Strawberry Buckle

Hooray for strawberry season!!

I love it when fresh fruit becomes more readily available. Each season has its own fruits (well, winter's tough, but you know what I mean...), but Summer is definitely my favorite.

And while the strange weather we've been experiencing this Spring has delayed the fresh fruit picking at our local orchard, it hasn't stopped the strawberries from pouring into the local grocery stores, and at great prices, too!

I am not at all embarrassed to tell you that in the last week I purchased six pounds of strawberries.

I made half of them into jam and started thinking about what I wanted to make with the rest. With so many delicious options, I wasn't sure which direction I wanted to go...

Then last night I had a brainstorm. I wanted to make a strawberry buckle. I know, blueberry is the most common "buckle," but I have strawberries. And fruit-y cake plus crumbly crumb topping shouldn't be restricted to one kind of berry.

And when I say last night, I mean I was already in bed.

So as not to forget this brainstorm, I grabbed my phone and did a quick Google search for "strawberry buckle."

And the first result that appeared brought me directly to the wonderful Lora over at Cake Duchess.  Score! I didn't even have to read the recipe to know it would be a winner.

So this afternoon we got started.

A buckle is a simple, fruited cake covered in a delicious sugary crumble topping.

The batter is pretty, thick, but it needs to be.

To hold up all those berries!

And while I worked on the cake, little miss worked on the streussel-like topping. Any opportunity to dive in with her hands!

Once we each finished with our respective steps, it was time to put it together...

...and bake!

And this is where we made our biggest mistake. We couldn't wait to dig in. So we cut it before it had cooled completely. Which made for some pretty sloppy looking pieces.

But oh. my. gosh. It was worth it. The cake, considering how thick the batter was, is perfect and the sweet topping is crisp and delicious.  I have been picking away at this cake all night long. It's a good thing I gave a good chunk of it to my brother and his wife to take home with them today or else I'd eat way too much of it.

This cake is such a delicious summery treat, I can't wait to try it again with all of the berries as they come into season. And with berries that we pick ourselves, too!



Strawberry Buckle
(only slightly adapted from Cake Duchess)

Cake Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup milk (I used coconut milk beverage)
2 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups strawberries, cut in pieces

Crumble Topping:
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375 F. Butter and flour 9 inch square or round pan.
In a small bowl, add the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk together.
Using your stand mixer (or hand mixer, or lots of elbow grease), cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.
Add the milk and egg and mix well.
Add the flour mixture and mix well.
Fold the berries in by hand.
Set aside the batter and prepare the topping:
Mix together all of the topping ingredients wth your fingers until it is crumbly.
Spread the prepared cake batter in prepared pan then crumble the topping over the batter. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
Allow the cake to cool before cutting.

Enjoy!

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