Strawberry Summer Cake

I love strawberries. Really I do. It was a farmers' market day in downtown Harrogate. I saw a vendor selling strawberries but nothing else. Many packs of strawberries were piled up on the table. The red color worked like a magnet for me. I was quickly drawn to the vendor and bought three packs. If you buy three, you get a good amount of discount. I was so happy to go back home with unexpected treats and squeezed them into our small refrigerator. Three packs looked a lot, but once I started eating them as fresh, the first pack was gone by the next day. They were very fresh, beautiful and sweet. While I like snacking them, I wanted to do something with them. I remembered a recipe for Strawberry Summer Sheet Cake on smitten kitchen website recently. The photos of the cake looked irresistible. I recently bought a hand mixer. I was ready to make my own cake.

I halved all ingredients to make the cake in a 8 inch pan instead of a 9 x 13 baking sheet because we (usually only J and me) won't need a huge cake and the US standard baking sheet won't fit in the UK oven. The strawberries were relatively small and some were so tiny. Such a petite size was perfect to make this kind of cake. The strawberries were easily baked on the cake and turned to jammy nicely. Plus, the little berries made the cake look pretty!

Who wouldn't like slightly sweetened whipped cream with a hint of vanilla and rum on top?

The result was great. The cake tasted the best on the day it was baked. It was ok on the next day, but the cake, especially the baked strawberry parts were looking a bit sad on the day after. The taste of summer didn't seem to last long.