Bittersweet Chocolate and Strawberry Cake
Strawberry Summer Cake is one of my favorites, I make it all the time, I began to think about how I could do something different with it (not that it needed something different to be done with it), the Strawberry Summer Cake is nothing short of magic, the way the cake rises up to engulf the sweet strawberries. My process began with another favorite cake, Bittersweet Chocolate and Pear Cake, I began to think of Chocolate dipped Strawberries and I came up with the idea of adding Chocolate with the strawberries, and stumbled on perfection. It would probably be great with a glass of champagne, don’t you think?
Adapted, only slightly, from Martha Stewart’s “Strawberry Summer Cake” and “Bittersweet Chocolate and Pear Cake” from: Al Di La Restaurant in Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY.
Ingredients:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for spring form pan.
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pound strawberries, hulled and halved ¾ Cup Bittersweet Chocolate Chips
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F .
2. Butter a 10-inch pie pan or 9-inch spring form pan. Whisk flour baking powder and salt together in a small bowl.
3. In a larger bowl, beat butter and 1 cup sugar until pale and fluffy with an electric mixer, about 3 minutes. Mix in egg, milk and vanilla until just combined. Add dry mixture gradually, mixing until just smooth.
4. Pour into prepared pan. Arrange strawberries, cut side down, on top of batter, as closely as possible in a single layer (though I had to overlap a few to get them all in).
5. Sprinkle the Bittersweet Chocolate Chips on top of the strawberries
6. Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over berries.
7. Bake cake for 10 minutes then reduce oven temperature to 325°F and bake cake until golden brown and a tester comes out free of wet batter, about 50 minutes to 60 minutes. (Gooey strawberries on the tester are a given.)
8. Let cool in pan on a rack for about 15 minutes. Remove from spring form pan and cut into wedges.
Serve cake a room temperature with lightly whipped cream.
Do ahead:Cake can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 days, loosely covered, but good luck with that.
