It feels like it’s been about a million years since I’ve posted a new recipe on the blog. I hope you haven’t been worried, but just to reassure you, I can confirm that I haven’t decided to give up cooking, I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth, and to my knowledge, we still have a fully functional kitchen. The fact is, I can blame all of this recent lack of cooking on one tiny little thing. A tiny little thing, that come January, will be the newest addition to our family.

Of course, we couldn’t be more excited about this. At least Forrest and I are. The concept of a new sibling goes a little over Leo’s head, so I’m sure he’ll be in for a bit of a shock, but we’re also pretty sure he’s going to love being a big brother.

Like the last time around, my first trimester has been marked by exhaustion, nausea, aversions to pretty much all vegetables (asparagus being top of the list), and basically subsisting on a diet of grilled cheese and fruit. I felt so guilty as I posted each week about delicious cooking ideas for our CSA vegetables, when in reality, I was just eating pretty much all of my veggies doused in an unholy amount of ranch dressing, which was the only way I could stomach them (but let it be noted, I did eat them!). So I’m sure you can understand why the blog recipes have been few and far between; I’m not sure anyone needs a million recipes for grilled cheese and vegetables with ranch dressing, which is pretty much mostly what I’ve been cooking lately.

Luckily, I think the end of this whole lack of appetite thing is nearly upon us, which is good because I’m starting to miss my kitchen. Between this new family member, and the promise of much less morning sickness in the very near future, we have a lot to celebrate here, so I figured some cake was in order. And because strawberries are at their prime these days, strawberry butter cake it was. All in all, it seems pretty appropriate, since cake and strawberries rank high on the list of things I’ve been able to stomach over the past few months. Truth be told, this baby is probably 90% strawberries at this point, so I’m sure he or she would approve of this cake. The rest of us certainly do.

Strawberry Butter Cake

Serves 8

Yes, this cake bakes for a long time at a low temperature, but it’s totally worth it to get the soft, super jammy roasted berries on top. Trust me.

1 cup butter (2 sticks), at room temperature
1 cup + 2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 ¾ cup flour
1 pint strawberries, leaves removed, very large berries cut in half
Whipped cream for serving (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and grease a 9-inch round cake pan (I used a springform pan for easier removal, but a regular cake pan will work great here too.

2. With a standing bowl mixer or handheld beaters, beat together the butter, sugar, and salt until very light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.

3. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated (note: the batter might look slightly curdled at this point, but no worries, it will still turn out delicious!)

4. Add the vanilla, lemon juice and zest and mix until combined. Add the flour and continue to mix until flour is incorporated and you have a thick batter.

5. Pour batter into prepared pan and spread it into an even layer. Arrange the strawberries in a single layer on the top, pressing the berries slightly into the batter.

6. Bake cake at 325 until cake is cooked through, and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 90 minutes. Cool cake slightly before cutting and serving with a dollop of whipped cream.