Strawberry Summer Sheet Cake

I know strawberry season is long gone but if I don't blog this Strawberry Summer Sheet Cake now it'll sit in my draft folder for years and never see the light of day. So just agree to save this for next spring/summer, OK? Great.



I went through a baking phase this summer, fueled mostly by all the amazing produce (fruit) available. We'd buy way more than we could eat in a week, so by Thursday I'd be Googling recipes for overripe fruit. We shared all the spoils with friends and they seemed very happy about it, so it was a win-win.

This cake was so good. Oof. Just looking at the photo again is making me wistful. It wasn't overly sweet, which we loved. The berries really shone through and the cake itself was moist and delicate. We didn't do this, but a scoop of vanilla ice cream would be perfect on top of a slice. Or a dusting of powdered sugar. Or whipped cream.

Strawberry Summer Sheet Cake
From Smitten Kitchen

9 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 teaspoon fine sea or table salt
1 1/2 cups plus 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup milk
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 pounds of the freshest, even a touch overripe, strawberries, hulled and halved
Vanilla ice cream, powdered sugar or whipped cream, for serving

Heat your oven to 350°F.

Lightly coat the sides and corners of a 9×13-inch pan with butter or nonstick spray, and fit the bottom with a rectangle of parchment paper.

In a large bowl, beat butter, salt, and 1 1/2 cups of the granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg, yolk, and vanilla and beat until combined. Add milk and mix until (updated) combined; it may look a little curdled but don’t fret, it will smooth out in a minute. Sprinkle baking powder evenly over batter and beat into batter for 20 seconds longer than will seem necessary — this ensures it’s perfectly distributed. Scrape down the bowl. Add flour and beat or stir until just combined.

Spread batter in prepared pan. Arrange strawberries cut side down, as snugly as you can get them to fit. If you have extra, nudge them in anyway. Leave no strawberries behind. Sprinkle with remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar — it will seem like a lot but helps the strawberries get jammy and gives the cake a great texture.

Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out free of wet batter (gooey strawberries are a given and doesn’t mean it’s under baked) — about 45 to 48 minutes. Let cool in pan on a rack. Cut into squares and serve.

Do ahead: Cake is even better a half- to a full day later, when the strawberries marry with better with the cake.

Banana Crumb Coffee Cake

What do you do when you have overripe bananas sitting on your counter? You bake with them, of course. As luck would have it, I saw this recipe for Banana Crumb Coffee Cake just as my bananas were starting to go from edible to mush. A quick check of the pantry and fridge showed I had all the ingredients on hand, so I set to baking.



What a cake. I loved the subtle banana flavor mixed with the traditional coffee cake. This was moist and delicious, just perfect to have with your morning coffee or tea (I don't drink either, by the way) or as a sweet treat.

A few notes:

1. I don't like using my stand mixer so I used my hand mixer. It worked fine.
2. I don't own a pastry cutter, so I attempted to break up the butter for the streusel topping by hand. It didn't work. I ended up just mixing it together as best I could and sprinkling it on top of the cake. The butter melts as the cake cooks, so it didn't matter.
3. I tried to divide the batter in half, sprinkling some of the streusel in the middle before topping with the remaining batter. It didn't work. It also didn't matter.
4. Steve is lactose intolerant, so he asked me not to glaze the cake (since the glaze contains milk). And, let's be honest, this is sugary enough without adding more sugar on top. You won't miss it. We certainly didn't.
5. This makes a TON of food, which makes it great if you're having a party or know people who will take a few slices off your hands. We kept four pieces for ourselves and gave away the other 12 (3 sets of 4 pieces each). We had some very thankful friends and family, let me tell you.

Banana Crumb Coffee Cake
As seen on Tide and Thyme

2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 ripe bananas
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk

For the streusel:
12 tablespoons (1 ½ sticks) cold butter, cubed
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon

For the glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9×13 baking dish with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray. Set aside.

In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or a large bowl with a hand mixer), mash bananas until they become liquified. Mix in butter until combined and then mix in sugar, eggs, milk, and vanilla.

With mixer running on low, carefully add flour and mix until just combined.

Prepare streusel by combining all the ingredients in a medium bowl, cut the butter in with a pastry cutter until a coarse crumb forms.

Pour 1/2 of the batter into the prepared pan. Top with 1/3 of the crumb mixture. Cover the filling with the remaining batter and top with remaining crumb mixture. Don't worry if this doesn't work - it didn't for me and it still tasted great.

Bake for 50-55 minutes until the center is set and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for at least 1 hour.

Mix together the glaze ingredients and drizzle over the cake before serving.

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

I've mentioned before that SP has been trying to get back into the kitchen. Recently he decided he wanted to use some of our overripe bananas to make this Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.

He and Baby Girl made this together, which was so cute to watch. Due to her nut allergy we had to leave out the walnuts, but we didn't miss them. Being a chocolate lover, I had hoped SP would be open to adding chocolate chips instead but he wanted the banana to really shine.

This was excellent. The cake was moist and flavorful and cream cheese icing is pretty darn fantastic. The recipe made a nice, thick layer of it, too. This takes a bit of planning since you need very ripe bananas and the ingredients have to come to room temperature, but otherwise it's very simple.

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ina Garten, from Barefoot Contessa How Easy is That?

3 very ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Grated zest of 1 orange
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)
Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe follows)
Walnut halves, for decorating (optional)

Cream Cheese Frosting:
6 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (1/2 pound)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 by 2-inch round cake pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the bananas, granulated sugar, and brown sugar on low speed until combined. With the mixer still on low, add the oil, eggs, sour cream, vanilla, and orange zest. Mix until smooth.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Stir in the chopped walnuts, if using. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, turn out onto a cooling rack, and cool completely.

Spread the frosting thickly on the top of the cake and decorate with walnut halves, if using.
Cream Cheese Frosting:

Mix the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on low speed until just combined. Don't whip! Add the sugar and mix until smooth. Yield: frosting for one 9-inch cake.

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Every time we try to plan a fall activity with our friends C & D the weather conspires against us. A few weeks ago we wanted to go apple picking but it was 80+ degrees outside, so we rescheduled for this weekend. And what was the temperature today, a balmy 85. We just can't win.

After much deliberation (in which I hemmed and hawed over the menu so much that SP wanted to rip his hair out) we decided to keep with our original plan for spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread. SP was in charge of the sauce, which he cooked all day using up various odds and ends from the fridge, including an orange pepper, onions, shallots, garlic, both canned and fresh tomatoes and some oregano.


I made the meatballs the way I always do with a mixture of ground beef, pork and veal, bread crumbs, egg, fresh parsley, garlic and pecorino cheese. I gave them a quick fry in vegetable oil before they finished cooking in the sauce. C & D brought a loaf of good crusty bread that I made into garlic bread both with cheese and without:


... using my special garlic parsley butter and three kinds of cheese (mozzarella, cheddar and pecorino). C & D also brought dessert, a rich tiramisu cake that had just the right balance of sweetness from the mascarpone cheese and kick from the espresso-soaked lady fingers:


An inside shot of all the layers:


SP also baked some cookies using a cookie-in-a-jar mix he got from a speaking engagement he did awhile back:


The cookies are oatmeal with dried cranberries and white chocolate chips.