Its been continuous blogging for ten days by now and it was all under one common theme: baking.
To make life easy for me, I decided to do celebration cakes for the first week. The second week was for simple ‘naked’ cakes. One celebration cake from first week spilled over to the 2nd, but otherwise I have been able to stick to some pattern.
The simple cakes for 2nd week all happened to be fruit based as well. The first two recipes were dry fruit-ish, the next two were banana based. The last recipe had to be a little different from the others. So here it is: a bright red strawberry cake!
I had picked up a pack of sweetened coconut flakes while shopping and had no idea whatsoever to do with it. This cake came as a solution when I saw this in Martha Stewart’s book : Cakes. So, my dilemma with sweetened coconut flakes got over partially. But the next time I am baking this cake, I would skip the coconut. It was a new taste and it needs sometime to get used to it.
Watch this space for a week of savory bakes next week. But if you are still looking for something sweet, scroll down for the recipe for a lemony- coconutty-strawberry-cake.
Recipe source: Martha Stewart’s book: Cakes
Ingredients:
- 1 3/4 cups flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- a pinch salt
- 1 cup packed sweetened shredded coconut (optional)
- 3/4 cup butter (~160 gm)
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
- 2 tsp grated lime/lemon zest
- 2 tbsp lime/ lemon juice
- 3 cups berries of your choice (blue berries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, cranberries etc)*
- 3 tbsp orange juice
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp flour
*I had only strawberries, so that is what I have used
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 350F/180C. Grease and dust with flour a 9X13″ baking dish. I used a big pie dish that I had.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt and coconut(if using) together.
- Beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. you can use a hand/stand mixer for this.
- Add the eggs, one at a time and beat it in.
- Add flour in 3 batches, alternating with 2 batches of buttermilk. Mix after each addition.
- Stir in the lemon zest and juice. Pour the batter into the baking dish and smooth out the top.
- In a separate bowl, tpss the berries with 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp flour and 3 tbsp orange juice.**
- Scatter this mix evenly on top of the cake batter.
- Bake for about 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out free of crumbs when inserted in the middle.
- Let it cool before slicing and serving.
**I found that the berry mix were too watery because of the combined action of oranges and sugar. I might be skipping it or reducing the amount the next time. Yes, I am sure there will be a next time for this cake.
This post goes to Blogging Marathon. This month’s theme is baking.
Week 1, celebration cakes:
- Ponque : A pound cake from Puerto Rico
- Tres Leches – Three milk cake
- Ombre cake
- Sofa cake using eggless vanilla cake
Week 2, fruit based cakes (except day 1):
- Chocolate cake
- Eggless Fruit cake with buttermilk
- Eggless fruit cake
- Caramel Banana cake
- Easy banana cake
- Berry cake with lemon
The cake looks beautiful with those colourful strawberries on top
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Stunning cake. Its sitting like a siren and singing out to me. Can you parcel a slice?
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Cake looks stunning with all those strawberries on top..
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Strawberries and sweetened coconut flakes….sounds yum! Looks wonderful Rajani!
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Interesting combo,love the top of the cake.It looks so gorgeous..
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The strawberries look great and superb on the cake.
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Rajani, this one look so inviting and colourful..Enjoyed reading all your bakes..and how each fell into a pattern!..and I am looking forward for the savory bakes..I love those best..
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Strawberries in a cake definitely look very festive and my kids would gorge on it :)
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sweetened coconut and strawberries unique combo. Lovely cake
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Thats a fantastic Cake Rajani. Love those cute strawberries laid on top. That gives a luscious feel.
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The fresh strawberries form an interesting pattern on the top of the cake.
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Very unusual combo! Am wondering how it would have tasted! anyways, the cakes looks so good with those strawberries on top!
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very vibrant looking cake… some of my cakes do turn out like that – with an extra dash of liquid. but we like it a lil more moist than the commercially available dryish cakes..coconut and strawberry is a very unusual combo, and yes, coconut in bakes do take a bit getting used to…
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That is one delicious looking strawberry studded cake. Love the addition of coconut in it.
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Love the top of the cake, looks very festive!!
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One among a fabulous combination..Am yet to try this combo, am sure strawberry and coconut makes a prefect pair, such a gorgeous cake.
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An interesting combination of strawberry and coconut!!!
beautiful cake with lovely clicks..
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Excellent cake, incidentally even I have a strawberry cake for today, but poles apart. This cake looks delicious and coconut must have enhanced the flavor. Very well presented , wonderful collection.
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Cake looks good and looking forward to your savory bakes next week.
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That looks festive.
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