Strawberry Scone Cake

fresh picked strawberries

Strawberries hold many memories for me and here are a few:

• Picking on my parents farm with my grandma who would load my cousin and I in her tan Nissan (with those awful automatic seat belts that choked you) and cross 537 and cruise up the hill and follow the driveway to the to the strawberry patch
• That picture my friend Chris's Mom had (and I think still has) of the whole family proudly holding a tray of berries they just picked at my farm circa 1999 
• How fast they sold at our store and telling customers we'd have more in a few minutes as we listened for the sound of a tractor coming down the road pulling a flat bed wagon filled with quarts of sun warmed ruby reds 
• That time when I lived in South Carolina that I made shortcakes for strawberry shortcake that were like lethal shapeless bricks which lead me to hate strawberry shortcakes

• The time I helped at an organic farm where they made me pick strawberries for what seemed like half the day and my back wasn't the same for weeks (that's not a problem now because I'm used to picking for hours...but then I was in agony).  I didn't eat strawberries for an entire year after that. I was bitter. 

I am back eating strawberries but I still loath picking them.  However I really like eating them so one must do the work to get the prize...or just buy them already picked.

I played around in the kitchen the other day and with my bare feet bouncing around to Fetty Wap's explicit rap lyrics and a beer in hand and....I came up with something quite wonderful.

The "scone" part of this is thick but tender with a strawberry treat at the bottom.

strawberry scone cake

Strawberry Scone Cake

the cake: 
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick butter
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

the strawberries: 
5 cups berries, washed, tops removed and sliced in half unless they're tiny
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch 

In a bowl mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. 

Cut in cold butter with your hands or pastry cutter....and now grab your mixer for the rest of the heavy work. Add milk, eggs, and vanilla. Combine until smooth. 

In a separate bowl mix berries, the tiny bit of sugar (I really love the sweet zing of strawberries and I feel that too much sugar detracts from them...however if you're a sugar enthusiast add a little more), and corn starch. 

In an over safe cake tin spread strawberries on the bottom and cover with dough. 

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes -- until knife (on in my case a straighten out paperclip comes out clean).