Ina Garten Calls This Gorgeous Cake a Summer 'Classic' & It Couldn't Be Easier to Make

According to Ina Garten, summer has officially started! As soon as fresh strawberries hit the farmer’s markets in early June, Garten begins making all her favorite go-to strawberry recipes, including a strawberry cake that is just to die for. And it’s so simple that you’ll want to make it every summer, too. Grab a carton of strawberries while they’re perfectly ripe, and let’s get baking.

“I love strawberry season when all the farmer’s markets are piled high with local strawberries!” Garten captioned a June 5 Instagram post. “To celebrate, I’m posting a week of my favorite strawberry recipes starting with the one I make every year — my classic Strawberry Country Cake! Delicious!!”

It looks beautiful, it tastes divine, and this cake just screams summer.

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The cake’s base is two layers of simple vanilla cake made with sour cream and lemon and orange zests to give it a tangy punch to compliment the sweetness of the strawberries. All the ingredients for the cake layers are combined in a stand mixer and then transferred to two 8-inch cake pans before they’re baked for about 45 minutes.

The filling is a light and delicate mix of homemade whipped cream (sweetened with sugar and vanilla) and fresh halved strawberries. This cake would also be delicious with strawberry halves that have been marinated in honey and freshly-squeezed orange juice, too, which is more in line with a strawberry shortcake recipe. It all depends on your thoughts and feelings about syrup-soaked cakes!

You can grab Garten’s full recipe for Strawberry County Cake over on the Barefoot Contessa website and stay tuned to her Instagram feed for more delicious strawberry recipes that will be posted throughout the week.