Summer Strawberry Lemon Spoon Cake
Perfect for Memorial Day Weekend (or any Summer Weekend)
Colorful chefs - happy Thursday ❤️
🍓 Summer Strawberry Lemon Spoon Cake: I’ve made this cake four times in the last few weeks, and it’s been a HIT every single time. It’s the perfect simple summer cake—made with blood sugar-friendly, high-quality ingredients. Great for Memorial Day weekend or any summer gathering. Read on!
🍔 Sonja’s Smash Burger: I’m working on perfecting my summer smash burger with all the colorful fixings. I believe the perfect burger must have a little sweetness (caramelized onions), a little spice (chipotle lime crema), some fat (cheese and/or avocado), and some vinegar (pickles or pickled things). I'm planning to come out with a whole burger guide/post later this summer, but if you are grilling this weekend and want to recipe test my latest and greatest smash burger iteration just respond to this email and I’ll send you the recipe to test out!
This week we’ve got a Summer Strawberry Lemon Spoon Cake.
This is my Cooking in Color version of a classic summer picnic cake: soft, fruity, subtly sweet, and totally unfussy. This is my ideal type of cake because I like to bake, but I don’t identify as a “baker” per-say. This cake is pretty foolproof.
You can serve it warm straight from the pan with a scoop of ice cream… or pack it up for a beach day, a backyard cookout, or a Memorial Day potluck. It’s just as good cold the next morning with coffee or matcha—yes, it’s healthy enough for breakfast (just have some protein in addition to this cake please!!)
A few more reasons why this cake rocks:
🍓 The strawberries!! This cake is one of the best ways to use up ripe strawberries that are a little too soft to snack on. Mash ’em up, stir them in, and suddenly your cake has a gorgeous jammy swirl built right in
🌿 Blood sugar-friendly – thanks to a balance of healthy fats, protein from almond flour, yogurt and eggs, and slow carbs from arrowroot and fruit
🍯 Naturally sweetened with honey – which I’ve been leaning into more and more lately, not just for the flavor, but for the benefits: raw honey supports gut health, helps fight inflammation, and doesn’t spike blood sugar the way refined sugars do
Speaking of honey, did you know this last Tuesday was World Bee day? A silly holiday I know… but 1 in every 3 bites of food you eat is thanks to a bee. However, like the rest of our food system, bees are under threat and in crisis. Whether you care about regenerative ag or just love honey—this podcast episode with the Director or Save The Bees is a very good one so listen here.
Ok one more side-note: I’ve been obsessed with our Lineage honey lately - it’s wild harvested, super smooth, and tested undetectable for glyphosate and 390+ other contaminants often in honey. Use code SONJA10 or shop the Lineage Memorial Day sale!
Yogurt in cake?!
One of the reasons this cake is so soft and tender is because of the…YOGURT! The Food Lab (you know by now, Kenji) talks about how acidic dairy like yogurt helps soften gluten-like structures and adds moisture and tang, which is especially helpful in grain-free baking.
Kenji says:
“Acidic ingredients like buttermilk and yogurt tenderize proteins in flour and eggs, making for softer, more delicate cakes and muffins. They also react with baking soda to add lift and lighten texture.”
So really the yogurt is doing some behind-the-scenes work here to make the cake soft without needing tons of sugar or oil.
Serving tips
Top this cake with whatever ice cream you like, or skip it, it’s delicious solo. if you do add ice cream I recommend organic brands with minimal ingredients such as:
Straus (minimal ingredients, organic)
Alec’s (regenerative and uses A2 dairy, which many find easier to digest)
Ice Cream for Bears (also regenerative, and sweetened only with raw honey)
This will be my go-to summer cake and I hope you love it too!
RECIPE HERE
If you want to join the Color Club and make this cake but the $5/month price is a barrier, I get it. Just respond to this email and I’ll set you up for free no questions asked.
If you make these recipes (or ANY of my recipes!), I’d love nothing more than to hear how it turned out and any feedback you have! Comment below or on the recipe in the Color Club, and if you are on IG share it and tag me @sonjakmanning.
Lastly, if you heart or re-stack this post or share it with a friend, you’ll help me and these colorful recipes reach more people! Thank you!! 🙏🏼
Chefs kisses and happy long weekend!!
Sonja
Made this for a BBQ this weekend! Very tasty, yet simple to put together. My husband enjoyed it with whipped coconut cream and I liked the Cocojune on top. Yummy!