Strawberries ring in the start of the canning season for me. I get so excited, I buy quarts and quarts. Which means I sometimes end up with some surplus after I make jars and jars of jam, more than I can eat on my own. So I look for simple, quick ways to use them creatively. I love baking with strawberries that bleed sweet pink juices into the finished product and give a nice pop of berry in every bite. I keep this recipe in my back pocket for those extra strawberries, sure. But now I also make it for its own merits, as a treat for myself or to share with friends and family.
I adapted this super simple cake from a recipe that used raspberries. I figured it needed a little oomph, but I didn’t want to go with the typical vanilla or lemon zest. I love sweet tender chunks of zingy crystallized ginger which make a lovely complement to strawberries that’s a little unexpected. On its own, this cake is sweetly simple, perfect for breakfast or an afternoon tea or snack. It makes a lovely dessert as well – add a dollop of sweetened whipped cream or make a simple glaze of powdered sugar and milk and sprinkle a few pieces of the crystallized ginger over the top; you could even top it with a simple cream cheese frosting. I have loved serving it on my grandmother’s floral cake plate for a beautiful spring table.
Strawberry Ginger Cake
3 large eggs at room temperature
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ cup diced crystallized ginger
10 ounces fresh strawberries, halved or quartered
Preheat the oven to 400°. Spray a 9-inch cake pan with baking spray and line the bottom with parchment paper.
Beat the eggs and the sugar together in the bowl of a stand mixer at medium high until light and fluffy and pale in color, about 3 to 5 minutes. Lower the speed and beat in the flour and ground ginger until completely combined. Beat at high speed for 5 seconds.
Fold the crystallized ginger and strawberry pieces into the batter with a spatula, then spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 5 minutes at 400°, then lower the heat to 350°and cook for 25- 30 minutes until golden and firm and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan.
Serves 8
Looks wonderful! I’ve copied off the recipe and hope to try it during strawberry season! Love the old, decorative plate. I have a bunch of various plates and bowls and covered vegetable dishes from my two grandmothers also, plus some from my mother-in-law. I love using them whenever I can. Some were embellished with hand-painted edges (at home) in liquid gold – I guess that was a “thing” to do back about 1900 or so, and one of my grandmothers loved to invite lady friends for cake and coffee on a weekday afternoon, but it was a kind of event.