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I was inspired to make a cake in celebration of spring! I saw these gorgeous, red, ripe strawberries at the store and decided to put them to good use in a cake. I'd never had real strawberry cake before, just the boxed strawberry mix. This cake delivers amazing strawberry flavor without being overpowering, or having that odd artificial kind-of- like strawberry taste.
Having never made a cake with real fruit before, there was some trial and error. I just blended up some strawberries, and put it in the batter. I had to add more flour to make up for the extra water content from the strawberries, which led to a dense, but still tasty cake. I googled a remedy for this issue, and tried again using a tip from Sally's Baking Addiction (a fellow food blogger). The secret here is to boil down the strawberry puree to reduce the water content. I used her recipe for the cake base (slightly tweaked as I like almond extract better than vanilla and I think the almond flavor pairs beautifully with the strawberry). The frosting recipe is my own.
Ingredients for Cake:
2 1/2 C Cake flour
2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1 tsp Salt
3/4 C Butter (1.5 sticks), room temp
1 3/4 C White sugar
5 Large egg whites, room temp
1/3 C Sour cream
2 tsp Almond or vanilla extract
1/2 C Wole milk
1/2 C Reduced strawberry puree from 1 lb strawberries
Extra strawberries (about 1/2 C) for frosting, and more for decorating if you want.
Ingredients for Frosting:
1 C Butter (2 sticks) room temp
Pinch of salt
3 1/2 C Powdered sugar
1/2 tsp Almond or vanilla extract
3 Tbl Strawberry puree (I didn't bother reducing this down and it turned out great)
How to:
Make strawberry puree and let cool completely. Go ahead and make it the day before, and store in the fridge. Use a food processor or blender to puree the strawberries. Cook over medium high for about 30 minutes, or until puree is reduced by half.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place parchment paper on the bottom of two greased 8 or 9 inch cake pans.
In a large bowl, whisk together your flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
Using beaters or a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until nice and creamy.
Beat in the egg whites until combined. Add in sour cream, extract, and mix until combined.
Using low speed, slowly add in your dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated.
Add in milk, and combine on low speed.
Whisk in 1/2 C of strawberry puree. Mix until everything is just combined.
Pour batter into cake pans. You don't need to do this, you can eyeball it, but I use a food scale to ensure that each pan has the exact weight of batter in each.
Bake for 22-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Allow to cool in the pans for about 10 minutes before releasing them. If they are too hot, they will fall apart. Place them on a wire rack to completely cool. After they come to room temp, I place them in the fridge for about an hour before I fill and frost.
To make the filling/frosting, beat together the butter and powdered sugar until creamy. Add in the pinch of salt, extract, and 3T strawberry puree. Mix until combined. If the frosting is too stiff, you can add 1T of whole milk.
To make the rosettes, I used a 2D Wilton tip in a piping bag, and then added strawberries for decoration on top, and sliced strawberries along the bottom for extra cuteness.
Enjoy!!!
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