Strawberries and Cream Coffee Cake with Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze

The baby shower was Sunday at St. Brigid's hall and Meghan had done blue-and-white streamers and about thirty women showed up, some I've known since second grade and some I barely knew and some who were my mother's friends who felt entitled to attend by virtue of having known me as an infant, which I accepted graciously. My mother cried twice. Once when the woman from church presented the handmade quilt—she's been making one for every baby born in the parish for forty years and she handed it over with the gravity of a sacred object, which it basically is—and once when she opened the gift from Meghan and Cormac: a framed photo of our parents on their wedding day, 1988, with a note that said "for Liam, so he knows where he comes from."

I opened twenty-three gifts from the same small folding chair over two and a half hours. My back filed a formal complaint around the ninety-minute mark. I ate miniature sandwiches and two pieces of the lemon cake Meghan had ordered, which was excellent—real lemon curd between layers, vanilla frosting—and I was twenty-six weeks pregnant and no one was in a position to comment on the second piece.

Sean wasn't there. Showers are still women-only in this orbit by social custom. But he picked me up after and helped carry everything upstairs and then went through every single gift with me on the living room floor with the attention he gives to game film. He held up a pair of knit booties. "These are very small," he said. "His feet are going to be this small."

"For about a week," I said. "Then they get bigger."

He put the booties on the shelf next to the quilt, carefully, like they were already something to protect. Two weeks until Christmas.

Meghan’s lemon cake was perfect and I will never say otherwise, but in the days after the shower—once I’d written the thank-you notes and Sean had arranged the booties and the quilt on the nursery shelf like museum pieces—I wanted to bake something myself. Something soft and a little sweet, the kind of cake you eat standing at the counter in your socks while twenty-three gifts sit opened in the next room and your whole life is about to change. This strawberries and cream coffee cake was it: simple enough for a pregnant woman whose back is still filing grievances, beautiful enough to deserve the occasion.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 45 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes | Servings: 12

Ingredients

For the cake:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and diced
For the streusel topping:
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
For the vanilla cream cheese glaze:
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
2–3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 9-inch square baking pan or line with parchment paper.
Make the streusel. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Cut in the cold butter with a fork or your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside.
Cream the butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Mix in sour cream and vanilla until smooth.
Combine the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture in two additions, stirring just until combined. Do not overmix.
Layer the batter and berries. Spread half the batter into the prepared pan. Scatter the diced strawberries evenly over the batter, then drop the remaining batter in spoonfuls over the berries and gently spread to cover. Sprinkle the streusel topping evenly over the top.
Bake. Bake for 40–45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the streusel is golden. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for at least 20 minutes.
Make the glaze. Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth. Add powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons milk, and vanilla. Beat until creamy, adding the remaining tablespoon of milk if needed for a drizzling consistency.
Glaze and serve. Drizzle the vanilla cream cheese glaze over the warm cake. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Nutrition (per serving)

Strawberries and Cream Coffee Cake with Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze — The One You Make When Thirty Women Show Up and Love You Silly