Recipe: Strawberry Cake.

I made this cake for Allyson's party yesterday. I'm not sure exactly where the recipe originated, but Ben got it from a guy he works with. Steve loves to bake and assured me that this would be "easy."  I will preface by saying that Steve and I have vastly different ideas of what is "easy."

So here we go. No pictures. What do you think I am, a quality blog? Ha! Anywho:

For the Cake
10 oz whole frozen strawberries (about 2 cups. I couldn't find whole so I just used sliced frozen instead.)
3/4 cup whole milk, room temperature
6 large egg whites, room temperature (and let me just interrupt by saying that this was the most annoying part of the recipe. I am TERRIBLE at egg separating. So my cake ended up with six whites and half a yolk.)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups (9 oz) cake flour
1 3/4 cups (12 1/4 oz) granulated sugar (I used Splenda)
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces and softened

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans, line bottoms with parchment, grease parchment, and flour. Transfer strawberries to bowl, cover, and microwave until strawberries are soft and have released their juice (about five minutes). Place in fine-mesh strainer set over small saucepan. Firmly press fruit dry - juice should measure at least 3/4 cup. (And this was the second most annoying part.) Reserve strawberry solids. Bring juice to boil over medium high heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until syrupy and reduced to 1/4 cup (about 6-8 minutes). Whisk milk into juice until combined.

Whisk strawberry milk, egg whites, and vanilla in bowl. Using stand mixer fitted with paddle, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt on low speed until combined. Add butter, one piece at a time, and mix until only pea-sized pieces remain (about 1 minute). add half the milk mixture, increase speed to medium high, and beat until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Reduce speed to medium-low, add remaining milk mixture, and beat until incorporated, about 30 seconds. Give batter final stir by hand.  Scrape equal amounts of batter into prepared pans and bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 20-25 minutes, rotating pans halfway through baking. (I went about 23 and totally forgot about the rotating thing.) Cool cakes in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove cakes from pans, discarding parchment, and cool completely, about 2 hours. Cakes can be wrapped with plastic wrap and stored at room temp for up to 2 days.

Frosting
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 1/4 cups (9 oz) confectioners' sugar
12 oz cream cheese, cut into 12 pieces and softened
Pinch salt
8 oz fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced thin (about 1 1/2 cups)

Using stand mixer fitted with paddle, mix butter and sugar on low speed until combined (about 30 seconds). Increase speed to medium-high and beat until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add cream cheese, one piece at a time, and beat until incorporated, about 1 minute. Add the reserved strawberry solids from the cake and salt, mix until combined (about 30 seconds). Refrigerate until ready to use, up to 2 days.

Pat strawberries dry with paper towels. When cakes are cooled, spread 3/4 cup frosting over 1 cake round. Press 1 cup strawberries in even layer over frosting and cover with additional 3/4 cup frosting. (This step made me curse very loudly while I was on the phone. Go ahead, ask my poor brother.) Top with second cake round and spread remaining frosting evenly over top and sides of cake. Garnish with remaining strawberries and serve. (I skipped the final strawberry garnish and went straight for the pink edible glitter.)

It turned out really good. The cake wasn't as pink as I expected. But it tasted a lot like strawberry shortcake.