Masa Harina Snacking Cake
This recipe was first shared on my now defunct Patreon. If you enjoy what you read here, please consider subscribing to my recipe Substack.
I feel the stirrings of change as we hit the spring equinox and Aries season today. This Patreon may seem like the foundation of my work because I tend to it every week, but the bakery is the work that is “rooted in the real world”, as the late and great Rachel Pollack describes in her book and my tarot bible, Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom. In an excerpt of the book that I highlighted AND screenshot for me to recall whenever I needed, Pollack describes each tarot element (Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles, each corresponding with an Earth-bound element — fire, water, air and earth, respectively) and how they might work together to create equilibrium in the personal and collective.
I won’t quote it in its entirety here, but this idea of being rooted in the real world is something I’ve been thinking about as spring approaches and a new season of the bakery also emerges from the below freezing depths of a long, gray winter. Though this Patreon and my bakery are always overlapping and not opposing forces in any sense, good, balanced changes are just beyond the horizon.
For now though, strawberries in their peak season still demand my attention. This week I’m sharing a simple one-bowl (two, if you don’t have a 4-cup capacity liquid measuring cup) masa harina snacking cake. Here, I frosted with a hibiscus whipped cream and topped with a mountain of macerated Georgia strawberries loosely inspired by strawberry shortcakes. That’s just one idea as this cake serves as a canvas for whatever your favorite frosting happens to be.
If you like the sound of a hibiscus whipped cream, add 1 tablespoon of crushed dried hibiscus leaves to something like a spice grinder or mortar and pestle to get them really fine and powdery. Then, transfer the hibiscus powder along with 2 tablespoons of confectioners’ sugar and a cup of cold heavy cream to a mixing bowl (if using a hand mixer) or a stand mixer bowl. Whip to just barely set peaks before enrobing the top of the cake with the prettiest and quickest frosting. Not in the mood for cake but still into a masa-inspired strawberry shortcake situation? Make my masa harina biscuits instead.
“And from Pentacles comes a sense of being rooted in the real world, an ability to enjoy life as well as to overcome it.” - Rachel Pollack
Masa Harina Snacking Cake
Yield: one 8 or 9-inch round cake
Macerated strawberries
1 pound organic strawberries, rinsed and hulled
¼ cup cane sugar or granulated
Thyme stems or fresh basil leaves, optional
Masa harina snacking cake
120 grams (1 cup) all-purpose flour
31 grams (¼ cup) masa harina
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
130 grams (⅔ cup) cane sugar or granulated sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
112 grams (½ cup) buttermilk, room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste or extract
33 grams (¼ cup) grapeseed oil
Macerate the strawberries:
In a mixing bowl, add the rinsed and hulled strawberries, the cane sugar and any fresh herbs, if using. Stir to coat the strawberries and herbs in the sugar. Cover with plastic wrap and let the strawberries sit as their juices weep out. Let strawberries macerate for at least 4-6 hours or up to overnight in the fridge.
Make the cake:
Heat oven to 350F; line a 8-inch or 9-inch round cake pan with parchment and spray with cooking spray.
In a large mixing bowl, sift in the dry ingredients, including the sugar. Whisk to combine.
In a 4-cup capacity liquid measuring cup, or another mixing bowl, whisk the buttermilk, eggs, vanilla bean paste or extract and grapeseed oil until the eggs have been emulsified.
Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry until no pockets of dry flour remain. Transfer cake batter to the prepared cake pan and bake for 23-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out mostly free of crumbs. The top of the cake will have browned nicely, the sides will have pulled away from the cake pan just slightly, and you should be able to smell the scent of cake. Note these visual and sensory cues for when your cake is done.
Let your cake cool completely before topping with hibiscus whipped cream and the prepared macerated strawberries.