Post by Kate on Jun 8, 2019 1:49:59 GMT -5
Midsummer Strawberry Cake
Ingredients:
3 cups cake flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 cup (8 oz) unsalted butter, softened
1¾ cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1¼ cups whole milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350°. Butter 3 9-inch round cake pans, line bottom with round of parchment, butter parchment and lightly dust pan with flour, shake out excess. Set pans aside.
Sift cake flour into a medium mixing bowl. Add baking powder and salt and whisk 20 seconds and set aside.
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment (if you don't have a paddle that constantly scrapes bowl while mixing then stop mixer occasionally throughout entire mixing process and scrape sides and bottom of bowl to ensure even mixing), and whip butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Mix in eggs and egg yolks one a time adding vanilla with last yolk. Add ⅓ of flour mixture at a time to the butter/egg mixture, alternating with ½ of the milk and mixing on low speed just until combined after each addition. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl and gently fold batter several times.
Divide batter among prepared baking pans. Bake in preheated oven 25-30 minutes until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pan around 5 minutes, run knife around edges of cakes to ensure they are loosened then invert onto wire racks to cool completely (I recommend transferring them to gallon-size re-sealable bags after about 25 minutes of cooling so they don’t get dry and allow them to finish cooling in the bag). Once completely cool, frost and store cake in an airtight container in refrigerator.
Frosting Ingredients:
3 cups heavy cream
1 cup powdered sugar, divided
8 oz. cream cheese left at room temperature until partially softened (20 - 30 minutes)
½ tsp vanilla extract
1½ lbs. strawberries hulled and sliced into pieces slightly less than ½-inch
Sliced strawberries for decorating (optional)
Instructions:
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, whip heavy cream until soft peaks form, occasionally scraping sides and bottom of bowl to ensure even mixing. Add ⅓ cup powdered sugar and whip until stiff peaks form – if they aren’t stiff, your topping will be runny, so make sure they’re to the point they no longer have a wet sheen. Scrape cream out into a separate bowl.
Add cream cheese to bowl of stand mixer, fit with paddle attachment and whip cream cheese until smooth and fluffy. Mix in remaining ⅔ cup powdered sugar and vanilla. If desired, add a few drops of liquid red food coloring for a deeper pink if desired. Add strawberries and mix until uniform in color. Remove bowl from stand mixer, add whipped cream and fold into mixture.
