I know strawberries are out of season now in the U.S., but they still seem to be going strong here in Indonesia. I think they might have multiple seasons here, in fact. My understanding is that growing strawberries is relatively new in Indonesia, but people seem to like them a lot. Strawberry seems like the new hotness as far as flavors go here in Jakarta...
I got a couple containers of strawberries at the store recently and whipped up two strawberry cakes:
First, Franny's chocolate cake with strawberry buttercream, which I made for a BBQ Tim and I attended. I figured you can't go wrong with strawberry and chocolate as well as two tried and true recipes.
As usual, the cake was light and moist, and the frosting was really nice, albeit slightly
soft in Jakarta's heat:
Second, I made Smitten Kitchen's strawberry summer cake, which was pretty awesome right out of the oven. Like Deb said, jammy strawberries combined with a slightly crunchy, sugary crust, plus a tender cake below. Good stuff. I successfully substituted a third of the flour (1/2 cup) with whole wheat flour and that worked quite well:
