Last weekend was my sister's birthday, and she happened to be visiting me in Madison! To celebrate we went out to dinner and came home for dessert to a homemade strawberry cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. Finding out that my sister's favorite cake flavor was strawberry took a little bit of sleuthing...rather, a text message to her boyfriend asking him to find out what her favorite cake flavor was so that I could make it for her when they were in town. Okay, so not that difficult, but still, I think she appreciated the surprise!
I wanted to make the strawberry cake from scratch but most of the recipes I found online called for a box of vanilla cake mix and strawberry jello. I did find a couple of recipes using a few pounds of strawberries to make a cake that was truly from scratch... I had neither the time nor the patience to make those versions so I turned to allrecipes.com to find a recipe that would work. Mostly homemade was what I ended up with.
Here's the cake recipe from allrecipes.com:
Ingredients:
- 2 cups white sugar
- 1 (3 ounce) package strawberry flavored gelatin
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 4 eggs (room temperature)
- 2 3/4 cups sifted cake flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 cup whole milk, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup strawberry puree made from frozen sweetened strawberries
- Buttercream Icing (recipe below)
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans.
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar and dry strawberry gelatin until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Combine the flour and baking powder; stir into the batter alternately with the milk. Blend in vanilla and strawberry puree. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a small knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow cakes to cool in their pans over a wire rack for at least 10 minutes, before tapping out to cool completely.
Buttercream Icing from Confections of a Foodie Bride:
(Yields enough for a two-layer cake, or 18-24 cupcakes)Ingredients:
- 2 stick of butter, at room temp
- 6 cups powdered sugar
- 5 Tbsp milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp almond extract (I omitted this because I don't like almond that much and I didn't have any)
- pinch of salt
- 1 vanilla bean pod, optional
- a few drops of food coloring, optional
Directions:
- Place all ingredients in your mixer bowl. Beat on low just until you have no more dry streaks of powdered sugar. (Add a bit of food coloring/gel here, if using. If using a vanilla bean, split the pod in half, scrape with the edge of your knife, and add the scrapings to the mixer bowl.)
- Turn to high and whip for 3-4 minutes, until light, fluffy, and smooth, stopping once to scrape down the sides.
- Extra frosting can be stored in the fridge for quite a while. Bring to room temp and whip for a couple of minutes before using.
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ReplyDeleteI found this recipe on all recipes.com too and I love it. I have been using it for quite a while now. It's very moist and goes well with strawberry cream cheese icings, as well as ganache, in my experience. A keeper! I'm glad you used it too!
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