A few weeks ago, my Chief Recipe Taster and I decamped from our small city flat to visit my family in the house and the state where I grew up. Going “home” is always mostly wonderful and a little bit difficult. Wonderful: spending time with my family and enjoying the sublime beauty that is Michigan in the summer. Difficult: seeing the city and state I grew up in seem to get a bit poorer every time I visit; wrestling with the same tangle of love for the place/deep desire to GTFO and see something new that I’ve wrestled with since childhood.
“Home” might be emotionally complicated, but it’s worth it, food-wise. In many ways, Michigan is still an agricultural state, and you see that most in the summer when the farm stands are full of crisp-tender, pencil-thin asparagus, spring onions, and lettuces. And the strawberries! We happily picked and ate them by the handful, but I wanted something more, something that took a few of the ingredients I grew up with and turned them into something more than the sum of their parts.
That’s where this cake was born, a moistly decadent, almond paste-enriched batter that wraps around berries made even more flavorful by a brief stint in the oven. If that description doesn’t tantalize you, perhaps the fact that this cake requires almost no effort will—the batter is made entirely in the food processor. It’s quintessential summer effortlessness, but good enough to merit turning on your oven. Emotions notwithstanding, what could be simpler?
Strawberry-Almond Cake
Source: I Thought There Would Be Free Food
Makes one 8-inch round cake, serving ~8 people
Active time: ~20 minutes; total time: ~50 minutes
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 4 ounces almond paste
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/4 cup oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup strawberries, washed, hulled, and halved or quartered, if very large
- Slivered almonds, to garnish
Directions:
- Position a rack in the middle of your oven, then preheat it to 375°F. While you’re at it, butter and flour—or otherwise grease—an 8-inch cake plate or springform pan. This is also an excellent time to do a little mise-en-place, so get out and measure all of your other ingredients.
- Cube the almond paste and add it, along with the sugar, to the bowl of a food processor. Process the paste and sugar until the paste is finely ground.
- Add the dry ingredients—flour, baking powder, and salt—to the food processor and pulse to combine.
- Add the wet ingredients—milk, oil, vanilla extract, and egg—and pulse until well combined. If the batter is very thick, you can add a little extra milk, one tablespoon at a time, until the batter is just thin enough to spread easily.
- Scrape the batter into the prepared cake plate. Dot with strawberries and then scatter on the almonds.
- Slide the cake into the oven and bake for about 30 minutes, or until the top of the cake is lightly browned and a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out with just a few crumbs clinging to it. Serve plain, or gild the lily with a dollop of fresh whipped cream or scoop of vanilla ice cream.