Strawberry Breakfast Cake

Sometimes I see a recipe and it hits a particular cord in my head and I immediately think 'I want that now.' Such was the case a few weeks ago when I saw the Baked Strawberry Pancakes at Lisa's Kitchen. Strawberries might be my all-time favorite fruit. Though I've more recently come to love nectarines, blueberries and mangoes and have been known at times to claim that one of these is actually my favorite, strawberries will always be in a special category for me as they were my favorite fruit when I was really young. Even know I have been known to eat a kilo of berries in a single sitting, but that might not be something I should brag about.

But back to the pancake. Well- it looked so good I had to make it immediately. Lisa copied the recipe out of a cookbook years ago and doesn't remember her original source, but I think she is right in her assessment that it's a Jewish grandma recipe. It's leavened only with whipped egg whites, so it would be good for Passover and it just seems like that kind of recipe to me. I would call this pancake a close cousin of the angel food cake, but better since the strawberries are built in. It's so light and fluffy Zach and I nearly ate the whole thing for breakfast, but that wouldn't have been too bad since it's fairly low on calories and has only 1 tablespoon of butter in the whole thing.

I made a few changes from Lisa's original recipe to use whole wheat flour and brown sugar and to add a bit of peach for more color, so I'll give the recipe to you here. One note- this pancake does not keep well at all- I suggest eating the whole thing (well, not by yourself) right when it comes out of the oven, or sometime that day. This would be great to serve at a brunch since it bakes in the oven and you don't have to babysit it and it's a good light dessert too.

Strawberry Breakfast Cake
Serves 3-4 for breakfast or dessert
Adapeted from Lisa's Kitchen

1 T. butter melted
2 eggs, separated
1/4 C. milk
1/4 C. whole wheat flour
1/4 C. white flour
1 T. brown sugar
1/2 t. vanilla
5-8 strawberries, halved
1/2 peach, sliced

- Preheat oven to 425F. Put butter in a 9 inch pie plate and put it in the oven to melt.

- In a medium bowl, beat egg whites until stiff. Mix yolks, milk, flours, sugar and vanilla in a separate bowl.

- Fold egg whites into flour/milk mix, some streaking is ok. Pour into pie-plate and arrange the fruit in whatever pattern you would like.

- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve immediately.