This easy-to-bake strawberry spoon cake lies somewhere between a cake and a cobbler. It bakes up beautifully and harnesses all the juices of ripe summer berries. This recipe is a variation on a classic summer fruit dessert known as “Essie’s cobbler.”
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When planning the ideal summer party menu, I have a hard time resisting the temptation to do too much. Way too much, in fact. So I’m practicing paring back to the delicious essentials with menus that are effortless and delicious. After all, the point of gathering is to enjoy the company of those we love.
Simple Menus for Summer Gatherings
The challenge is to find ways to enjoy the summer and our friends with ease and simplicity. To keep things simple, I’ll be focusing on boards and spreads of snacky things that don’t require too much prep work. For mains, I’m thinking about easy dips, big fruit and cheese boards, little sides and flatbreads, or sating salads.
Dessert should be simple, but celebratory. You could make strawberries in red wine syrup (truly, this is the easiest dessert and it has no business being as delicious as it is). I have a little catalog of simple cakes, like olive oil or strawberry cornmeal, and now, I’m adding this strawberry spoon cake to the mix.
Strawberry Spoon Cake (aka Strawberry Cobbler)
Strawberry spoon cake lies somewhere between a strawberry cobbler and a more traditional cake. The butter melts in the baking dish, and then you just swirl in the spoon cake batter and a mess of juicy strawberries, and it all comes together as it bakes in the oven.
This approach would work well with any kind of berry or stone fruit (and is an especially good way to make use of fruits that are edging toward overripe). Baking it feels a little bit like an act of faith, each ingredient feels very separate at the beginning and then magically, it all comes together.
In researching the recipe and its countless variations, I found that it was a variation of a traditional recipe known as Essie’s cobbler. I’ll need to keep digging to find the original recipe, though I suspect a vintage lady’s magazine or church recipe pamphlet might be the source. I typically make my cobblers with the fruit underneath the cake or biscuit topping, but here, the cake batter sits under the fruit, allowing the spoon cake (aka strawberry cobbler), to bake up with all the juice and flavor of the fruit without the need for added thickeners or excess sugar.
Whether you call it a strawberry spoon cake or strawberry cobbler, it’s a beautifully direct expression of summer baking and I plan to try the recipe with every fruit I can get my hands on.
This easy-to-bake strawberry spoon cake lies somewhere between a cake and a cobbler. It bakes up beautifully and harnesses all the juices of ripe summer berries. This recipe is a variation on a classic summer fruit dessert known as "Essie's cobbler." Recipe adapted slightly from The New York Times.
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter (½ cup)
- 8 ounces hulled, sliced strawberries (about 1 heaping cup)
- ⅔ cup cane sugar, or use granulated, divided
- ½ cup whole milk
- ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons cornmeal
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
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Set butter in an 8-inch square baking dish and set in the oven. Let butter melt completely and get a little brown on the edges, about 8 minutes. Then remove from oven and set aside to cool briefly. Tip the dish carefully to coat all the sides with butter.
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Meanwhile, mash strawberries with a fork and toss with ⅓ cup sugar. Set aside.
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In a small dish, stir to combine the milk and remaining ⅓ cup sugar.
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In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and sea salt. Fold the milk and sugar mixture in with the flour mixture.
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Carefully spoon batter into baking dish with hot butter (it may spit a little bit). Smooth out batter as best you can, it will be separate from the butter and that’s ok. Spoon the strawberries and all their juices on top – they should be somewhat evenly distributed over the center of the cake.
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Bake 30 - 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few crumbs attached.
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Cool 30 minutes, then slice and serve with vanilla ice cream.
When do you add the milk?
Hi Monique, Thanks for checking out the recipe! You fold the mix of milk and 1/3 cup sugar into the dry ingredients in step 5. I updated the recipe to make this more clear.
Smells divine while baking and looks so rustic when it comes out of the oven! I am serving mine with a scoop of freshly made whipped cream, but I imagine a sprinkle of powdered sugar at the time of serving would be lovely as well. I added a little vanilla bean paste to both the strawberries and batter because I can’t leave well enough alone, ha! I also had to sub in buttermilk for the whole milk, because it was all I had. Everything turned out great!
Ohhhh, vanilla bean paste sounds wonderful! Same for the whipped cream. So glad you enjoyed the recipe, Jenna. Thank you so much for sharing your experience!!! (I bet the buttermilk was fantastic – love that subtle tang.)
I added a tsp of vanilla, and used maybe half as much butter. It came out fine (with fewer calories!). Thanks for this easy and delicious recipe!
Glad to hear it worked well! Thanks for sharing, Carolyn!
A quick thought…there are no eggs in this recipe. Will the cobbler rise?
Hi Sari, Thanks for dropping by! Cobbler dough does not typically have eggs. There is a bit of baking powder here, so the dough does rise, but it’s a more of a dense, buttery texture than a typical cake.
I’m planning to double this to serve 8 – would a 9×12 pan work out ok in that case? Best guess on adjustment to baking time?
This should work fine. I’d assume the cook time would be almost the same, or maybe 5 – 10 minutes longer. Check at the 30 minute mark, and then add time as needed from there.
Can you reheat this in the oven? Or will it dry out?
I think you could gently reheat at 300 degrees for 10 minutes – any longer and it will dry out.
Can the recipe be made ahead of time and then baked the next day?
No, unfortunately. The berries would release too much liquid and once the leavening agent (baking powder) hits the wet ingredients, it activates, so by the next day, it would not rise. The most you can do ahead is slice the fruit and have everything else prepped and measured, so you could toss it together and bake in the moment.
This sounds delicious – I can’t use regular milk though. Do you have a non-dairy milk you’d suggest using?
Hi Chris, I think any thicker plant-based milk can be swapped in. I would avoid rice milk, but oat, soy, or almond would all be fine.
Also looking for a possible substitute on the flour to make a gluten free version if possible. Any recs??
Hi Lindsay, I have not tried the recipe with a GF substitute, but based on some research, try swapping in all-purpose gf flour in a 1 to 1 ratio. I have a nut allergy, so I don’t do a lot of baking with gf flours, unfortunately.