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Fresh Strawberry Cake

Author: Si Foster
adapted from Thebakingpan.com

Ingredients 

Cake:

  • 3 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1 3/4 cups sugar
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 3/4 cups pureed fresh strawberries

Strawberry Cream frosting

  • 3-4 oz. cream cheese, softened
  • 1/4 cup butter, room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/4 to 1/2 cup pureed fresh strawberries, 1/4 if you want a stiffer frosting
  • 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice, optional
  • 4 1/2 -5 cups powdered sugar
  • dash of salt
  • fresh strawberries for garnish

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • Prepare 2- 9 inch pans by lining with parchment paper, greasing and flouring pans.
  • In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
  • In a large bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar, Beat in eggs, one at a time until light and fluffy. Add vanilla. Mix the buttermilk into the pureed strawberries. Mix in the flour alternately with the strawberry/buttermilk mixture. Using a spatula, scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Mix all of the ingredients until thoroughly blended.
  • Pour the batter evenly into two 9 inch prepared pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Fresh Strawberry Frosting

  • In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, butter and vanilla. Beat together until smooth. Stir in pureed strawberriesand lemon juice. Add 4-5 cups powdered sugar and salt, beat until frosting is smooth and creamy. Add additional powdered sugar until frosting is desired consistency.
  • Spread frosting between layers of cake. See "Tips" below for help in keeping layers from sliding. Frost top and sides of cake. Garnish top of cake with fresh strawberries and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Notes

exhibit 1:
cake stakes, aka wood skewers Using these will help in a HUGE way to keep your cake from doing the Leaning Tower of Strawberry Cake trick. Because the frosting is soft, you need to stake this cake. Simply take a wood skewer, (I had some leftover from a chocolate fountain extravaganza a while back), measure the height of the cake, clip off the skewers so they don't poke out of the top of the cake. Place cake on platter. Frost bottom layer. Place second layer on top. Insert skewers (4 is enough) through both layers of cake, so it will keep the layers in the same place as when you start frosting. Trust me, this is an important step.
If you are using a plain butter cream frosting, without strawberries in the frosting, the cake will be fine without staking.