Cake or cupcake, strawberry

Sarah Jampel’s selected strawberry cake tops a sour-cream-enriched single layer with fresh strawberry slices. Lemon zest and ground nutmeg season the cake, with a separate sour cream whip providing a tangy accompaniment.

The strawberries are tossed with half their sugar and a pinch of table salt while the batter is prepared. Flour, baking powder and salt are whisked separately; softened unsalted butter is beaten with the cake sugar, lemon zest and nutmeg.

Two eggs are beaten in one at a time, followed by sour cream and vanilla. The flour mixture is worked in briefly, and the batter is spread into a greased, parchment-lined round pan.

Strawberry slices cover the batter in a tight single layer, leaving their juices behind. The remaining topping sugar is sprinkled over them before the cake bakes to a deeply golden surface and moves from its pan to a rack.

Heavy cream, sour cream, icing sugar and vanilla are whisked to soft peaks for the accompanying whip. Jampel serves the cake warm or at room temperature with this whip and offers the reserved strawberry juices as a drizzle.