Strawberries everywhere!

This weekend at the Menands farmers market, we sold produce from the greater farm so it was a lot more that was harvested than we were used to. It was a very rainy day so the market wasn't that busy. We had a lot of leftovers! Since we had leftover strawberries that we had harvested ourselves, we cut quite a few up for children's programs. I can't wait to make strawberry lemonade or strawberry rhubarb pie! So exciting! We still had more so I took some home and made strawberry cake (recipe below). We also had tons of basil left so I made some basil and oregano butter (recipe below). YUM!

Strawberry Cake

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for pie plate
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour *I substituted flour for Bob Red Mill's gluten-free flour mix
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup coconut sugar or turbinado/rapidura sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pound strawberries, hulled and halved

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 10-inch pie pan or 9-inch deep-dish pie pan.
2. Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, beat butter and 1 cup sugar until pale and fluffy with an electric mixer, about 3 minutes. Mix in egg, milk and vanilla until just combined. Add dry mixture gradually, mixing until just smooth.
3. Pour into prepared pie plate. Arrange strawberries, cut side down, on top of batter, as closely as possible in a single layer, you may need to overlap some strawberries.
4. Bake cake for 10 minutes then reduce oven temperature to 325°F and bake cake until golden brown and a tester comes out free of wet batter, about 50 minutes to 60 minutes. Let cool in pan on a rack. Cut into wedges.
   

Basil Butter

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups loosely packed fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 pound salted butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 2 cloves garlic or 2 tablespoons chopped garlic scapes

Directions

1. In a food processor, chop basil. Add butter, pepper and garlic; blend until smooth. Drop by half-tablespoons onto a baking sheet or in a madeline baking pan; freeze. Remove from baking sheet and store in freezer bags.
   

ENJOY!