Strawberries with Pound Cake and Vanilla Cream 

**RECIPE, MAKES 8-10 PORTIONS**
For the pound cake:
A stick and a half of salted butter, softened
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
Half cup of buttermilk (or milk spiked w/ a teaspoon of vinegar and allowed to curdle for 10 min)
Pinch of salt
1.5-2 cups of flour
For the strawberries:
A quart (about two pounds) of fresh strawberries
Up to a quarter cup of sugar
For the cream:
A pint of heavy cream
A vanilla bean (if you’re a high-roller), or half a vanilla bean (if you’re a sensible spender), or a tablespoon of vanilla extract (if you’re on a budget)
2 tablespoons of sugar
Directions:
Start with the cake. Preheat your oven to 375 F. Cut off a sliver of the softened butter and use it to grease the inside of a 5x9 inch loaf pan. Coat the greased interior with a pinch of flour.
In a mixing bowl, beat the remaining butter and the sugar together until they’re fluffy. Beat in the eggs, then the buttermilk. Beat in the pinch of salt and 1.5 cups of flour. Add additional flour until the batter has the appearance of cookie dough - it sticks firmly to the beaters.
Put the batter in the loaf pan, smooth the top, and bake for about an hour, until a skewer comes out clean. When done, the cake will be puffed up, have a large crack down the middle (haha hilarious), and a freckled appearance of its surface. Cool thoroughly before taking it out of its pan.
Cut the green tops off the strawberries and wash them. Don’t worry about drying them. Cut them into thin slices and put them in a bowl. Scatter with a spoonful of sugar and stir. Taste one, and add more sugar if you think they need it, but keep in mind the cake will be very sweet, so these can/should be tart. Don’t add more than a quarter cup of sugar. Stir them thoroughly, and leave them to sit. The sugar will draw out a thick syrup from the strawberries within minutes.
Chill a metal bowl in the freezer for a few minutes. Take it out and pour in the cold cream. Beat until soft peaks form. If using a vanilla bean, cut it in half lengthwise, and scrape out the interior seed pulp. Add the pulp to the cream by scraping it against the beater. If using vanilla extract, add it instead. Add two tablespoons of sugar, and beat just until all is incorporated.
Slice the cake into 8-10 slices. Top a slice of cake with a couple big spoons each of strawberries and cream, and also a spoon of the strawberry syrup. Ideally, consume outdoors.
MY COOKING PHILOSOPHY:
I don't like weighing or measuring things if I don't have to, and I don't like to be constantly checking a recipe as I cook. I don't care that volume is a bad way of measuring things - it's usually easier. I like for a recipe to get me in the ballpark, and then I like to eyeball and improvise the rest. If you're like me, my goal with these videos is to give you a sense of how the food should look and feel as you're cooking it, rather than give you a refined formula to reproduce.