This cake was a revelation. I didn’t really love the concept of a cake in a pie plate, and while the photo in the book looked yummy with the berries and cream – well, the berries and cream looked like they were the highlight. And then, it looked super easy – with just a few ingredients. But again, this was a revelation. As Dorie points out, if she had had this recipe when she started baking, here career might have been over because she would have stopped with just that recipe (thank goodness she didn’t!). Who knew that something so simple could be so delicious?
OK, so there are really just a few ingredients – and because of that, they really ought to be good-quality, particularly the butter and vanilla that are the main flavors here.
Such a simple process: the dry ingredients are mixed together (flour, sugar, a touch of salt), then the butter is added, along with the vanilla. This comes together as kind of a rough mixture, but that’s all right!
Egg whites get whipped until nice and soft (save the egg yolks for something else), and then incorporated into the batter. Dorie notes that not every baker whips their egg whites, so it would be interesting to see how the cake turns out that way, since it would be even faster/easier to make without that step.
I was in a bit of a rush, so I used the pie plate (10″) as recommended. I think this would be delightful made as little fairy cakes, or in other shapes, but why not try something new? I did use the parchment as suggested (always a good idea with a cake!). It gets baked for a bit until browned, then turned out to cool.
This cake can be served in many ways – I happened to have some organic strawberries, marscapone and lemon curd – which turned out to be really lovely. But I also brought the rest to the office and shared – just plain. But fabulous with a cup of coffee or tea. It would be wonderful with many different toppings as well. This was really just a wonderful, simple cake. I’m enamored!!
dulceshome 
Looks great and very nice of you to bring it to work to share. Btw, there is a bit of height in your cake!
Your cake turned out great and yes the height looks great. Much better than mine.
Lemon curd and strawberries are the perfect pairing (and most popular with the Dorista crowd). I loved this cake. Simple can be just the right thing sometimes.
Great looking cake, Candy. I’m sure it was delicious with the lemon curd and strawberries! Glad it was a winner for you! I loved this cake and will definitely make it again!
We were enamored, too, Candy! And your topping choices sound amazing!!!
I really enjoyed this one, too. I split the cake in half and sent some downstairs to my neighbours. I’ve been enjoying the other half with lemon curd, but love your additions of strawberries and mascarpone!
Beautiful candy and nice lift. I wish I had used a pie pan for this instead of the springform. I was trying to be tricky but it just messed it up so I had to think quick.
Looks great!
Marscapone would have been so good with this. As would the lemon curd. Great idea! I used a pie plate as well, but it still was a bit thick. But it didn’t matter- it was gone very quickly!
Lovely looking cake! Your colleagues at the office were very lucky!
I should have used a silicon spatula instead of trying to whisk in the sugar and butter. Yep, this is a game changing cake indeed!
This cake was simple but delicious. Your choice of topping looks simply scrumptious.
Am wondering if you put powdered sugar on it when you took it to the office. I like that you went all out with marscapone and lemon curd. You go, Girl. Dorie didn’t lead us astray, did she? This was terrific, I agree.