Disappearing Strawberry Shortcake Cake

I first saw this lovely cake on the blog, The Kitchen Sink Recipes and then again on Monica’s blog, Lick the Bowl Good.  I don’t recall The Kitchen Sink Recipes mentioning any problems with her strawberries sinking but I know Monica said that some of her berries did.  I spent a lot of time arranging my strawberries in a pretty pattern and matching up like sizes.  My strawberries? They disappeared altogether.  So much so that when I took the cake out of the oven Babygirl exclaimed, “What happened to the strawberries? Ooooo, you messed up!”  Too funny.  She said it like I was in trouble. The reason she thought I messed up was because before baking my cake I showed Babygirl Monica’s photos of her cake. 

Despite the fact that my strawberries sunk the cake was a hit with all three of my children and the Twins’ friend, Deacon who happened to be spending  the night.  I had one slice and they gobbled up the rest leaving nary a crumb.  My favorite part was the crust that formed on top from the raw sugar.  I wasn’t crazy about the berry portion but that’s not surprising as warm mushy fruit usually doesn’t do it for me.  I prefer for the berries to be pureed and then added.  I have though recently made several yummy desserts with blackberries that Babygirl and Jalen picked and brought back to me from PopPop’s farm in NC.  I  really liked them so maybe it was just the strawberries this time.  I’ll be telling you more about them at a later time.

 

Disappearing Strawberry Shortcake Cake

• 6 Tbs unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pie plate
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 Tbs raw sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup buttermilk (I go the milk & vinegar route)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract (I used vanilla bean paste) 
• 1 pound fresh strawberries, hulled and halved

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 10-inch pie plate. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together into a medium bowl.

Put butter and 1 cup sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low; mix in egg, buttermilk, and vanilla.

Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture. Transfer batter to buttered pie plate. Arrange strawberries on top of batter, cut sides down and as close together as possible. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons raw or granulated sugar over berries.

Bake cake 10 minutes. 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. Cut into wedges. Cake can be stored at room temperature, loosely covered, up to 2 days.

NOTE: You can use all strawberries (1 pound) or a combination of berries that you prefer. Use enough to cover the top of the batter and pray that your berries don’t disappear. If your berries should disappear flip it out of the pie plate and call it a upside down cake.   (Wish I would have thought of that BEFORE.)

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