Strawberry Poke Cake

I love strawberries. When they are in season, I could eat them 2-3 times per day, everyday. They are perfect when ripe and need little adornment, a sprinkle of sugar or my favorite a little balsamic syrup. Yum! But once during strawberry season, strawberry poke cake is mandatory and worth every single calorie.

Strawberry Poke Cake

2 sticks of unsalted butter
1 cup of cake flour
1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp of fine salt
1 1/4 cups of buttermilk or strawberry flavored kefir (I had kefir which has the tang of buttermilk.)
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups of sugar
3 large eggs
1 three ounce box of strawberry gelatin

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. One of the keys to great baking is making sure your oven is hot unless otherwise stated in your recipe. 

Grease a 9x13 inch pan.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. 

Whisk the buttermilk or kefir and the vanilla in a container that will allow you to pour in to the mixing bowl.

Beat the sugar and butter in a stand mixer (or large bowl if using a hand mixer) on medium speed until light and fluffy, scraping down the side of the bowl as needed. This may take up to 5 minutes. This may be referred to as creaming the butter and sugar. Do not rush this process. 

Go butter, go!

Slowly add the eggs and beat until well incorporated.

Reduce the speed to low and alternate adding the flour mixture in three additions and the buttermilk/kefir in two additions, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Scrape down the side of the bowl and beat until the cake is well mixed.

You may be wondering why we add them in alternates. This process maintains air bubbles and prevents lumps. 

Air bubbles form when you cream the butter and sugar. It also continues when you incorporate the eggs. The more air bubbles you have the better your cake will rise.

If you add all of the dry then the liquid ingredients, lumps are more likely to happen. We then have a tendency to over beat the batter to remove the lumps which causes gluten to form. Gluten equals a tougher, chewier cake.

Pour into your greased pan and bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. This will be approximately 30 minutes. Let the cake cool for 30 minutes and using a wooden spoon poke holes all the way through the cake.

Bring one cup of water to a boil, pour over the gelatin in a small bowl and stir until completely dissolved. Stir in 1/2 cup of cold water. Pour the mixture evenly over the cooled cake. Refrigerate for two hours.

If you do not want to use gelatin, you may use the juice of 2 pints of macerated strawberries. Wash two pints of strawberries. Hull and slice them into a glass bowl. Pour 1/4 cup of sugar over the strawberries and set aside. The longer you let them sit, the more juice you will have for your cake. Strain the juice and keep the strawberries to serve with the cake. Pour the juice over the cake as you would the gelatin.

Many people "frost" the cake with whipped cream. If you would like to top the whole cake with whipped cream take:

2 cups of cold heavy cream

1 tbsp of sugar 

2 tsp of vanilla extract

Whip the cream, sugar and vanilla in cold bowl until fluffy. Spread over cake.

Since I am juice hog, I do not top my cake with whipped cream. I serve it with the whipped cream and macerated strawberries on the side and pour as much juice as I can get away with over my slice. Just don't tell my Mom. :) 

Easy Peasy!

In case you didn't know, I love to cook! But, sometimes after a 10 hour day, which happens more than I would like, cooking is the last thing on my mind. I like to have things in the freezer that make throwing a quick meal together, well easy peasy.

The next time you are grilling, put some boneless, skinless chicken thighs on the grill. Once done let them rest until cool, slice and *freeze them on a cookie sheet. Once frozen, remove them from the cookie sheet and put them in a ziptop bag and place in the freezer. You now have the perfect quick and easy protein for chicken tacos, stir fry, pasta, etc.

You may be asking why freeze them on a cookie sheet? Excellent question and one I know the answer to after throwing them in the ziptop bag before the were frozen. They freeze in a clump. Freezing them in a single layer on a cookie sheet allows you to pull out the amount needed and really keeps the reheating process short and sweet.

Another great easy, peasy recipe is crock pot rice. I love short grain brown rice. It is delicious and nutritious but it takes a little while longer to cook- 45 minutes vs. 20 minutes. So it definitely does not lend itself to a quick supper. I make a large batch in the crock pot and freeze it. You can also use this recipe for long grain brown rice and white rice.

The recipe is simple:

2 c short grain brown rice
3 1/2 c of water or broth (I use water since I like a more "neutral" taste.)
1 1/2 tsp of salt
Olive oil or non-stick spray to grease the crock pot.

Grease your crock pot to prevent sticking. Put all ingredients in the crock pot and cook on high for 2- 2 1/2 hours.

You may have noticed that the water to rice ratio is not the normal 2 to 1, 2 cups of water/broth to 1 cup of rice. I prefer my rice more al dente. Since there is very little evaporation in the crock pot, I decreased the liquid amount.

As you can see from my handwritten recipe, I start checking for doneness at 1 1/2 hours. This is one of the few times it is okay to lift the crock pot lid.

Once the rice is done, I spread the rice on a parchment lined cookie sheet so that it is a single layer of rice. and place it in the freezer until the rice is frozen. Once frozen, you can place the rice in smaller "single-serving" ziptop bags or larger family size. Same clump rule applies here. If you put in the bag and place it straight in the freezer, you will have a big clump of rice. Freezing it on the cookie sheet allows you to use what you need and keeps the reheating process short and sweet.

Enjoy!
j