Last day of Summer Strawberry Pound Cake

Happy Labor Day friends! Most of you are bummin' over the "final" day of summer while I rejoice! I love autumn, albeit the shortest of seasons, it always leaves me feeling refreshed. The brisk Fall air in your nostrils, the crunch of the leaves, the beautiful fall colors, my birthday and anniversary celebration, and Fall decorations. I can't wait for the cooler weather.

To celebrate the last unofficial day of summer, I'm sharing this recipe, which my guests described as, "eating a jelly krimpet." Fresh strawberries, cream cheese, and a whole lotta batter make this a delicious and surprisingly light pound cake.

Here's what you need:
3 1/2 cups flour
2 cups hulled strawberries, diced
8 oz. softened cream cheese
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 cup butter at room temp.
3 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
6 eggs at room temp.
1 cup milk
1 tsp. of cinnamon

Here's what you do with it:
Preheat oven at 350 degrees
Combine flour and baking powder and set aside
Using an electric mixer, cream together butter, cream cheese and sugar until the mixture is fluffy and creamy.
Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each one.
Add vanilla and milk.
At low speed, add flour mixture and cinnamon.

Make sure while adding each ingredient, you start at a low speed and then to medium speed. This is A LOT of batter and it will splash and fly out of the bowl if you mix them on medium speed. I was really shocked how much batter this recipe made. I could have used three pans with just one recipe, but only used two.

Once the batter is within the pans, evenly spread the diced strawberries across the top. Sprinkle some flour on the strawberries to soak up the extra moisture they'll add to the batter.


Make sure you place the batter in a well greased and floured baking pan. I used a bundt pan and a regular 9" round pan. The bundt pan cake came out looking like this. (left) The cake was delicious but the whole top portion of it was stuck into the crevices of the Bundt pan.

I highly recommend not using a bundt pan for this cake. It's too much of a high maintenance batter which will inevitably get stuck within all crevices of the pan. Stick with either a regular, domed pan or a flat 9" pan.

Bake for one hour or until the cake is golden brown. Cool completely on a wire rack before removing from the pan.

Top it off with vanilla ice cream and serve!

R.I.P Summer 2009.
Bring on the happy days of Autumn!