icing ingredients. Make sure to mix well so the sugar is completely dissolved. Spoon the icing over the cake. Let sit about 1 hour. Serve cake with strawberry sauce.
Fresh berries from the farm really do taste better! They are redder, naturally sweeter, and juicier than the ones at the grocery store, because they get to ripen on the vine before being taken to market. So go and buy some strawberries now while you can, whether it be from your local farmers market, farm, or roadside stand!
Coming home with this bounty of strawberries, I was so excited! Would I make lunch with them? Dessert? Or would I just eat them all plain, straight out of the basket? After calming down from my strawberry euphoria, I realized that I could do all those things and if need be, go back and push through the crowds to buy more.....
I have a confession to make. As much as I have stated in this blog and proclaimed aloud to my family, that I hate baking, I have started to like it. Maybe it is the controlled process, the concentrated measuring, or the gleeful smile on Jon’s face when I pull something sweet out of the oven, but baking has really started to appeal to me. This weekend, I really had an urge to make some sort of lemon cake. The two recipes it came down to were by Ina Garten (The Barefoot Contessa) and Molly Wizenberg (The Orangette). Molly’s French style lemon yogurt cake won out for two reasons: one, her chocolate chip banana bread recipe totally rocks, and two, I read that she met her husband Brandon via this recipe. Um, how romantic is that? So I had to make this cake, and of course I also had to make a strawberry sauce to serve alongside it! The way I make my strawberry sauce is more of a jammy consistency then a refined sauce. If you would like the sauce to be more syrupy, add another ½ cup of sugar, if you don’t want seeds, then pour sauce through a mesh strainer. This cake is wonderful, lemony, and crumbly, without being overly sweet. We found excuses to eat it all weekend, justifying our gluttony by insisting that the strawberry topping somehow made it healthy. I made this cake Saturday afternoon and it was gone by Sunday evening!
Makes 8 Servings
For the Cake:
1 ½ Cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 Teaspoons baking powder
2 Teaspoons lemon zest
Pinch of salt
½ Cup plain WHOLE milk yogurt
1 Cup sugar
3 Large eggs
½ Cup vegetable oil
For the Lemon Syrup:
¼ Cup powdered sugar
¼ Cup lemon juice
For the Lemon Icing:
1 Cup powdered sugar
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
For the Strawberry Sauce:
1 Cup sliced strawberries
¼ Cup sugar
½ Cup water
1 Teaspoon lemon juice
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease a 9 inch round cake pan with butter. Line the bottom of the pan with a round of parchment paper, grease that too. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the lemon zest and mix well. In a large bowl, combine the yogurt sugar and eggs, stirring to mix well. Add the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Add the oil and stir well, until it becomes a smooth yellow batter. Pour into the pan. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes. (Insert toothpick into center of cake, if toothpick comes out clean, cake is done!) Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, using a butter knife along the sides of the pan, invert the cake onto a plate. Remove the parchment paper, and invert the cake back onto the cooling rack. Set the rack on a baking sheet so that it will catch the dripping icing.
In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon syrup ingredients. Spoon the syrup over the warm cake slowly. Cool cake completely.
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
For the Strawberry Sauce:
1 Cup sliced strawberries
¼ Cup sugar
½ Cup water
1 Teaspoon lemon juice
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease a 9 inch round cake pan with butter. Line the bottom of the pan with a round of parchment paper, grease that too. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the lemon zest and mix well. In a large bowl, combine the yogurt sugar and eggs, stirring to mix well. Add the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Add the oil and stir well, until it becomes a smooth yellow batter. Pour into the pan. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes. (Insert toothpick into center of cake, if toothpick comes out clean, cake is done!) Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, using a butter knife along the sides of the pan, invert the cake onto a plate. Remove the parchment paper, and invert the cake back onto the cooling rack. Set the rack on a baking sheet so that it will catch the dripping icing.
In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon syrup ingredients. Spoon the syrup over the warm cake slowly. Cool cake completely.
Meanwhile, combine strawberries, sugar, water, and lemon juice and bring to a boil in a small saucepan. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes. Let cool.
In a small bowl, combine the lemon icing ingredients. Make sure to mix well so the sugar is completely dissolved. Spoon the icing over the cake. Let sit about 1 hour. Serve cake with strawberry sauce.
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