I believe I owe you a recipe for some strawberry cake.
When I was thinking of desserts to make for my all red dinner, the first idea that sprung to mind was to make a towering red velvet cake.
Then I stopped and thought about it, red velvet has been done, and I didn’t have anything different to give to you on it.
Don’t get me wrong, I love red velvet cake, I won’t turn down a slice, but I wanted to do something a little more fresh – a little more in season.
And what’s currently more in season right now than strawberries?
A pint of strawberries from my CSA plus a supplement from the farmers market was all the encouragement I needed to make this cake. With strawberry puree in the cake batter plus more in between the cake layers, you have a subtle sweet strawberry flavor in a light as air cake.
Before I go on with my recipe, I’ll just remind you one more time that my giveaway is still going on, so be sure to pop by here to enter if you haven’t already.
I generally don't give my measurements in grams, but I adapted the white cake recipe from joyofbaking.com and turned it from a two layer into a three layer cake. There was no simple way to measure the flour out in cups, plus I find that cake flour tends not to measure out as well in cups, especially if you are in a humid climate.
Ingredients
- 24 oz strawberries
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 262.50 grams cake flour, sifted
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/8 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups white sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3/4 cups milk
- 3 large eggs, separated, room temperature
- For the Frosting:
- 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
- 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Additional strawberries for decorating
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix the strawberries and sugar and let sit until it comes to room temperature, about 1 hour.
- Purée the strawberries using a blender.
- Set aside 1 1/4 cups of the strawberry purée for the cake batter.
- Heat the remaining purée in a small saucepan until it just begins to boil. While whisking, add the cornstarch, and continue to whisk to make sure there are no lumps.
- Bring back to a boil and cook until thickened, about 1-2 minutes more.
- Set aside and let cool.
- Using a scale, weigh out your sifted cake flour.
- In a small bowl whisk the flour, baking powder and salt
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a bowl of your stand mixer, mix the butter, and 1 1/4 cups of sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
- Mix in the egg yolks and vanilla. Scrape down the sides
- Add 1/3 of the flour mixture then 1/2 of the milk, continue to alternate until the flour and milk is added to the batter.
- Mix in 1 1/4 cups of your strawberry purée.
- Pour your batter in a large mixing bowl and set aside.
- Clean and dry the bowl of your stand mixer
- Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.
- Fold in the eggs whites to the batter, careful not to deflate them.
- Evenly pour the batter into 3 buttered, floured and parchment lined 8 inch cake pans.
- Bake 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Cool completely on a wire rack. The cake can be made ahead of time and wrapped individually in the fridge to frost when ready or you can proceed directly to building the cake.
- For the frosting:
- In your stand mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until light and airy.
- Add the confections sugar and mix until combined.
- With the mixer running on medium speed, add the heavy cream and vanilla extract.
- Beat for 1-2 minutes until the frosting is the texture of whipped cream.
- To build your cake, place the first layer on a cake stand and place about 1 cup of frosting on top, smooth evenly with a spatula.
- Add the second layer, and add some of the thickened strawberry puree - careful to not let it spill over the edge of the cake.
- Finally, add the third and last layer. At this point you may want to dowel your cake, it gets a little slippery with the strawberry puree filling, or you can do what I did, which was press down and hold on while frosting the top!
- Frost the top and lightly on the sides for a crumb coat. Some of the strawberry puree may mix in on the sides, but at this time that is fine.
- Place the cake in the fridge for 30 minutes to chill the crumb coat.
- Remove the cake and finish frosting the top and sides with remaining frosting.
- Decorate with strawberries and serve with additional strawberry puree.
Really love the strawberry puree in the batter. What a gorgeous cake!!
ARGHHHGH! I want those strawberrieeees
Wow, this looks perfect! The strawberries sold in grocery stores here are so ugly, I think I’m going to pick my own this summer 🙂
Strawberry cake was my favorite sweet as a child and I have never seen a good one as an adult. Mom purchased it at a bakery that closed years ago. Thank you so much for posting this one…I think it is just like it and I can’t wait to try it!
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