French Strawberry Cake

Heather Jones

A little something different for this video...instead of me, you get my husband, baking a cake! He's been requesting a strawberry cake for a while now, but there are SO MANY varieties. I really wanted to make the strawberry layer cake from Sally's Baking Addiction, but it seemed a bit fussy and more of an "occasion" cake. When I found this one, modeled after a French apple cake, I immediately wanted to try it. And then I didn't get a chance (because of reasons), and Mother's Day came around, so he decided to make it for me and film it for the channel. How sweet!

Okay, I actually requested he make the cake for me, but I didn't expect him to film it. I was going to try it first before we filmed it, since it wasn't from a cookbook and for those videos I usually like to pre-vet the recipes before I share them. Luckily we ended up really LOVING this cake. I'll probably even make another one myself before strawberry season ends here in NC. And I might even make it in a cast iron pan, as suggested in one of the links below.

I found this recipe here: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/273169/french-strawberry-cake/ but it also seems very similar to this recipe: https://www.foodtasticmom.com/french-strawberry-cake/ that originally came from here: https://www.tasteofthesouthmagazine.com/strawberry-skillet-cake/ So take your pick!

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: good morning and welcome to cooking the
[00:06]: books with Heather uh this is a little
[00:08]: gonna be a little bit different today it
[00:10]: is Mother's Day and Heather has asked
[00:13]: that I make a
[00:15]: a little cake for breakfast
[00:18]: um called the French strawberry cake um
[00:21]: this recipe is available online so we
[00:23]: will be linking to it uh it's a pretty
[00:26]: simple recipe I just have to combine
[00:28]: some things um a couple bowls put them
[00:30]: together follow together put it in the
[00:33]: oven Let It Bake
[00:34]: so let me
[00:37]: describe what we're going to do so
[00:41]: um I think I'll do it in the order it
[00:44]: says in the recipe and I will wait on
[00:46]: this part
[00:48]: so we've got our oven preheating to 350
[00:51]: degrees Fahrenheit
[00:53]: spray and eight inch round cake pan with
[00:56]: cooking spray
[00:57]: so
[00:58]: I have my cake round
[01:01]: I'm really not sure all this stuff is
[01:03]: going to fit in it
[01:06]: that's a lot of strawberries over there
[01:08]: um
[01:10]: maybe if it was twice this height maybe
[01:13]: I don't know uh but hey sure I'll do it
[01:17]: foreign
[01:23]: [Music]
[01:26]: it doesn't really say what to do I don't
[01:29]: have the other kind we don't normally
[01:30]: keep cooking spray on hands
[01:33]: but we happen to have this so we'll go
[01:35]: with it
[01:44]: there we go
[01:46]: liberally sprayed and um yeah we'll set
[01:49]: that aside
[01:52]: I have no idea all right
[01:54]: let me clean that up later all right
[01:57]: um
[01:57]: just goes everywhere doesn't it okay so
[02:01]: next we're going to whip together our
[02:04]: sugar our butter in electric mixer we
[02:08]: want to create make it pale and fluffy
[02:11]: so I've had this butter out on the
[02:15]: counter at least a few minutes
[02:17]: so it's room temp right now it's been a
[02:21]: little bit longer than that but I'm not
[02:22]: sure it's completely room temp but I've
[02:24]: gotten
[02:26]: um
[02:26]: I would like to get to Sean road so it's
[02:29]: pretty close I mean we're gonna go with
[02:30]: it
[02:32]: a little stick
[02:34]: and we're going to add in
[02:37]: the sugar so the sugar is
[02:41]: two cents this is the larger one so all
[02:44]: this sugar yes it is a very
[02:47]: um
[02:50]: it's a rather large amount of sugar
[02:51]: honestly but
[02:52]: I think this is kind of like kind of
[02:54]: like a coffee cake but it's
[02:56]: got strawberries so
[02:58]: so then
[03:01]: um we got this and this together we're
[03:03]: going to
[03:04]: mix these until fluffy so let's do that
[03:12]: go get a spatula
[03:14]: [Music]
[03:22]: all right it's starting to actually get
[03:24]: there
[03:25]: um
[03:26]: it's uh
[03:29]: it's a little better than it was
[03:34]: first it looked kind of like um
[03:37]: flower prongs
[03:39]: or something
[03:41]: there's some flour here
[03:43]: but now it's starting to look a little
[03:46]: more like what I'd expect
[03:49]: I think
[03:52]: I wouldn't call it light and fluffy
[03:55]: so let's give it a little bit more time
[03:56]: my butter wasn't quite room temp I'm
[03:59]: sure that's affecting it
[04:01]: hopefully you
[04:03]: have more patience and have them better
[04:06]: with that than I did
[04:11]: [Music]
[04:14]: laughs so the next step is to add our
[04:17]: eggs
[04:18]: so we're going to do that one at a time
[04:20]: we want to crack them into the bowl in
[04:22]: case I get shelves because I'm not as
[04:24]: good as Heather at this job
[04:30]: we're gonna go ahead and beat that in
[04:32]: there
[04:35]: while the mixer was running I added
[04:36]: another egg and now I'm going to scrape
[04:41]: this down because everything is not
[04:43]: mixing
[04:45]: entirely nobody else but no I was a kid
[04:48]: I certainly enjoyed in fact we have one
[04:50]: of those other make the same mixers
[04:52]: all the loud noises you can make with
[04:54]: that hungry
[04:57]: okay we're gonna add in our vanilla
[04:59]: extract now
[05:04]: [Music]
[05:08]: extract Dylan
[05:11]: you can make your own let's try it
[05:13]: sometime but um anyway
[05:20]: all right I'm not sure if you can see it
[05:22]: but this now looks pretty
[05:24]: fluffy
[05:28]: okay
[05:30]: so this is good
[05:32]: um now in this bowl I have already
[05:34]: measured out a flower that we need we're
[05:36]: going to add the baking powder
[05:40]: helps it rise a little bit
[05:43]: we're gonna add the salt it's just a
[05:45]: little big tiny amount of salt
[05:49]: so tiny I had to like make sure I get it
[05:51]: all out
[05:52]: we're going to whisk this together real
[05:56]: quick
[05:57]: and I should have measured out one more
[05:60]: ingredient so I'm gonna drop sour cream
[06:03]: so we're gonna use these little plunger
[06:06]: measures because this is a
[06:09]: semi-liquid that
[06:11]: works well in these
[06:14]: not so much in measuring cups
[06:17]: we reached a stage where we don't want
[06:19]: to like over beat the mixture anymore so
[06:22]: we're going to be very careful with the
[06:24]: additions at this point apparently
[06:27]: um
[06:30]: so we're going to alternate adding the
[06:33]: flour mixture that we made
[06:35]: to our butter mixture
[06:37]: uh with the sour cream mixture
[06:41]: beginning and ending with flour mixture
[06:45]: beat until just combined after each
[06:48]: addition
[06:50]: you know
[06:52]: I've not I've videoed a few other
[06:53]: recipes I don't think I've edited them
[06:56]: and put them up but
[06:57]: I'm not much for all this finicky nuts
[07:00]: so we'll see if I do this correctly or
[07:02]: not
[07:09]: all right let's put this back where
[07:11]: maybe you can see it
[07:14]: hopefully I will move it edge here
[07:17]: okay we're gonna add in some flour
[07:21]: mixture
[07:24]: no there's too much
[07:28]: Roseburg beautiful
[07:34]: I'm gonna add in the
[07:37]: sour cream mixture and by that I mean
[07:39]: all of it
[07:44]: see told you it wasn't me finicky
[07:53]: give it another little start
[07:56]: add in
[07:57]: the remaining flour mixture
[08:01]: oops
[08:03]: most of it
[08:06]: oops
[08:09]: all right for a good little stir let's
[08:12]: go ahead and scrape it down it doesn't
[08:13]: say this but I can tell in my bowl I
[08:17]: have some stuff that's not mixed in
[08:20]: [Music]
[08:23]: like I said that's a different timer
[08:25]: [Music]
[08:26]: for another thing I'm working on I'm
[08:28]: going to try to make a short out of that
[08:31]: that was a timer for my bread that I'm
[08:34]: working on I occasionally make bread
[08:37]: um
[08:38]: and if you watch the short video I'm
[08:41]: gonna make on it then you'll see that um
[08:44]: I really don't like
[08:46]: um
[08:47]: this recipes
[08:50]: way of doing things I feel like I've
[08:51]: never gotten it quite right but I keep
[08:54]: trying and I guess that's the
[08:56]: thing so
[08:59]: all right Little Mix
[09:02]: [Music]
[09:06]: so that's all done if we
[09:11]: and we've done that
[09:14]: now the last step is folding in our
[09:17]: strawberries
[09:19]: so we have our spatula
[09:23]: and we have the mixture I'm going to go
[09:27]: ahead and take this out
[09:30]: okay so I had a little help someone
[09:33]: um
[09:34]: helped me with
[09:36]: uh cutting these strawberries in half
[09:39]: and
[09:41]: we um for lack of a better word went
[09:44]: ahead and let them bleed out a little
[09:46]: bit on napkin
[09:48]: um because I didn't want to add too much
[09:50]: additional
[09:51]: moisture to the recipe
[09:54]: um
[09:56]: this is a cake I'm sure it's calculated
[09:58]: in but still I mean anyway so we're
[10:02]: gonna try to fold these in there and
[10:05]: then all this stuff is supposed to fit
[10:06]: in a tiny little cake pan
[10:09]: it's not but we'll do it anyway
[10:12]: so
[10:18]: um
[10:19]: [Music]
[10:39]: take that out
[10:41]: keep it away
[10:43]: I don't care about that
[10:49]: ideally in it with a battery that has
[10:53]: strawberries pretty even throughout the
[10:55]: cake and so any slice you get
[10:59]: you won't be disappointed in
[11:02]: just anyone have strawberries yum yum
[11:07]: you're gonna probably try to avoid
[11:10]: making the batter pink
[11:12]: here
[11:14]: this is why we're just pulling this in a
[11:17]: little bit
[11:18]: I think that's
[11:21]: probably about as well mixed as I'm
[11:24]: going to do without turning it entirely
[11:25]: pink
[11:26]: so I'm going to go ahead and get our
[11:29]: cake pan over here
[11:37]: we're going to pour this in
[11:48]: I think it might be wrong so maybe it
[11:50]: fits
[11:53]: it's amazing
[12:03]: okay
[12:06]: so I'm going to spread it out a little
[12:09]: bit
[12:15]: and we are done except for one final
[12:18]: flourish
[12:21]: show you next
[12:23]: so the last step is to sprinkle the
[12:27]: remaining bit of sugar we set aside over
[12:29]: the top okay because it needs more sugar
[12:33]: so I'm gonna do it like this I feel like
[12:36]: if I try to do it just
[12:38]: gently shaking out of the bowl
[12:40]: I'm definitely going to put a ton in one
[12:43]: spot and I can't believe we're putting
[12:44]: this much sugar on top but okay
[12:48]: it's a lot
[12:51]: it could be less fine with less
[12:56]: it's kind of weird but
[12:58]: I think I start to prefer less sugar
[13:07]: we have some really Street sweet
[13:09]: strawberries I think I'm not going to
[13:11]: put all the sugar in I don't really care
[13:14]: I don't like the idea okay
[13:18]: there's a lot of other sugar in there
[13:19]: anyway
[13:21]: and these strawberries are great if you
[13:23]: we went and picked these ourselves
[13:25]: um at our local Farm just up the road
[13:26]: and
[13:28]: um if you had the chance to I really
[13:30]: recommend
[13:32]: um
[13:32]: going doing that is a fun activity and
[13:35]: uh
[13:36]: delicious results
[13:37]: okay
[13:39]: so this is all done and we're going to
[13:41]: go put this into our oven
[13:44]: for
[13:47]: about 40 to 50 minutes
[13:49]: um when we put a toothpick in it should
[13:51]: come out clean that's what you're
[13:52]: looking for and let it cool completely
[13:54]: on a wire rack
[13:56]: after it is out before you attempt to
[13:59]: take it out of the pan so we'll show you
[14:01]: what it looks like when we're done
[14:04]: thank you
[14:12]: [Music]
[14:15]: on this week's cooking books for Heather
[14:17]: you watch me make a French
[14:21]: strawberry cake
[14:23]: wall and uh we'll put a link to that
[14:27]: recipe
[14:28]: online so
[14:30]: the whole family
[14:33]: enjoy this cake a lot there were only
[14:36]: two slices left
[14:37]: um
[14:38]: when we ate it and it I think it was a
[14:42]: very good it was moist it was
[14:47]: um
[14:48]: of course strawberry is going to make it
[14:49]: that way but not too much so
[14:53]: um yeah it was a bit sweet
[14:55]: probably could reduce the sugar in it a
[14:58]: little bit if you wanted to we had very
[14:59]: ripe strawberries
[15:01]: so they were going to add a lot of
[15:02]: sweetness anyway
[15:04]: I think if you made this in the winter
[15:06]: with the
[15:07]: kind you get during the winter you might
[15:09]: need a little bit more sugar but um a
[15:11]: little bit less would probably been fine
[15:12]: it was okay as it was
[15:16]: um the reduction in Sugar I did on the
[15:18]: top that was a good call I don't think
[15:19]: it needed more there was enough some of
[15:22]: it you might have seen if you see it
[15:24]: when you see the photo you'll notice
[15:26]: that some of it was still
[15:28]: white but that didn't really distract or
[15:31]: anything so it was okay
[15:33]: um
[15:34]: great recipe
[15:36]: um everyone liked it and I would uh make
[15:39]: it again for sure so if you enjoyed
[15:41]: watching me substitute for Heather on
[15:45]: this episode of what I'm going to call
[15:47]: the b-sides
[15:49]: um please come subscribe like share with
[15:52]: your friends and come back and hopefully
[15:54]: watch me make something else again
[15:57]: another time I have a few more in
[16:00]: reserve I've not edited
[16:03]: um
[16:04]: but uh
[16:05]: let me know if you want to see more
[16:07]: thank you
[16:08]: [Music]