This cake was a delightful surprise. I conducted a search and destroy mission this morning in an attempt to find something new to use as the base for strawberry shortcake. I wanted something unusual and I finally found it on the, new to me, blog, A Spicy Perspective. This moist gem is made with Greek yogurt and is flavored with fresh strawberries. It is guaranteed to make your taste buds sing and it is a great way to use the strawberries that are flooding our markets right now. The recipe is straight forward and easy to follow, but you'll have to watch baking time if you decide to make the cake. Mine needed an extra ten minutes before it could be removed from the oven. I'd also like to suggest you use firm, just ripe, berries to flavor the cake. The ones I used were fully ripe and bled into the batter. That didn't bother me, but I think the ripe berries added additional moisture to the cake and that could have been a problem. Fortunately, it was not. I did have one unintended consequence. The cake was so flavorful that I had to scrap my plan to use it as shortcake. This is a standalone treasure that was so good that I also scrapped my plan to make the glaze that's included with the recipe. I really hope you will try this one. It is tart and sweet and wonderfully moist. I loved and I think you will, too. Here's how it's made.

Fresh Strawberry Yogurt Cake

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

3 tablespoons lemon juice, divided use

1 teaspoon vanilla extract[

Zest of 1 lemon

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided use

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 oz. plain Greek yogurt

12 oz. fresh strawberries, diced

1 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan (10-15 cup pan.) Sift together 2-1/4 cups of flour, baking soda and salt. Mix in lemon zest and set aside.

2) With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in 1 tablespoon lemon juice and vanilla extract. In thirds, alternate beating in flour mixture and yogurt, mixing just until incorporated.

3) Toss strawberries with remaining 1/4 cup of flour. Gently mix them into batter.

4) Scrape batter into prepared pan. Bake for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow cake to cool in pan for 20 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

5) Once cooled, combine confectioners' sugar and reserved 2 tablespoons lemon juice in a small bowl and whisk until smooth. Drizzle over top of cake. Yield: 10 to 12 servings.

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