Strawberry Coffee Cake

Entries in My Other Blogs :

i.  No Excuses!

ii. Perjumpaan 3 Penjuru

I was made to understand that the first question that many novice bakers like myself would ask when it comes to coffee cake is, 'Why call it coffee cake when there's no coffee in it?'  I was also made to understand that the term coffee cake is totally American and that the cake is usually served for breakfast with coffee, hence the name, coffee cake!

And so today I made this Strawberry Coffee Cake.  I've been buying punnets of strawberries for two weeks now!  The main reason is, in a hot climate country like mine, you very seldom get strawberries, especially not in hot small towns!  And secondly, I just couldn't resist the luscious red colored fruit in their punnets, especially the Korean ones (the locally grown ones are very sour!)

The cake didn't look so promising when it came out from the oven.  But when it had cooled and served with a dollop of whipped cream and half a strawberry on top,  the taste was simply strawberry-licious!  And as testimony to it's deliciousness, my wife had four pieces of the cake (much to my delight!)

For the cake :

• 125g all-purpose flour
• 100g sugar (I used soft brown caster sugar)
• 9g baking powder
• 30g butter, melted (I used margarine)
• 3g salt (I omitted it because the margarine already had salt in it)
• 1 egg
• 120 ml milk
• 250g sliced fresh strawberries

For the streusel topping :

• 60g all-purpose flour
• 100g sugar (I used ordinary white caster sugar)
• 55g cold butter
• 25g chopped pecans (I omitted it)

Combine the flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl.  In a jug, beat the milk, egg and butter.  Stir into the dry ingredients until just moistened.  Pour into a greased 8-inch baking tin and arrange strawberries on top.

For the topping, combine flour and sugar in a bowl; cut in the butter until crumbly (stir in pecans if used).  Sprinkle evenly over strawberries.  Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 C for 30 minutes.  Cut in squares; serve warm.  I served it slightly cool because I didn't want the whipped cream to melt.

Thanks to Rose Palsgrove for the recipe :-)