Vanilla Bean-Strawberry Buttermilk Cake
A vanilla bean speckled buttermilk cake studded with beautiful fresh strawberries.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar divided
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1 vanilla bean split in half and seeds removed
- 1 pound fresh strawberries hulled and halved
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 8-inch springform pan. (alternatively an 9-inch works also)
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and 1 cup of sugar on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add in the egg, buttermilk, and vanilla bean seeds. Mix until combined, about 1 minute, scraping the bowl if necessary. The mixture will likely look curdled, but don't worry,
- With the mixer on low speed, slowly add in the flour mixture and mix until combined and batter is smooth, about 1 to 2 minutes.
- Pour the batter into the cake pan, and arrange the strawberries over the cake. Sprinkle the top of the cake with the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar.
- Bake the cake for 10 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees F. Continue to bake the cake until golden brown and firm to the touch, about another 75 to 80 minutes. (Note: if you use a bigger cake pan the baking time will be less- start checking at 60 minutes).
- Store covered at room temperature for up to 2 days.
Notes
I opted to bake this cake in an 8-inch cake pan to yield a taller cake, and therefore it took longer to bake. Feel free to use a larger cake pan, therefore yielding a thinner cake and shorter bake time. The first time I used a 9-inch pan and it took 60 minutes at 325F.