Sink Fruit

Once upon a time (well, Tuesday) I came across these locally grown, super-seasonal, amazing strawberries at Gene's. Aroma wafting! Sweetness pulsing! They were waiting for me so patiently there at the check-out counter, marked by a sweet sign that was (likely and hopefully) lettered by the actual farmer, announcing the product and the name of the farm they came from. I naturally entered my produce anxiety mode, thereby purchasing a pretty substantial amount of berries. But they looked so fine! So red! So real! And at a mere $2.50 per box, it was pretty much the deal of the century. The guy in front of me in line was equally as excited about them, and our energy was balanced, I suppose, by the folks in front of him who were buying the sad-looking, imported from God-knows-where strawberries, more milky white and yellow than red, the kind of berries we all buy when local berries aren't available. With audacity and fruit joy, Man In Front of Me suggested they buy some, too. Um, they said, frowning, but we don't know where they're from. We know we like this other kind.

Right.

Anyway, I ended up at home with these berries and, you guessed it, they were sink fruit. It's just that you start washing them, then you have to give one a try. And then, you have to try one more. Which turns into one more. And one more. And the next thing you know, you are not having sit-down fruit. You are having a whole box of sink fruit. It's only the best fruit that is worthy of the sink experience, you know. And these strawberries certainly made the cut.

We (okay, I) plowed through them in the next 24 hours, and then of course had to buy more at the farmers market, which have since suffered a new fate, called pound cake. This original recipe calls for lemon juice and lemon zest, and you're welcome to explore that path, although I encourage you to get these last existing bits of strawberries and rhubarb and make this cake, which is perfectly good as a plate cake, but could actually be a sink cake if you were feeling, you know, nostalgic.

Fantastically Easy Strawberry-Rhubarb Pound Cake
adapted from Bon Appétit

3 cups cake flour (or AP flour)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups sugar
6 eggs, room temperature
2 C chopped fresh strawberries
2 C chopped rhubarb
1 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter and flour 16-cup tube pan.

Sift flour, baking soda and salt into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl at medium speed until fluffy. Gradually add sugar and beat 5 minutes. (Really. Five minutes.) Add eggs 1 at a time, beating just until combined after each addition. Using rubber spatula, mix in dry ingredients. Fold in rhubarb and strawberries. Fold in sour cream. Transfer batter to prepared pan.

Bake cake until tester inserted near center comes out clean, about 1 hour 30 minutes. Let cake cool in pan on rack 15 minutes. Cut around cake in pan. Turn out cake.

Carefully turn cake right side up on rack and cool completely. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Wrap in foil and let stand at room temperature. It's also good when it's stored in the fridge.)