Heart Eyes, Vol. 217: Barbie and Strawberry Summer Cake
Friends! Hello. Happy Friday. You made it.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of things that are making me happy today: the sun came out early this morning, I found some strawberries and a perfectly ripe avocado at the grocery store just now, tonight is Pizza Friday (I’ve got the Angry Grandma from Smitten Kitchen Keepers on deck), the ficus audrey in my living room just unfurled a new leaf, and tomorrow I’m gathering with family I haven’t seen since the Before Times. Not bad for a random early-summer Friday, right? I don’t know what any of you are up to or what your weekend looks like, but I hope it’s full of nice little things. In any case, I think you’re doing great.
What to Watch: The Barbie Trailers
I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions, but I feel like I sort of stumbled into a good one this year: I decided to go back to the movies in 2023. It’s been such a fun and life-giving choice. Did you know they post the times online and you can just…go? So far this year I’ve seen Women Talking (so good and interesting, highly recommend), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (too long, still lovely and poignant), and Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (perfection!).
That said, my current favorite movie of 2023 is the gleeful succession of trailers for Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, due out July 21. For many reasons you can probably imagine, the reception to the idea of this movie has been deeply ambivalent. (Essentially: Barbie, are you sure?, but if anyone can do it, it’s Greta Gerwig.) And honestly? I share those concerns.
But aaaah, the trailers! They’re giving me life. They’re so funny and sharp and joyful and I cannot WAIT. Maybe the movie will be bad (I also remember feeling this way about the trailer for Pitch Perfect 2, a notably terrible film), but for now I live in the glow of Greta Gerwig’s other excellent movies and hope that it will not be bad. The full trailer dropped last week, but I do think there’s something to be gained by the experience of watching all three (goofy teaser, slightly longer, full trailer) in a row.
Anyway. Maybe you want to get excited, too. (Who wants to go see Barbie in July?)
What to Bake: Strawberry Summer Cake
I made the same cake twice this week. It was the Smitten Kitchen Strawberry Summer Cake, and in fact I served those two cakes at three different gatherings (thank you to people who don’t mind what Emily Gilmore once called “used dessert”; you shall be rewarded with, well, half a strawberry cake).
It’s such a simple cake, but at least in my circles, it’s become a confirmed classic, the kind of cake that has a season and gets recognized when you take it somewhere. (Deb notes that it’s one of just a few recipes on her site with more than 1,000 comments.) I’ve made it many times since Deb published it in 2011 and it’s always wonderful; what better way to usher summer in than an easygoing cake with a starburst of strawberries pressed into the top?
Knowing a good thing when she saw it, Deb worked out a sheet-cake version of this recipe in 2019, and even better, she took the opportunity to rewrite it as a one-bowl cake. Switching between two nearly identical tabs to combine the single-recipe quantities with the one-bowl sheet-cake process might be dicey (you might accidentally double something), so if you’d like to one-bowl it, know that the reworked order of ingredients is butter and sugar together, then egg and vanilla together, then milk, baking powder, and flour, mixing in between.
Maybe this weekend is the weekend for some strawberry cake? Your future self might thank you.
(Note that this is not the same as the Strawberry Spoon Cake from the Times (unlocked!); both are simple and perfect, but the Strawberry Summer Cake is a bit more structured, a bit more company-ready—depending on who your company is—and does call for an electric mixer. Whichever one you’re craving, I say do it.)
Blockbuster Review: Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)
A great, funny movie that turns out essentially amoral in the end…but man, that soundtrack. Also: Minnie Driver’s slight Michigan accent!