Tis the season for some strawberry cake. Light refreshing and not too sweet, perfect with your morning coffee or as a post dinner treat. I made this for a visiting relative and she was shook! She ending up taking the whole thing with her back home!

Before you begin:

For optimal success, use a scale rather than measuring cups for ingredients. This will give you the most accurate recipe.
I always like to take out my ingredients to come to room temperature about 2-4 hours before I know I’ll start baking. If you find that you are in a bind, you can put your eggs in hot water for 10 min to reach room temperature. For milk, warm in the microwave or stove until just warm.
Once the strawberries come out of the oven, drain the liquids into a cup or bowl for later. Once it cools it becomes too thick to move.
Before placing the batter into the pan, make sure to use a spatula and give it all a good mix. Sometimes the bottom of the bowl or mixer has bits that aren’t well mixed in.
For the shortbread, I like to break it apart into various sized chunks and evenly spread across the whole cake.

Roasted Strawberry Snack Cake

Makes 8 x 8 in cake

Ingredients

Roasted Strawberries

527g (3 cups) strawberries, sliced
½ tsp black pepper (optional)
1-2 tb granulated sugar

Shortbread Topping

152g (1 cup) all-purpose flour
113g (½ cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
60g (¼ cup) granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

Cake

192g (1 cup) granulated sugar
106 g (½ cup) neutral oil
206g (1 ¼) cup all-purpose flour, sifted
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
56g (¼ cup) sour cream, at room temperature
104g or 2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tbsp vanilla bean paste/extract
106g (½ cup) whole milk, at room temperature

Drizzle

126g (1 cup) of powdered sugar
2 ½ tsp of reserved roasted strawberry juices.

Instructions:

Strawberries

Preheat oven to 350F
Combined the strawberries, black pepper, and sugar making sure to evenly coat the strawberries. Let sit for while waiting for oven to preheat.
Place on a rimmed sheet pan lined with parchment or foil and roast for 25 min and let cool
While still warm, reserve the juices from the strawberries. This will be used later in the drizzle.
Set aside until the cake batter has been made. The cooled roasted strawberries will be folded into the cake prior to baking.

Shortbread Topping

Whisk all ingredients in a bowl until well combined. Pat into a disk and wrap with plastic wrap. Place dough in fridge until ready to use.

Cake

Preheat oven to 350F and butter a 8 x 8 square pan.
In the bowl or a stand mixer combined the oil and sugar until combined. Add in the eggs and vanilla, mix until eggs are fully mixed in.
In a bowl, sift and combined the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
Add sour cream, and milk to a bowl. Beat this lightly for a minute.
Add in half of the sour cream/milk, mix, and add in half of the flour mixture. Repeat until both are mixed in.
Gently fold in half cooled roasted strawberries and add to prepared cake pan. Place the other half of the strawberries on top of the cake.
Crumble the shortbread and top the cake evenly.
Bake for 35-45 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Drizzle

Combined well. Add more sugar or liquid as needed to reach desired consistency. If you find that you don’t have enough strawberry juice, you can either omit or sub for milk or heavy cream.
Add to the top of cake.