Strawberry Coffeecake

Another winner from the Once Upon a Tart cookbook: a moist, soft cake under jammy strawberries and a sugary topping (I might make the topping with almonds next time). It's their berry coffecake, which I halved, just used strawberries and baked in an 8-inch pan. (The original recipe was for a 13 x 9-inch pan.) The dough was really thick, which kept the strawberries from sinking too far into the cake, and it has a nice almond flavor from extract in the cake and almond paste in the topping.

The cake base is 4 tablespoons of softened butter creamed with 6 tablespoons sugar. Mix in 1 egg, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1/4 teaspoon almond extract. Then alternate between adding 1/4 cup buttermilk and 1 cup flour mixed with 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/8 teaspoon each baking soda, ground ginger and salt and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. (I made this in the stand mixer, but just put it on stir and added the last of the flour mixture with a spoon by hand to avoid the dreaded rubbery texture. Worked.)

Spread that in the pan, then sprinkle with 1 1/2 cups quartered strawberries, then add the topping: 1/2 tablespoon flour, 1 tablespoon cut-up cold butter, 2 tablespoons torn-up almond paste, 1/4 cup chopped walnuts and 1/4 cup brown sugar (I just mushed the topping together with my fingers).