cake made with sour strawberries

The sour strawberries didn’t get any better after a night in the kitchen, so I decided that they could be cooked and added to cake. I thought about painting them, but only for a moment – the last time I painted a strawberry it took ages. I also thought about folding them into some cream, but that seemed like a dish too summery for the weather. I’m not a fan of cooked strawberries, but sometimes there’s no choice.

I chopped up the strawberries and put them in a pan with a knob of butter and a tablespoon of sugar and stirred them gently until they were softish – almost cooked in fact – and then left them to cool. I wasn’t sure what to do with them, but I felt it should be something cakey and as I never tire of a bakewell tart, it seemed the obvious choice. I’ve never made a bakewell tart with strawberries before, but there’s always a first time.

This is another recipe that uses a pastry case, but if you don’t have one handy you can just put the strawberries in the bottom of an ovenproof dish.  It’s not a bakewell tart though.

I made pastry.

Once the pastry was baked and cooled a little, I spread the strawberries over the bottom of the pastry, and then made a sponge mixture to spread on the top.

For the sponge, mix 3 oz soft butter & 3 oz sugar together,  add 2 eggs (whites first), fold in 3 oz self raising flour, add 3 fl oz water with half a teaspoon of baking powder added, fold in 3 oz ground almonds and add a teaspoon of almond extract. If it’s too dry add some more water. Spread over the strawberries and bake in a moderate oven for 30 minutes or until brown. When it’s done, drizzle icing over the top.

The cake is quite moist because of the strawberries. Not the usual bakewell tart, but a variation on a theme. Nice. We gave some to Grannie – which might have been what she was angling after…