Hello everyone, it's Liz here for my monthly recipe and this time, it's all about Strawberry cakes with a slight twist - these are in a glass! If I had a wish, I’d want a strawberry field in my backyard. Or my front garden, I wouldn’t care actually. It should just BE there for the summer. After the season is over, it could disappear again. Wouldn’t it be nice to wake up and walk across your own strawberry field in your pyjamas, eating a ton of berries even before breakfast? In reality, I only have three plants in my greenhouse — it’s a start, I know, and I’ll keep on dreaming!

But for now, let’s use these beautiful red berries to create something delicious! The local strawberry season is slowly ending here in our part of Germany and the public picking fields are closing, which I noticed with sadness. So isn’t it time to celebrate this strawberry summer? Strangely enough, I never see strawberries baked INTO cakes in bakeries here. What you find are cakes topped with fresh fruit and held together with jelly or pudding, but how come they are never baked into the dough? I thought, why not give it a try, and so I made these strawberry cakes in little glasses. First I thought it probably wouldn’t work too well, but it turned out to be really delicious. The glasses would also make great desserts for a stand-up summer party. So try these cakes and enjoy.

Strawberry Cakes
(makes 6 little cakes in glasses)
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
7 tablespoons of butter, softened (plus some more for glasses)
3/4 cups of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of lemon zest
1 egg
1/2 cups of milk
a handful of strawberries, hulled and cut into halves (or smaller)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter 6 little glasses. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In a second bowl mix the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the lemon zests and beat in the egg and the milk. Slowly mix in the flour. Place some strawberries on the bottom of the glasses and pour batter over them. Drop some more strawberries into the glasses and fill up with batter until 3/4 filled. Bake for approx. 35 minutes or until the cakes are golden brown.

Enjoy! See you next month with another recipe - Liz.

(photos, recipe, text: Liz - Lisa Nieschlag)