Strawberry Streusel Cake Recipe & Video

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While I call this a Strawberry Streusel Cake, you could also call it a Strawberry Buckle. I really like this type of dessert. It's a Coffee Cake (Kuchen) of sorts, with three delicious layers. On the bottom is a soft and fluffy white butter cake, followed by a layer of fresh strawberries, then it's finished with a crunchy Graham Cracker Crumb Streusel. You can serve this cake warm from the oven or at room temperature. While not necessary, a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream goes very well with this cake. Leftovers are great for breakfast, preferably cold from the fridge, when the streusel has turned wonderfully hard and crunchy. 

In the past I've always made a Streusel with flour. But this Streusel topping is a little different in that the flour is replaced with Graham Cracker Crumbs (you can also use crushed Digestive Biscuits). I got this idea from a Strawberry Cake recipe in Julian Armstrong's delightful book called "Made in Quebec". Sometimes I even like to make the Streusel with crushed Biscoff biscuits (Speculoos) which is also very tasty. The streusel also contains dried coconut, my preference is shredded or flaked unsweetened coconut, but you could use dried sweetened coconut.

When choosing strawberries look for fragrant, plump, firm, bright-red berries with no white or green "shoulders" at the stem end. The green leaf-like cap or hull should still be attached and not brown or wilted. There should be no soft spots, bruising or mildew. Always check the underside of the container to make sure there are no squashed berries or red juice (sign of overripe berries). Strawberries range in size and can be as small as a grape to as large as a golf ball. So if using small berries leave them whole. But large strawberries should be cut in half. For this cake you want enough strawberries to cover the entire surface of the cake batter. So you will need approximately 1 pound (450 grams) of fresh strawberries.