Strawberry season calls for Ina Garten's country cake - Salon

Summertime produce is one of the many highlights of the season, and Ina Garten wants to make sure you take advantage of it while you still can. By trying out her strawberry country cake recipe, you get to indulge in the sweet flavors of summer without overcomplicating things. Commenters for the recipe on her Instagram raved about the cake, with many saying it had been a go- to staple for years. Who wouldn't love that?

The first thing you'll need to do is preheat your oven to 350 degrees. While that heats up, butter and flour two 8-inch cake pans. This recipe calls for two cakes to serve a large group, but you can always halve it if you don't need that much.

Now you'll start on the cake batter. For this step, you'll be using an electric mixer. To begin, take your unsalted, room temperature butter and combine it with your sugar at a high speed until it has a light and fluffy consistency. It should look creamy.

Turn the speed of your mixer down to medium, and add in your eggs one at a time, followed by your sour cream, citrus zests, and vanilla extract, making sure it is all evenly combined.

Now you'll focus on the dry ingredients, which Ina suggests sifting to get the smoothest texture possible. Once your batter is mixed and distributed evenly between two pans, it only takes a 45-minute bake and 30-minute cool down for the cake to be ready.

While you're waiting, you can get started on your filling. Take heavy cream and whip it by hand or in a mixer until the texture is firm, but not too stiff. Then add your sugar and vanilla.

Now comes the assembly. Slice one cake round in half with a long, sharp knife. The sharper the knife, the less likely your cake is to break or crumble while you layer. Start your construction by placing the bottom slice of the cake on your serving dish or platter. Spread about half of your whipped cream on top of it, and then scatter your sliced strawberries generously over top. Cover this filling with the top slice of the cake, and spread the rest of your cream over top. Take creative liberty to decorate the top of the cake with strawberries, either sliced or whole. What you're left with is a delicious, refreshing, and simple dessert that screams summer. Find the full recipe and measurements here.

More seasonal desserts:

Salon Food writes about stuff we think you'll like. Salon has affiliate partnerships, so we may get a share of the revenue from your purchase.

Adblock test (Why?)