Soft strawberry crumble cake

An excellent, tall and wonderfully fluffy strawberry cake with a crumble topping and a hint of orange. It smells, looks and tastes remarkably like a yeasted cake… or is it the crumble and its buttery flavour paired with strawberries that creates that effect? It’s also pleasantly moist and stays fresh for days. You can easily try it with other fruits, too.

Ingredients for the fluffy strawberry crumble cake:

• 180 g butter
• ¾ cup caster sugar
• finely grated zest of ½ an orange
• 3 large eggs
• 3 cups (450 g) plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1½ cups (375 ml) sour cream
• ¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 500 g strawberries

All ingredients should be at room temperature.

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter, sugar and orange zest until very pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition until fully incorporated. At this stage, the mixture may look slightly curdled – this is perfectly normal and won’t affect the final result. Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda directly into the butter mixture. Add the sour cream and orange juice, then gently fold everything together with a spatula until just combined – do not overmix.

Grease and line a 40 x 29 cm baking tin. Transfer the batter into the tin and level the surface. Arrange the strawberries on top (cut larger ones in half). If you can fit more – go ahead :). Sprinkle with the crumble topping (recipe below).

Bake at 170°C for about 45 minutes or longer, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove and allow to cool.

Ingredients for the crumble topping:

• 90 g plain flour
• 50 g sugar
• 8 g vanilla sugar
• 60 g butter, melted

Mix the flour with both sugars. Pour over the hot melted butter and stir with a fork until a crumbly texture forms.

Enjoy!