Strawberry Pound Cake

May and the semester is ending. Grades are not all in but I know from the work: three A grades and one A-minus. I have been at UAB for two semesters now and my GPA stands at 3.8, which I know because I check it the way I check the banking app, with something between pride and superstition.

The daycare job is going well. The toddlers there are different from Prattville in the specific ways that children in different neighborhoods are different: some similar things, some things particular to this city, this community. I am learning again, which I welcome. You should always be learning again. When you think you know everything you are no longer useful.

Made a strawberry-rhubarb crisp this week because the farmers market had rhubarb and I had never cooked it before. Rhubarb is tart and strange and you cannot eat it raw but cooked with enough sugar and the right spices it becomes something sweet and complex. The crisp topping I made with oats and butter and brown sugar and a little almond flour, which adds a richness. It came out bubbling and golden and smelled like early summer and something I had not tasted before. I brought it to Gloria on Sunday and she said: I have not made rhubarb in thirty years. It tastes right. She means: it is right in the way the right things are right, which is a specific quality, unmistakable.

The rhubarb crisp I brought to Gloria that Sunday started something — a feeling that this particular season, with its good grades and new city and farmers market mornings, deserved to be baked into as many things as possible. Strawberries are everywhere right now, and after the rhubarb taught me that unfamiliar ingredients can surprise you, I wanted something more straightforward: a strawberry pound cake, dense and golden, the kind of thing that tastes exactly like what it is. When a semester goes right, you bake something you already know how to celebrate with.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 1 hr 10 min | Total Time: 1 hr 30 min | Servings: 12

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
6 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and diced small
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour (for tossing strawberries)
Powdered sugar, for dusting (optional)

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 325°F. Grease and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan or a 9x5 loaf pan thoroughly, making sure to coat all the crevices.
Prep the strawberries. Toss diced strawberries with 1 tablespoon of flour in a small bowl and set aside. This keeps them from sinking to the bottom of the cake.
Mix dry ingredients. Whisk together the 3 cups flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed for 4–5 minutes until the mixture is pale, light, and fluffy.
Add eggs and extracts. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla and almond extracts.
Alternate dry ingredients and sour cream. Reduce mixer speed to low. Add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the sour cream in two additions (flour, sour cream, flour, sour cream, flour). Mix just until combined after each addition — do not overmix.
Fold in strawberries. Gently fold the flour-coated strawberries into the batter with a spatula until evenly distributed.
Bake. Pour batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 65–75 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the top is deep golden brown.
Cool and serve. Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar before serving if desired.

Nutrition (per serving)

Strawberry Pound Cake — The Season When Everything Comes Together