Cornmeal skillet cake with strawberries makes use of strawberries, which are in season right now. You can find them at local farmers markets and some fruit stands.

Cornmeal skillet cake with strawberries makes use of strawberries, which are in season right now. You can find them at local farmers markets and some fruit stands.

Skillet cake makes use of seasonally available berries

  • By Dorie Greenspan Special to The Washington Post
  • Tuesday, May 24, 2016 2:56pm
  • Life

The cake that is the basis for this dessert is a favorite at our house. It is the substantial kind often called a tea or coffee cake, but it would take to any beverage and be right at any time, breakfast to dessert. Its sweetness comes as much from the cornmeal as from sugar, and its tang comes from buttermilk, an ingredient that reliably delivers flavor, moistness and a touch of tenderness.

Because I’ve always liked corn and strawberries together, I thought they’d be great baked together. I made the cornmeal cake, studded the top with berries and slid the pan into the oven. Failure. I wouldn’t say it was an epic one, but it certainly wasn’t a success: The berries sank to the bottom, even though the batter was thick; they turned the cake around them mushy. The batter couldn’t bake properly with all that oozing strawberry juice, and the berries baked to a paler version of themselves, losing their vibrant color and their bright, fresh flavor.

Okay, maybe it was an epic fail.

It was back to square one for me: great cornmeal cake, wedges cut in half, filled with whipped cream and lots of brightly colored, fresh, fragrant strawberries. And it was back to deliciousness.

The cake comes together quickly — no power tools needed — and bakes beautifully in a cast-iron skillet, just as corn bread, its savory cousin, does. With the skillet, you get a light crust with a smidge of crunch on the bottom and sides of the cake and the pleasure of serving the sweet straight from the good-looking pan, but you’ll get a nice cake if you bake it in a springform.

Tips:

You can use yellow or white cornmeal, but I think yellow makes a prettier cake. Choose a cornmeal that’s not too gritty. Stay away from polenta; fine- to medium-grain is best.

Rub the lemon zest into the sugar until the mix is fragrant. You get more flavor out of zest when you infuse the sugar this way.

Stir half of the dry ingredients into the egg-and-sugar mixture, add all the buttermilk, stir, and then stir in the rest of the dry stuff. This is a thick batter, so it’s easier to blend, and you’re less likely to beat it too vigorously if you work in batches. It’s the same with the melted butter, which is the last ingredient to go into the batter.

Cornmeal skillet cake with strawberries

You can use a 9-inch springform pan instead of a cast-iron skillet; adjust the baking time to about 40 minutes. This cake tastes best just after it’s made.

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus more for the skillet

1¼ cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon fine sea salt

½ cup yellow cornmeal

1 cup sugar, plus more for the berries

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

2 large eggs, at room temperature

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

½ cup regular or low-fat buttermilk, at room temperature

Sanding sugar, for sprinkling (optional)

1 quart fresh strawberries, hulled, for serving

1½ cups heavy cream, whipped (sweetened or not), for serving

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 10-inch cast-iron skillet with butter or baker’s spray.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl, then whisk in the cornmeal.

Put the sugar in a mixing bowl and drop in the lemon zest. Use your fingertips to work in the zest until the sugar is fragrant.

One at a time, whisk the eggs into the sugar, beating until well incorporated. Stir in the vanilla extract. Still working with the whisk, or switching to a flexible spatula, blend in half of the flour-cornmeal mixture. Add all the buttermilk, stirring until the batter is homogenous. Add the rest of the flour-cornmeal mixture, stirring until it disappears into the batter, which will be thick.

Stir the melted butter into the batter in three additions, waiting for each new addition to be incorporated before adding the next. Scrape the batter into the skillet and use a spatula to spread it evenly. Sprinkle the batter with sanding sugar, if you’d like.

Bake (middle rack) for 30 to 33 minutes or until golden brown, particularly around the edges; the cake will have begun to pull away from the sides of the skillet; a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake should come out clean.

Transfer the cake (in the skillet) to a rack to cool for at least 30 minutes before serving. Cut the strawberries in half lengthwise; sprinkle lightly with sugar and toss to coat.

To serve, cut the cake into wedges and slice each wedge in half horizontally. Pile the bottom slice with whipped cream and berries; lean the top slice against the cream and fruit.

Nutrition per serving, 8 servings (using low-fat buttermilk): 500 calories, 6 g protein, 54 g carbohydrates, 30 g fat, 18 g saturated fat, 140 mg cholesterol, 170 mg sodium, 3 g dietary fiber, 31 g sugar.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Life

Brandon Hailey of Cytrus, center, plays the saxophone during a headlining show at Madam Lou’s on Friday, Dec. 29, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lynnwood-based funk octet Cytrus has the juice

Resilience and brotherhood take center stage with ‘friends-first’ band.

FILE - In this April 11, 2014 file photo, Neko Case performs at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. Fire investigators are looking for the cause of a fire on Monday, Sept. 18, 2017, that heavily damaged Case’s 225-year-old Vermont home. There were no injuries, though a barn was destroyed. It took firefighters two hours to extinguish the blaze. (Photo by Scott Roth/Invision/AP, File)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Singer-songwriter Neko Case, an indie music icon from Tacoma, performs Sunday in Edmonds.

Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli
Tangier’s market boasts piles of fruits, veggies, and olives, countless varieties of bread, and nonperishables, like clothing and electronics.
Rick Steves on the cultural kaleidoscope of Tangier in Morocco

Walking through the city, I think to myself, “How could anyone be in southern Spain — so close — and not hop over to experience this wonderland?”

chris elliott.
Vrbo promised to cover her rental bill in Hawaii, so why won’t it?

When Cheryl Mander’s Vrbo rental in Hawaii is uninhabitable, the rental platform agrees to cover her new accommodations. But then it backs out. What happened?

The Moonlight Swing Orchestra will play classic sounds of the Big Band Era on April 21 in Everett. (submitted photo)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Relive the Big Band Era at the Port Gardner Music Society’s final concert of the season in Everett.

2024 Honda Ridgeline TrailSport AWD (Honda)
2024 Honda Ridgeline TrailSport AWD

Honda cedes big boy pickup trucks to the likes of Ford, Dodge… Continue reading

Would you want to give something as elaborate as this a name as mundane as “bread box”? A French Provincial piece practically demands the French name panetiere.
A panetiere isn’t your modern bread box. It’s a treasure of French culture

This elaborately carved French antique may be old, but it’s still capable of keeping its leavened contents perfectly fresh.

(Judy Newton / Great Plant Picks)
Great Plant Pick: Mouse plant

What: Arisarum proboscideum, also known as mouse plant, is an herbaceous woodland… Continue reading

Bright green Japanese maple leaves are illuminated by spring sunlight. (Getty Images)
Confessions of a ‘plantophile’: I’m a bit of a junky for Japanese maples

In fact, my addiction to these glorious, all-season specimens seems to be contagious. Fortunately, there’s no known cure.

2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited (Hyundai)
2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited

The 2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited is a sporty, all-electric, all-wheel drive sedan that will quickly win your heart.

The 2024 Dodge Hornet R/T hybrid’s face has the twin red lines signifying the brand’s focus on performance. (Dodge)
2024 Hornet R/T is first electrified performance vehicle from Dodge

The all-new compact SUV travels 32 miles on pure electric power, and up to 360 miles in hybrid mode.

Don’t blow a bundle on glass supposedly made by the Henry William Stiegel

Why? Faked signatures, reused molds and imitated styles can make it unclear who actually made any given piece of glass.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.