I wanted to make a strawberry cake, but I didn’t have strawberries. I tried using frozen cherries, but we know full well that substitutes will not work. Strawberries and cherries and raspberries and blueberries are all very different even if the words sound almost the same. If you want a strawberry cake, however, there’s a good recipe from Smitten Kitchen. It uses half all-purpose flour and half barley flour, and its texture reminds me of strawberry shortcake. The one change I made is that I’ve found it works best in a square pan. You arrange the strawberries on the top layer and they poke through and set up tulip-like pockets of sweetness.

(Photo: D.C. Pride parade, mid-aughts.)

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