Monday is always Monday with its unattractive Monday-like characteristics, Tuesday is a blank slate, at least Monday is out of the way, Wednesday is humpy, Thursday is whatever, and Friday is FRIIIIIIIDAY. These days don’t vary much. The day of the week that changes the most, I’d say, is Sunday. There are those Sundays where you’re slam-packed, the oh-shit-it’s-almost-Monday-and-I-have-a-thousand-forty-seven-things-to-complete-in-the-next-seven-hours. The Monday-ness seeps into it like the Ursula’s sea creatures in The Little Mermaid. There are the Sunday-Funday Sundays where you wake up and alcohol finds its way into the day like a slow ocean wave. This Sunday is the opposite of the oh-shit Sundays.

But then, then there are those Sundays in between, where you feel like mosey-ing all day long. You’re in the mood for a relaxing day while still maintaining some sort of normal level of productivity so you don’t hate yourself later for lying in bed and watching eight instant movies on Netflix. You feel like seeing your friends. You feel like eating some good, fresh, easy to prepare food. You don’t feel like going to the supermarket, but you feel like having a delicious cake that showcases the best of summer produce, a cake that is a cinch to whip up in the most literal sense of the word.

This cake is exactly that, and you probably have all the ingredients already. You can make it, pop it in the oven, mosey, and forget about it for a bit. The smell of strawberries will enter your nose like little enticing gypsies, delightfully reminding you of what’s in your oven in the nicest possible way. The top and bottom have just the slightest bit of crunch, and once you bite in, it will reveal a buttery pillow I’d be super fond of laying my head on. The strawberries also break apart and turn into tiny ponds of jam. One bite enters your world and it disappears slowly, leaving you only with a smile on your face, being happy its Sunday and that you are alive.

Make this. Be easy. Savor your last few hours of the weekend, then be ready to do it again in seven days.

Simplest strawberry cake

Adapted from Martha Stewart

Notes: this can be made with any fruit you have on hand. Peaches or any other berries would be great and would also provide the pool-like pockets of fruit we want here.

Also make sure the pie plate is ten inches in diameter. If you’re using a 9-inch pie plate, you’ll want to assure yourself it’s a deep dish, the batter will overflow in a normal one.

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pie plate

1 1/2 cups gluten-free all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

1 large egg

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 pound strawberries, hulled and halved

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 10-inch pie plate. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together into a medium bowl.

Put butter and 1 cup sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low; mix in egg, milk, and vanilla.

Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture. Transfer batter to buttered pie plate. Arrange strawberries on top of batter, cut sides down and as close together as possible. Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over berries.

Bake cake 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake until cake is golden brown and firm to the touch, about 1 hour. Let cool in pie plate on a wire rack. Cut into wedges. Cake can be stored at room temperature, loosely covered, up to 2 days.