Fresh Strawberry Cake

I love trying new recipes! I guess that is why I have a food blog. I love finding recipes and having them turn out just like I had hoped! So when my sister in law asked me to make her a birthday cake I was really excited. She wanted a strawberry cake with strawberry whipped cream frosting and strawberries on top. I had never made a strawberry cake before so I had to make sure I did it right. Most of the recipes I found out there called for strawberry jello. I didn't really want to use jello. I wanted the cake to be full of real strawberries. After lots and lots of searches I finally found one that sounded good. I knew if the cake was good, the rest would be easy. After I poured the batter into the pans I (of course) had to try the left overs in the bowl and they were amazing. I kinda didn't even want to cook the cake. My husband agreed, but the logical side took over and we decided to cook the cake. After eating the cake my husband told me that this cake might be his favorite cake. I will agree that this cake is quite delicious! It was so fun to have a fruity delicious cake even if it is mid winter!

It was kinda funny because both my husband and I thought that the other person had taken a picture of the cake. So right before we were about to eat it with the family we realized that we didn't have a picture yet. We had very high hopes that this cake would be amazing and just knew if we didn't have a picture of it we would greatly regret it. So all of us took out our phones and started snapping pictures of it. I think our phones did a pretty good job considering its a phone!

Fresh Strawberry Cake
Yields: ~12-16 servings
Estimated time: 40 minutes

A completely from-scratch, fresh strawberry cake. No jello, food coloring, or artificial flavors!

Ingredients
24 oz frozen or very ripe fresh strawberries, hulled (if frozen, thawed)
1-2 tsp sugar (optional)
1/4 cup milk, at room temperature
6 large egg whites, room temperature (4 whole eggs can be substituted, per reader comments)
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cup cake flour, sifted
1 3/4 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
12 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened (not melted)

Instructions

Thaw frozen strawberries in whatever form (sliced, whole, etc) and in whatever container/bag you have them in. Pour into a fine strainer placed over a bowl and let sit. Lightly toss the strawberries occasionally to remove any pockets of excess liquid. Reserve the liquid for another use or discard.

Place strawberries in a food processor or blender and puree. (You can use fresh strawberries if you don't have a stash of frozen strawberries in your freezer. Just hull, slice and toss with a teaspoon or two of sugar and cover. Let them sit at room temperature for a couple of hours, until nice and juicy. Place strawberries in a food processor or blender and puree.)

Reserve 3/4 cup puree for the cake. Use leftover puree to fill the cake or fold into the frosting, if desired. It's also fabulous spooned over ice cream... and eaten straight with a spoon.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare two 8 inch pans: spray inside with baking spray with flour (or use some sort of grease/flour combination) and line outside with heavy duty foil (optional)

In small bowl, combine puree, milk, egg, vanilla and mix with fork until well blended. In bowl of stand mixer, add sifted flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and mix to combine. Continue beating at slow speed and add butter. Mix until combined and resembling moist crumbs.

Add liquids and beat at medium speed for about 1 minute or until full and evenly combined. Stop mixer to scrape down the sides of the bowl and hand beat for 30 more seconds. Divide the batter evenly among the pans and smooth tops.

Bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (time will vary).

Let cakes rest in pan for about 10 minutes and turn out onto wire racks. Let cakes cool completely (about 2 hours).

Strawberry Filling

2 1/2 cups coarsely chopped hulled strawberries ( I used the left over strawberry puree)
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tsp lemon juice

Directions:
Bring all ingredients to a boil in a heavy small sauce pan, stirring constantly and crushing berries slightly with back of spoon.

Boil 2 minutes to thicken, stirring constantly (mixture will be slightly chunky).

Pour into bowl and cool completely.

Once cooled trim cake and place filling on top of bottom layer. Top with second layer and frost.




Strawberry Whipped Cream Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese (at room temperature
1 1/4 cup white sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/4-1/2 cup strawberry puree (add as much or as little as you want)

Directions
In a small bowl chilled beat whipping cream until very stiff peaks form (if you beat it any longer it will probably turn into butter); set in the fridge.
In a large bowl combine cream cheese, sugar, salt and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Gradually add strawberry puree until you get your desired color and strawberry flavor of frosting. Fold in whipped cream. Frost cake as desired.

*Note: This is a very soft light frosting. I was able to frost a 2 layer cake with it and pipe with it a small amount, but this is not an ideal frosting for piping, but it is an ideal frosting for eating so do with it as you please.


Recipe Source: Cake - Confections of a Foodie Bride, Filling modified from Food.com
Frosting adapted from this recipe.