We are having a mighty strange spring here in the Midwest.  Sultry weather way early in the season, followed by killing frost.  The strangeness did away with an entire season of apricots, peaches and a lot of apples in southwest Michigan’s fruit belt.

Strawberries fared a little better.

With berries surviving, we can appreciate the best of early summer.  This is the time I wait for all year, when berries are red all the way through, luscious in texture and bursting with flavor.

So I’ve already been through one flat, making strawberry thyme jam (that post is coming up) and eating straight from the quart.

And making cake

This is a favorite simple skillet cake perfect for small households. I love using cast iron because you can serve directly from the pan, and it gives you a nice crisp edge.  While you can pick up great cast iron at antique stores, Tennessee-based cookware manufacturer Lodge makes them pre-seasoned and sells them at great prices.  My friend Mark Kelly works at Lodge, and he has collected some great cast iron images over at Pinterest.

Strawberry skillet cake

Makes one 8-inch cake

1 cup all-purpose flour

1½ teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ cup plus two tablespoons brown sugar, divided

1 egg, room temperature

½ cup plain yogurt, room temperature

¼ cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled

1 cup sliced or quartered strawberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Generously grease an 8-inch cast iron skillet. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons brown sugar over strawberries and gently toss.  Set aside to macerate.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl and set aside.  Using a larger mixing bowl, whisk the brown sugar and egg until smooth.  Whisk in the yogurt until blended, then repeat with the melted butter.  Dump in the flour mixture and gently stir to combine.  Don’t over mix or you’ll have a tough crumb.  Scatter the berries over the batter and gently press down.  Drizzle any juices from the berry bowl.

Bake in the center of the oven until golden, about 25 - 30 minutes.

If you enjoy this post, please consider subscribing to my newsletter, or my feed.  And are we Twitter or Pinterest friends yet?  Photo by Janine MacLachlan, The Rustic Kitchen, www. RusticKitchen.com. All rights reserved.

Tags: strawberries strawberrycake skillet cake cake

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 14th, 2012 at 6:27 am and is filed under Recipe posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.