Made it again and this time bought 8.5" disposable cake pans to make it "the way God and NYTimes intended it to be made."
...and I didn't like it as much. Note: this is a relative statement. The cake is STILL good...just NOT as good as the first time. Let me explain.
When I had NO pan, I used a 9" metal bowl that was only 5" at the bottom. To be honest, I wasn't sure I could actually bake in this heavily buttered bowl but moved ahead anyway and tossed in the batter. In that version, some of the mashed & sugared berry juice worked its way down to the bottom and made a lovely strawberry jam while the mashed strawberries tossed on top baked into the cake. It was really quite good that way, cakey but also jammy. Took 45 minutes to bake though.
This time I carefully spread the batter across the cake pan and carefully added the strawberry mix and NONE of the mashed berries got to the bottom of the pan. So I had more plain cake without the wonderful berry-ness that, in essence, makes this cake the cake it is.
Have to say it was kind of disappointing. I'm not sure if the longer baking time made the jammy bottom possible so I'll be using the bowl and a bit of carelessness the next time just to test it out.
...and I didn't like it as much. Note: this is a relative statement. The cake is STILL good...just NOT as good as the first time. Let me explain.
When I had NO pan, I used a 9" metal bowl that was only 5" at the bottom. To be honest, I wasn't sure I could actually bake in this heavily buttered bowl but moved ahead anyway and tossed in the batter. In that version, some of the mashed & sugared berry juice worked its way down to the bottom and made a lovely strawberry jam while the mashed strawberries tossed on top baked into the cake. It was really quite good that way, cakey but also jammy. Took 45 minutes to bake though.
This time I carefully spread the batter across the cake pan and carefully added the strawberry mix and NONE of the mashed berries got to the bottom of the pan. So I had more plain cake without the wonderful berry-ness that, in essence, makes this cake the cake it is.
Have to say it was kind of disappointing. I'm not sure if the longer baking time made the jammy bottom possible so I'll be using the bowl and a bit of carelessness the next time just to test it out.