Father's Day Treat Strawberry Kuchen

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows. 

It's what the sunflowers do.

Helen Keller

Sunflowers were a gift to myself. A reminder of the ones we saw roadside throughout the Hill Country in Texas. 

The newest issue of Southern Living features  6 Forgotten Fruit Desserts that are old-fashioned but making a comeback. All have funny names e.g. Buckle, Kuchen, Sonker, Slump etc.  I told my husband to choose one of the six for his Father's day treat. After careful consideration (he is proficient on reading recipes) he picked Strawberry Kuchen. And what a good choice since it was easy, moist and flavorful. An added scoop of ice cream would have been the piece de resistance.  Kuchen is German for cake.  

Strawberry Kuchen

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup crumbled almonds
• 2 tsp. cinnamon, divided
• 1/2 cup softened butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar plus 1 TB. sugar, divided
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 large egg
• 1-1/2 cups flour
• 1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup whole milk or buttermilk
• 2 cups fresh strawberries, diced

Directions:

• Preheat oven  to 350 degrees. Grease a springform or a round cake pan. 
• Mix almonds, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1 TB. sugar and set aside.
• Beat butter and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy.
• Add yolks and egg one at a time beating after each addition. 
• Whisk flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Alternate add flour mixture and milk to butter mixture in 5 additions. Beat on low just until blended.
• Spread batter evenly in pan and arrange strawberries over the top. 
• Sprinkle over the top of batter the cinnamon, almond. sugar mixture.    
• Bake 40- 45 minutes until browned and a wooden pick inserted to center comes out clean.