Strawberry and vanilla crumb cake: Playing around when you have a little time

There are a lot of strawberry in the supermarket lately, thank to the Korean people ^^, haha.  I love that I can buy it every times that I want to make something from Strawberry even someone may say that it's not right to eat something that comes so far away, well I think that if it's still delicious, it's alright for me.

 Anyway, my life is hectic lately, because my dad has to go to the hospital so if I want to bake something, I must do it quickly, -*- . (you might want to say that why don't I stop baking?, haha, I can't, I try to fit the baking in to my schedule and I know that if I really want to do it I can ^^).
So, due to a little time that I have, I make Strawberry and vanilla crumb cake.
This cake is very easy to make, and don't required much time, just stir, stir and stir that's all!! The original recipe uses rhubarb, but I can't find it, so instead of trying to find the right ingredient I made an adaptation. I think that the best thing that you must do, even some of my friend say that if I always do it I will never know the taste of the original recipe, but I don't think that's important. There're a time that I follow the recipe in every words and use exactly the same ingredients and a time that I want to play around using whatever I want and learn from it ^^. Because if you want to be happy in your kitchen, just do it, happiness is one of the reason for baking too.
The sugar amount that I give in the recipe is the suggestion, you can use more or less, it depend on the sweetness of your strawberry, and your taste too ^^. For the Icing, I don't use it because I don't want to add more sweetness to my cake, but it makes the cake looks better, haha, so if you love the taste and the look, just dust it over the cake.
Serve it hot from the oven or reheat it before serving with a cup of tea or coffee, and enjoy it ^^. Don't say that you don't have time to bake or cook, it really needs a little time but the result is greater than you think.

Strawberry and vanilla crumb cake

Makes 20cm cake

......................................... Butter for greasing 
250g ............................... Strawberry 
30-40g ........................... caster sugar 
2 tsp ................................ plain flour 


 FOR THE CAKE 
6 tbsp .............................  Crème Fraîche 
1 ...................................... large free-range egg, plus 1 yolk 
1 tsp ................................ vanilla bean paste

100g ............................... plain flour 
100g ............................... caster sugar 
½ tsp ............................. bicarbonate of soda 
½ tsp ............................. baking powder 
¼ tsp ............................. salt 
75g .................................. unsalted butter, at room temperature 
50g ................................. ground almonds or hazelnuts

 FOR THE CRUMBS 
50g .................................. unsalted butter 
25g .................................. Brown sugar
40g .................................. caster sugar  
¼  tsp ............................. vanilla bean paste 
100g ................................ plain flour, sifted
.......................................... Pinch of salt
.......................................... Icing sugar for dusting (optional)

1 Preheat the oven to 180°C/ fan160°C/gas 4. Grease and line a shallow 20cm square, 5cm deep loose-bottomed cake tin with baking paper. Trim the strawberry and cut into half, then put into a mixing bowl. Mix the sugar with the flour, stir into the strawberry and set aside for 15 minutes or so, stirring now and then, until the flour and sugar mixture has become moist and clings to the fruit. Set aside. 

2 For the crumbs, melt the butter in a small pan over a low heat. Remove from the heat, add both types of sugar and stir constantly until dissolved into a smooth, toffee-like sauce. Stir in the vanilla bean paste, pour into a small mixing bowl, then stir in the flour and salt to make a stiff, biscuit-like dough. Press the mixture firmly into the bottom of the bowl and set aside to go cold . 

3 For the cake, stir the Crème Fraîche , egg, egg yolk and vanilla in a small bowl. Sift the flour, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt into another bowl. Add the butter and mix using a hand-held electric mixer until the mixture looks like fine bread crumbs. Stir in the nuts, then gradually beat in the Crème Fraîche , mixture until smooth. 

4 Spread the cake mixture into the base of the prepared tin, then scatter over the strawberry mixture 

5 Break the crumb mixture into hazelnut-size pieces (or smaller) and scatter over the cake. Bake for 40-45 minutes until golden and a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean (don’t forget – if you hit a pieces of strawberry it will still be moist). Leave to cool for 10 minutes, then dust with icing sugar.

Strawberry and vanilla crumb cake: 

Playing around when you have a little time