Strawberry Sour Cream Streusel Cake

By Nigella Lawson

Strawberry Sour Cream Streusel Cake
Craig Lee for The New York Times
Total Time
1 hour
Rating
5(1,308)
Comments
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This strawberry streusel cake is the perfect end to a summer meal. But here's the interesting thing: Eat it slightly warm and it's dessert; let it get cold, and it makes a great coffee cake for breakfast the next day. The cake is slightly tricky to assemble, and at some point it may look like a mess. But everything comes together in the pan as it bakes, resulting in a tender, fragrant cake. This isn’t a recipe to embark on at the end of a long workday. Save it for the weekend.

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Ingredients

Yield:One 9-inch cake

    For the Strawberry Purée

    • 8ounces strawberries
    • 3tablespoons strawberry jam
    • 2teaspoons cornstarch
    • 2teaspoons vanilla extract

    For the Cake

    • Vegetable oil, for pan
    • ¾cup sugar
    • 2cups plus 2 tablespoons flour
    • 1teaspoon baking powder
    • ½teaspoon baking soda
    • 12tablespoons (1½ sticks) cold butter, cut into ½-inch cubes
    • 1cup sour cream
    • 1large egg
    • 1tablespoon vanilla extract

    For the Crumble Topping

    • 2teaspoons Demerara or turbinado sugar
Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Prepare strawberry purée: In a blender, combine strawberries and jam. Make a paste of cornstarch and vanilla, and add to blender. Purée until smooth.Set aside.

  2. Step 2

    Prepare cake: Heat oven to 375 degrees. Oil a 9-inch springform pan and set aside. In a large bowl, combine sugar, flour, baking powder and baking soda. Sprinkle in butter cubes and rub them in by hand until mixture resembles large coarse crumbs. Remove ½ cup and set it aside. To large bowl, add sour cream,egg and vanilla. Mix well.

  3. Step 3

    Using a little over half the cake batter, drop dollops of batter into pan. Pat batter across bottom of pan and about 1 inch up sides; mixture will be very sticky and somewhat uneven. Add strawberry purée, making an even layer across bottom of pan and leaving a rim of dough above it. Cover with remaining cake mixture.

  4. Step 4

    Prepare crumble topping: In a medium bowl, combine reserved ½ cup dough and Demerara sugar. Stir with a fork to mix. Sprinkle evenly over cake.

  5. Step 5

    Bake cake until lightly golden, about 45 minutes. Cool completely before serving.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
1,308 user ratings
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Comments

Yvette

This was delicious but I wasn't sure it would turn out that way. The batter is very thick and sticky, almost like dough, though not hard to pat across the bottom of the pan. However the puree was very liquidy. Thick, sticky batter doesn't spread over a soft liquid surface. The batter and the puree just got mixed together as I tried to distribute the batter on top of the puree. I thought it would be a disaster but in the end it worked out great and everyone loved it.

Chris M.

Made a half recipe of this. It fits well in a 6" dia springform pan. I used canned apricot halves and apricot jam for the puree. Also diced up some dried apricots, then macerated overnight with a little Cointreau, to go on top of the puree. Swapped out 1 tsp vanilla with almond extract and added sliced almonds to the crumble topping. Got raves from the friend I made it for -- she says it needs to be in the permanent rotation.

Janet

I used a pastry blender to cut the butter into the dry ingredients and it worked just fine. Have these tools gone out of fashion?

Lillian

So yummy! Made this as outlined but added 1/4 tsp of salt to the dry mixture, as recommended by other, and flour as sub. for cornstarch. I didn't have a 9" pan so I used a 12-cupcake pan instead, worked perfectly and actually kind of easier I'd imagine than having to spread that thick paste over a pan, I just dolloped in each one for all the batter.

Paul

My apology in advance. I’m guilty of hacking these recipes: for instance, cake needs oil, not butter, in the same quantities. I used sour cream once, but got loftier results with Greek yogurt. I’ve used frozen raspberries mixed with raspberry preserves, pears cut into small chunks mixed with dried cranberries heated and cooled in apricot jam and cardamom. Today I’m using pineapple and coconut with the apricot jam and grated ginger. The cake is a workhorse and open to adding a spice. Used a springform pan because I can’t guess the rise. Other than that, followed the recipe!

Jane

Made you a potluck and everyone loved it. I made some changes suggested by others. The strawberries and jam when into my blender. Then I used my cuisinart for the dry ingredients. I sliced the cold butter into half inch pieces and just let the food processor do its wonderful thing? The dough was super easy to dollop into the spring bottom pan. Next time I might cook the strawberry corn starch mixture for a bit to make it thicker. It was tasty but really a show stopping part of the cake.

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