Brian Noyes is known for his delicious Red Truck Bakeries in northern Virginia.

Even US presidents and movie stars confess that they can't get enough of Brian's delectable desserts and baked goods.

Today, Brian shares his recipe for a charming, old-fashioned strawberry buckle.

[easy, fun music] My friend, I see you zesting a lemon into a bowl of sugar, tell me what you're doing.

- I learned long ago you get more bang for your buck if you zest the lemon into the sugar and let it infuse, and it pulls out almost twice as much flavor, plus the little pores on the lemon zest never close up.

- Really?

- [Brian] It's pretty incredible.

- And this is step one of what you're gonna show me to make today, which is a strawberry buckle.

So I think of buckles as sort of the cross between a good coffee cake and a cobbler, 'cause it's cakey, but it's fruity.

- It's very easy and you get so much great flavor out of it.

- [Sheri] Yeah, oh, and the aroma.

- The more you rub, the more the pores open up, the more the flavor takes over.

- And then we're gonna add, looks like butter?

Is that what you got here for us?

- Softened butter, it makes it a lot easier to combine.

- And now you're gonna stir that up?

- We're gonna cream away.

- All right, I can do that, or you can do that while I watch.

You tell me if it looks like we're good for an egg.

- Let's just go a bit more.

- A little bit more?

So what am I looking here for?

Lift up the batter and show me what I'm looking for here, so.

- So we like lemony color, kind of buttery, lemony.

- Okay.

- But we also like fluff.

- [Sheri] That is beautiful.

- Okay, so you're adding flour, gonna add a little baking powder in there, and then some salt.

- [Sheri] Got it.

- And I'm gonna keep scraping here.

- Simple batter, anybody would just have this right at home in their pantry.

I love that you, like me, sift with one of these.

And of course not only are we getting out lumps, we're just, you were telling me that, of course, the sifting action is what is combining our livening in there as well.

Tell me what we've got in our measuring cup here.

What is this?

- So we have some whole-fat buttermilk.

It's really important not to go for the fat-free or the low-fat because fat carries flavor and, in fact, some of the acidity is gone without it.

- Now is this all buttermilk or is this blended with something?

- This is some heavy cream in there as well.

- Now I'm gonna add vanilla, a good glug, are we measuring, what is approximately a good glug, about a teaspoon and a half?

- [Brian] Yeah, so a teaspoon and a half is half of a tablespoon.

- Oh, that is beautiful.

Oh, that looks, you know, when a recipe says it should look like cake batter, well, by golly, it looks like cake batter.

So how do we add this in?

- We don't have to really measure it out, but just add a third of this.

Then I add half of the liquid.

Then I add the second third of the flour mixture, then I add the rest of the liquid, then I always finish with the dry.

- [Sheri] That is wonderful.

All right, looks like our batter is done.

- Are you a beater licker?

- Oh, heck yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I was an only child so I didn't have to share it with anybody.

So we're just gonna plunk that batter down in here, and that goes first.

It looks shiny, so it's been greased.

- [Brian] For quick release.

- Right, and that does make a difference.

So this batter is really stiff, and we're gonna smooth it out to fill, or does it scoot out?

- We are not smoothing it out.

I would like to take a spoon or maybe even that fork there and just kind of, like, smudge it around.

- Smudge to the edges?

- Yeah, get it to the edges.

Yeah, we won't spread a whole lot, but I don't want a flat top on this thing.

- Now, I see those gorgeous berries.

Tell me, have you done anything to those berries other than start to cap them, they're just whole?

- Well, I've eaten a couple.

- Okay, that makes sense.

- [Brian] And then I took the tops off.

- I have brought you a gift.

So many people don't know about this, but have you ever seen one of these guys?

- No.

- It's called a tomato shark, and it's for coring tomatoes.

I've gotta show you this.

So instead of cutting the end of your berry off, look at this, you just put this little guy and the little teeth takes the cap right out and leaves the berry intact.

- [Brian] Excellent.

- I love these little things, 'cause it saves more of the berry.

- All I do is make sure that that cut gets buried into the batter.

- Got it, so, whatever the cut side might be, that goes down.

- Right, if it's a big, fat strawberry, we'll just make sure the cut side goes down.

- Now, I see turbinado sugar.

Tell me what we're gonna do with that.

- Yeah, it's known as sugar in the raw, but we always call it turbinado.

This adds a real crunch to an otherwise buttery, soft, pillowy dough.

It also protects the berries in the oven.

- Does it really?

- It won't dry them out, it won't char them.

- And then this just goes in, what, about a 350 degree oven and bakes and bakes until the tester comes out?

- That's right.

I might give it, like, 40 minutes or so, it all depends on the vessel and the oven.

- Okay, tell you what, let's get this in the oven so I can tidy up, and then when our cake's done, we get to eat it, right?

- If you're lucky.

[slow, easy music] Look what we made.

- Look at this, friend.

Just like you promised, look what that sugar did to make that crust in around and little whole berries are still in there, oh, listen.

- One beautiful thing about this batter is that zest and the infused sugar really perfumes the mix itself, it really changes the color.

- And I love how this is homey but yet elegant, you know, it looks like a carefully orchestrated buckle but we just put those berries on there, as you said, be random and it all worked out.

Let's get this bite here, that aroma is phenomenal.

It's strawberry.

Yeah, the lemon's doing it's role, the cream's doing it's role, but this is a strawberry dessert.

We could win friends and influence people with this, couldn't we?

- We're well on our way.

- I'm so lucky I won you as a friend, thank you, my friend.

- You're the berry nicest.

[fun, upbeat music]