[Recipe] Eggless Strawberry Cake

I love cooking, but when it comes to baking I hesitate because the recipes are complicated or it just boggles me [cos I have to follow the recipe to the dot, measurements etc]. But then I do push myself and experiment every now and then.. Apart from the one time I ended up burning a batch of cupcakes, I have managed to do a pretty good job and the end product tastes good as well. :-) 

And this year, I kinda made up my mind to do a lot more baking... So, now that it is strawberry season, well to be honest, the season is nearly done, I knew I wanted to go beyond just buying a box of berries and gorging on them... ! I managed to find a box of strawberries at my local store, they were nice big and juicy... Of the recipes I found, the one that caught my eye when I googled - "Eggless strawberry recipes" was this cake recipe from #BakeWithShivesh .. [ Yes, at home it is eggless baking/cooking only cos gramma does not eat egg]

This is super simple recipe, and takes less than 5mins to put together and 25-30 mins to bake! Not only that, it looks good, and tastes even better :-) Above all, it does not need any fancy ingredients, you will pretty much have all that you need in your kitchen. I made it once few weeks ago, and it was a huge hit, so on popular demand have made it again today..  Moist and flavour packed, this recipe is a keeper... 

Recipe link- https://bakewithshivesh.com/eggless-strawberry-tea-cake/

Ingredients

• 2 cups (240g) maida ( all-purpose flour), sifted

• ½ teaspoon (2g) fresh lemon zest 

• 2 teaspoons (8g) baking powder

• ½ teaspoon (3g) baking soda

• ½ cup (120mL) vegetable oil

• 1 cup (200g) castor sugar

• 1 cup (285g) Greek yogurt/ hung curd

• ¼ cup (60mL) milk

• 1 teaspoon (5mL) vanilla extract

• 1 cup (170g) fresh strawberries, slices

** Apart from these, I added a few drops of strawberry essence - this adds additional flavour and colour to the cake.. 

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180*C. Line a 9" round pan with parchment paper.
2. In a bowl, combine maida, lemon zest, baking powder and baking soda by whisking them together.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the oil, sugar and yogurt together until everything is well combined.
4. Beat in the milk and vanilla extract and mix well.
5. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix only until there are no large flour pockets. Do not over-mix.
6. Use a spatula to carefully fold in some strawberries into the batter. Reserve the rest for the top.
7. Transfer the thick batter to the prepared cake pan. Arrange rest of the strawberry slices on top
8. Tip- to get that extra golden crust, evenly sprinkle about 1-2 tablespoons of castor sugar on top.
9. Bake the cake at 180*C for 40-45 minutes until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. [ I noticed mine were done in 25-30mins, so check and pull it out accordingly]

Doesn't that strawberry slice look like a mini heart? :-)