Eggless Strawberry Cake

Last Saturday the local market was overflowing with strawberries. the prices had come down. and the strawberries looked so.... o fresh and tempting that i could not resist grabbing a box. 

i had strawberry cake in mind. a recipe that i had bookmarked for a while and these would just fit in just right... so i came back i tried my recipe right away making necessary changes to convert it into an eggless one.  result : disastrous ! i didn't want to rave about it so i remained quite. but then this afternoon i realized that if i do not use the remaining strawberries right away... they will rot. so i dug up a recipe of an eggless strawberry cake and almost followed it to bits. ok. because i am me i added one little ingredient, juice from one orange, which i think was completely unnecessary or perhaps could be added a little less. nevertheless we loved this cake. it was soft, moist and yummy. the  perfect dessert for a lovely summer evening . 

Recipe adapted from Chef in You 

• ingredients

Part 1 
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

• ----------------------------------------------------------------------
• Part 2

3 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup Fat free Greek Yogurt
juice of 1 orange *
2/3 cup Sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

• -----------------------------------------------------------------------
• Part 3

zest from 1/2 orange
20 strawberries hulled and halved
1-1/2 tablespoon sugar

what i did

• first of all i preheated the oven to 350 degree F and greased my 9 inch round cake pan.
• then sifted together the ingredients listed in part 1 and them it aside.
• next i blended the ingredients listed in part 2 in the blender, whipped them until the mixture became smooth and creamy, then poured it into a bowl and gradually folded in the sifted dry mixture. 
• after all the flour was folded in, i added the orange zest. 
• then poured the batter into the prepared bowl and arranged the halved strawberries on top of the batter in a circular pattern like this ...

with their cut sides down, finally i sprinkled the remaining sugar over the berries and baked the cake in the oven for 50 minutes, till a toothpick inserted came out clean. (the last step was adapted from Martha Stewart's Strawberry Cake recipe which i have yet to try !)

I had arranged the strawberries that way hoping that the end product would look as pretty. but all the strawberries sank in the batter in the first 25 minutes of baking. so all that work was in vain.

anyway the slices we had were light and delightful. since the cake is not very sweet, Mr MN enjoyed his slice with a side of light whipped cream and some fresh strawberries...

i will probably make this strawberry cake many more times this summer... however with reduced the orange juice or by substituting it with some lemon juice... another thing i wanted to mention is that if you are using this recipe with less juice, the batter you get will be slightly thicker than your regular cake batter. and that is how it should be. at this point do not be tempted to add more juice (like me) to the batter since the strawberries will do that anyway. also, as tempting as the cake might look and smell, resist the urge to cut out a slice before the cake cools completely. my cake pan was slightly warm when i cut out my first slice... and it wasn't a pretty slice... but the ones i cut later were pretty and nice... 

if  you have strawberries in the fridge you can give this recipe a try. i guarantee that you will not be disappointed. Thanks to DK for the find! It is definitely a keeper !

update : 4.26.2013 : Had a slice of the cake just now and i think the orange flavor came out nicely. it was subtle but at the same time enjoyable. perhaps the orange juice is a good. however to make the cake more fluffy i'll probably add a little more flour and baking soda next time.

Sending this to the blog events:

• Credit Crunch Munch. A frugal monthly event started by Helen of Fuss Free Flavours and jointly hosted by Camilla at Fab Food  4 All. This month Camilla is hosting. 
• No Waste Food Challenge  The No Waste Food Challenge, another challenge about being frugal, which was started  by Kate of Turquoise Lemons and is being hosted this month by Elizabeth over at Elizabeth's Kitchen this month.Elizabeth has chosen fruit as her topic and my strawberry cake fits in just right.

also sharing this cake with Archana of Tangy Minds who is celebrating her 1st Blog Anniversary !! congrats Achu !! wish you many more years of happy blogging !