And the fact that they're local strawberries picked up at yesterday's farmer's market? Yes please! Better than this would be strawberries we'd picked ourselves at a local farm, but that's hard to come by in downtown Toronto.
Did you pick strawberries with your family when you were young? I remember it was always a highlight of early summer. We'd be freshly off school and my mum would take my brother and I to the fields. I can remember the intense heat of the sun and the squish of the occasional fallen berry beneath my sandals.
And the taste of a freshly picked strawberry eaten in the field? There is so better tasting strawberry.
I know my brother would agree. When he was little, he'd eat himself practically to sickness on the berries. Let's just say more seemed to make it into his mouth than into his basket.
Strawberry thievery. The most delicious of all illicit fruit theft.
Let's go back to the cake, which I posted a picture of, but haven't talked about at all. Tthis isn't a true pound cake - there's no pound of sugar/flour/butter going on. But, for lack of a better word, to describe it, I'm going to go with pound cake. You bake it in a loaf pan and it looks like a pound cake.
And, I'm just not one of those people who gets wrapped up in semantics.
Anyway, it's got a great crumb and a lovely, subtle vanilla and honey flavour. Perfect for showing off strawberries or whatever toppings you might have on hand.
Vanilla Honey & Yogurt Pound Cake
Ingredients
1½ cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 cup whole milk yogurt
3 eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
4 tbsp wildflower honey, divided
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup canola oil (or any other neutral flavoured oil)
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350º. Grease a 9"x5" loaf pan with cooking spray and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together yogurt, eggs, sugar, 3 tbsp honey, vanilla and oil. Once combined, pour into dry ingredients. Stir just until combined. Pour into prepared pan and bake in over for 45-50 minutes, or until a cake tester (I use a chopstick) comes out clean.
4. Drizzle remaining tablespoon of honey on the still warm cake. This will create a totally delicious crust.
Serve with fresh local strawberries!
EDIT: I take it back. Don't serve it with local strawberries. I mean, they're delicious, but even better? Uncanny Preserves's Cherries in Almond Syrup.
Holy sweet Jesus.
It's amazing.
It's a thing of beauty. Look at the way that syrup is soaking the cake. DROOOOOOOOOOOOOL.
No... uhm... I wasn't licking the syrup off my fingers. Nor did I stick them back in the jar.
Pshaw.
How dare you insinuate as much.
Okay. Maybe. Maybe it happened.
Anyway, hop on over to Uncanny and try to get yourself a jar of these bad boys. They're outstanding. PERFECT with the cake.
