A Berry Tart Cake

It's June already?! The first sign of summer arrived at the Woodstock Farmer's Market this weekend: strawberries.

My garden yielded its first lone strawberry last week, but one of the many slugs taking over my garden beat me to it (more about my slug solution in a future post).

The variety of fruit naturally grown in Northern Illinois is relatively limited, so when any fruit is in season I gorge myself on it in the hopes of not wanting to touch it again until the following year. Strawberries always seem to be the exception. I could happily eat them every day at every meal for the rest of my life.

One of my favorite strawberry recipes requires a few non-local ingredients. But I make the splurge for patriotic holidays because the red, blue and white in this cake make such a beautiful presentation. Don't you agree?











Double Berry Lemon Cake
(adapted from Cooking Light's Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake)


Ingredients:
Cooking spray
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (16-ounce) container reduced-fat sour cream
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 cup fresh strawberries

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Coat a Bundt pan with cooking spray and dust with 2 tablespoons sugar. Set aside.
3. Combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk.
4. In a separate large bowl cream 1 3/4 cups sugar, butter, and lemon rind with a mixer for about 2 minutes at medium speed.
5. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
6. Beat in vanilla and sour cream.
7. Add flour mixture; beat at medium speed just until combined.
8. Gently fold in blueberries and strawberries.
9. Pour batter into prepared pan.
10. Bake at 350° for 1 hour - 1 hour 20 minutes or until a clean knife inserted in the center comes out clean. The baking time seems to vary dramatically based on your type of Bundt pan. Mine is a silicon one that always seems to take the full 1 hour 20 minutes.
11. Cool in pan 15 minutes on a wire rack.
12. Remove from pan and cool completely on wire rack.
13. To prepare glaze, combine powdered sugar and lemon juice, stirring well with a whisk. Drizzle over cooled cake.

If you would prefer a less tart cake, omit the glaze and just dust with powdered sugar.