Kendra's Treats

I’m so excited that strawberry season is almost here!! I love strawberries and buy them year round, but of course those winter berries are no where near the quality of locally grown, fresh strawberries picked at the peak of their season. While we haven’t quite hit strawberry season in Tennessee, I picked up some beautiful, delicious berries (shipped from California) at my local grocery store last week. Of course, I had to incorporate some of them into something with sugar. Because, I can’t eat healthy all the time ;).

I decided on this Strawberry Swirl Pound Cake. I wanted my strawberry swirl to actually taste like strawberries, so I cooked some lightly sweetened strawberry puree with some cornstarch until it was nice and thick. I also added some strawberry jello to boost the strawberry flavor even more. Once the mixture cooled to room temperature, I swirled my glorious strawberry mixture through a simple – yet delicious – yogurt pound cake batter. It was a match made in heaven – perfectly moist vanilla bean pound cake swirled with just the right amount of strawberry. Besides tasting great, it’s such a pretty cake too! Don’t you agree?? =) Enjoy!

Strawberry Swirl Pound Cake 

for the strawberry swirl:
1/2 cup strawberry purée
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp strawberry jello (unprepared)
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp cornstarch

for the cake:
2 cups all purpose flour
1-1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla bean paste
8 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup plain greek yogurt (I used 2%)

1. In small sauce pan, combine strawberry puree, sugar, and jello. Stir to combine. Cook over medium heat until mixture starts to boil. In small bowl, combine water and cornstarch and whisk into boiling strawberry mixture. Cook until thickened, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
2. Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line 9×5 inch loaf pan with parchment paper and spray with nonstick spray.
3. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in bowl and whisk to combine.
4. In bowl of stand mixer with padddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, blending well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla bean paste.
5. With the mixer on low speed, mix in half the flour mixture, then yogurt, and remaining flour – beating each addition just until incorporated.
6. Pour half of the batter into prepared pan. Top with strawberry mixture. Pour remaining batter over strawberry mixture and swirl slightly with knife. Bake in preheated oven for 60-70 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
7. Place on cooling rack for 10 minutes. Then, remove from pan and cool completely (or almost) before slicing.