Strawberries & Cream Cake
The one we’ll be focusing on today: 4-layer fresh strawberry cake–perfectly pink and moist, squished with layers of fresh strawberry jam and cream, smeared with lots of vanilla bean buttercream.
Here is the 2-layer strawberry sponge cake with fresh cream that I made for Christmas (but I personally wouldn’t object to having this as my birthday cake)!
My first fondant cake (not a huge fan of fondant, but I get the appeal)
and here is the ice cream birthday cake I made for my brothers this year.
- ½ c fresh strawberry puree (I leave it chunky)
- ½ c room temperature, whole buttermilk
- 2 sticks soft, unsalted butter
- 2 ts pure vanilla extract
- 2 c sugar
- 3 room temperature eggs
- 3 c all purpose, unbleached/unbromated flour
- ¼ ts fine (table) salt
- 2 ts baking powder (not soda)
- 2 c heavy whipping cream
- 1 c powder sugar
- 1 ts vanilla extract
- 2 sticks soft, unsalted butter
- 3-4 c powder sugar (measured after you sift, not before)
- 1 ts vanilla extract
- 1 ts fine, table salt
- 2-4 tb room temperature cream
- In your first bowl, sift your dry ingredients together (a fine mesh sieve, cake sifter, etc)
- In your second bowl, cream together your butter and sugar. You want it to be fluffy/pale blonde color.
- Dribble in your vanilla (allow it the chance to bloom)
- Add in your eggs one at a time (cracking them in separate bowls first, helps)
- Stream in your buttermilk-mix
- Drizzle in your berry puree-mix
- Lastly, sprinkle in your pre-sifted dry ingredients slowly (in thirds) to your wet batter.
- Make sure you don’t over mix!
- Fill your pans and bake at 350 for 17-22 minutes. Remember to cool completely.
- Using a whisk attachment, beat your cream until it forms soft peaks. Add your sugar, a bit at a time with your vanilla. Whisk it all together until it reaches firmer peaks. (You can turn the bowl upside down, and nothing slides out)
- It is very important to sift your powdered sugar (especially in frosting, lumps will be a dead giveaway)
- Break up your butter
- Sprinkle in your powdered sugar a bit at a time, making sure you swipe down the sides of your bowl, periodically
- *It’s important not to over mix here, as well or your frosting will begin to streak
- Add your salt and vanilla
- Check the consistency of your buttercream. If you’d like it to be looser, add in a tablespoon of cream (or half/half/milk) at a time until it’s the consistency you desire.
- Store on your counter and spread onto your cakes.
Even if it’s not anyone’s birthday, this cake makes for a great midnight snack, a cheerier Tuesday, or an incentive to get your kids to do their chores (or even for yourself as a reward for just being awesome).
Love & awesome sauce,
Your Squishy Monster
XOXO!!
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