Winters are definitely departing. You would be missing that chilling nip in the air. And I am not craving for cinnamon hot chocolate at bed time or a a bowl of comforting hot soup after work, the way I used to feel just few days back. Spring has officially arrived. Fruits, vegetables, flowers. You can spot the drift in weather everywhere.
And the markets are flooded with this wonderful fruit of the season. Strawberries are all over, even the web. And I am thankful, that these days we get enough produce of the fruit as compared to the way it used to be a couple of years ago. I can remember, that a punnet of fresh strawberries was considered to be something exotic in those times.
Being kids, we really used to enjoy our scoop of strawberry ice cream, without even bothering about that imitated flavor. Spotting a tiny bit of real fruit in there, used to be a bonus, which every kid would like to celebrate.
But now, it’s in abundance. And they’ll last till end of March. And I am hoping to make as many things as I can this time with these gorgeous berries. Starting this year, I made strawberry jelly and served it on the New Year’s eve party. This time, I decided to make this beautiful traybake, almost like a teacake which is mildly sweet and is having the goodness of olive oil and almonds.
Ingredients
225 gm sugar
4 large eggs
240 ml light olive oil
1 tsp almond essence
Zest of an orange
200 gm all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
40 gm ground almonds
250 gm strawberries {hulled and sliced}
1/4 cup flaked almonds
Icing sugar to dust
Instructions
- In a bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking powder and keep aside.
- In a separate bowl, whisk eggs and sugar together, until they start to look pale and creamy (around 5 minutes).
- Add in the oil and almond essence and orange zest to egg mixture and beat well to incorporate.
- Sift the flour and then almond powder into the egg mixture and mix with a rubber spatula, until the flour is all incorporated, ensuring not to over mix.
- Line a 20 cm x 20 cm x 5 cm pan with parchment paper and pour the batter into the pan.
- Tuck in the cut strawberries loosely into the batter. Sprinkle the flaked almonds on top.
- Bake the cake in 180 C preheated oven for about 40-45 minutes, until the skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool in the tin. Once completely cooled, cut it into 16 squares and dust with some icing sugar on the top.