Strawberry Summer Cake AKA Serious Noms!

So I received this GREAT RECIPE in my inbox this week, and since I had some strawberries going the way of the DoDo, I knew I had to make it!

First I made a couple of adjustments to the recipe.

6 tablespoons coconut oil (instead of butter)
3/4 cup barley flour and 3/4 all-purpose flour (next time I'll try whole wheat finely ground too)
1/2 cup honey and 1/2 cup brown sugar (instead of granulated sugar)
1/2 cup high fat coconut milk (instead of milk)

Half of our family has a dairy intolerance, so I wanted to make it dairy-free.

I'm not sure if my adjustments made the cake seem gooier or what, but I ended up cooking it too long. It came out sort of brown and sunken. But I tell you what.... it ROCKED!!! I don't think you can mess up this recipe. Even if it looks terrible, it's still finger-licken' good! This will definitely be a staple in our household from now on. I HIGHLY recommend it!

The above picture is what it is supposed to look like. This is what mine looked like:

Not nearly as pretty, but incredibly tasty! As you can see..... :) I forgot to take a picture when it was first done, and then we ate it! I just made this yesterday too!!! I think you will find the same thing happens at your house.


Here is the full recipe from Smitten Kitchen with my additions: 

Strawberry Summer Cake

6 tablespoons coconut oil, at room temperature, plus extra for pie plate
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup barley flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup brown sugar (though I think I'll do all honey next time, like 3/4 cup total)
2 tablespoons of brown sugar (for on top)
1 large egg
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pound strawberries (give or take), hulled and halved

Preheat oven to 350°F. Oil a 9-inch deep-dish pie pan.

Sift flours, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, beat/whisk coconut oil and brown sugar/honey until pale and fluffy. Mix in egg, coconut milk and vanilla until just combined. Add dry mixture gradually, mixing until just smooth.

Pour into prepared pie plate. Arrange strawberries, cut side down, on top of batter, as closely as possible in a single layer (I overlapped to use up all my strawberries). Sprinkle the 2 tablespoons of brown sugar over berries. This makes the berries turn jam-like.

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... though it took almost 10-15 minutes longer for mine, possibly due to the wetter ingredients and milk-substitution. (As Smitten Kitchen says, Gooey strawberries on the tester are a given. Though I didn't do that... I just shook it to see if it jiggled, then stuck it back in for longer if it looked un-done. Which may be why it got overcooked!) Let cool before digging into.....

Then NOM!