I’ve been making this Strawberry Cornmeal Cake for at least 5 years now, but I still managed to learn something new when I made it the other day - don’t try to use up the entire punnet of strawberries in one cake.
The past few weeks have seen strawberries flooding the grocery stores with enticing sale prices, but the most recent batch I’d bought was a little less than stellar for eating out of hand. So, I hoped, my trusty Strawberry Cornmeal Cake would come to the rescue. I should have remembered from the time I tried to make strawberry scones that these berries are apt to sog down anything in their path - probably one reason why they aren’t baked as often as other berries. The normal recipe calls for a cup of chopped berries, but I ended up adding about 1 3/4 cups, just to get rid of the little buggers. Unfortunately, this over-enthusiastic berry brigade left a few tell-tale spots of mushy berry giving way to sticky batter. So let this be a warning to you and a lesson to me - don’t go overboard on the berries! Sigh. I suppose I’ll have to redeem myself next week (to be honest, nobody complained and all of it was eaten, but still…).
Anyway, if you cut out the occasional soggy bit (ahem), the cake was as delicious as I remembered it to always be, so I will continue to make it - properly, that is! It has a pleasantly soft and buttery cornbread-like texture, and enlivened with the sweet berries, it’s well-suited for breakfast of brunch. I’ve also made the cake with blueberries or raspberries, which are also terrific - especially the raspberries. I like using stone-ground cornmeal because it adds an extra corny crunch, but you can also use a finer grind for a smoother crumb.