Why not bombard you with cakes and cream cheese icing!? This way, you'll at least get to perfect your icing-making techniques. You can put cream cheese icing on shoe leather and it will taste great, so go ahead and learn this recipe. It pairs well with everything...banana, pumpkin, chocolate, strawberry, red velvet, cardboard, the list goes on...
Tis the season for strawberries; well, tis nearly the season. Once they have come in full force, you'll hopefully have found the time to make this cake. There is a place where you can pick your own strawberries just up the road in Gretna, and I've got to get there! I am not sure if the berries are ready, but I sure am. As a kid I would dip my berries in sugar, take a bite, double, triple, and quadruple drip until the strawberry was consumed. Each bite had as much sugar as there was berry. I have since graduated to eating strawberries without sugar, but as a kid, there was nothing like a big bowl of strawberries accompanied by a tiny sugar bowl.
I think I've said it before, but I'll say it again, I am not a cake fan. I prefer something dense, fudge-y, molten, and/or gooey. Something that is all of the above, served warm, topped with ice cream takes the cake (so to speak). This cake was commissioned for my mother's co-worker's birthday, so while it wasn't the thing I would choose to celebrate my birth, I was happy to make it! I started with store-bought strawberries...I know, I know, but I haven't had time to do my laundry or buy groceries much less go strawberry picking! I keep telling myself that things will calm down, but it doesn't seem like that's going to be the case. Once work clams down, life picks up, and when life calms down...you know the drill. Anyway, I had Easter Monday off and Mom had done the grocery shopping, so all I had to do was bake the cake. Easy enough. I, surprisingly, accomplished that and a lot more on my day off.
This cake was really fun to make, and it's beautiful. It comes out a light pink color--it's all natural, no dyes or jello like other recipes for strawberry cake I saw that are electric pink--and screams spring. If you have the time to go strawberry picking, you have to make this cake! It will be ten times better with fresh-picked berries, and it was pretty darn good with ones from the store (I was able to taste it, because the birthday lady was kind enough to save me a piece). It's a lot for me to say a cake was good. It was so very moist.
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter, softened
2 1/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 egg white
1 cup milk (if you have buttermilk, use it!...or make it with a bit of vinegar and regular milk)
1 1/2 t vanilla
2 cups finely chopped strawberries (I used the food processor, more dishes to wash, but much less effort)
1/4 c sour cream
Preheat the oven to 350. Spray two nine-inch pans with Baker's Joy (amazing invention. greases and flours in one. works perfectly) or grease and flour the pan (two separate actions, unless you have Baker's Joy). Set aside.
Sift the dry ingredients together.
In a large, and I mean large, bowl, combine the sugar and butter. Mix on high for two minutes. Add eggs, one at a time; then, add milk and vanilla.
Add strawberries and sour cream. Add the sifted dry ingredients one cup at a time. Don't mix it too much, because the glutens will start to develop and you will have a tough, bread-y cake.
Divide between your two 9-inch cake pans. In order to ensure that they bake evenly, tap with a knife or drop onto the counter (only from an inch or two) to get all of the air bubbles out. Bake for 30 - 40 minutes--until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. That's the main check. I always forget to look at the clock, and always go by when it looks done. So if the center is wobbly, leave it in there. If it is burned, you're out of luck. Start over. Just watch it all the while, and check it after 30 minutes.
While it is cooking, make the cream cheese icing, and put it in the refrigerator to set. If you want your icing stiffer than this, add more sugar. I prefer my cream cheese icing to taste like cream cheese (that is why we used it, right?) rather than sugar.
Once the cakes have cooled completely, place one of the layers on the plate on which you will be serving it. If it is not flat you may want to even it with a serrated knife. Slather icing on top of this layer. Top it with the other cake. Ice the top and then the sides.
It doesn't have to be perfect, but if you need a little coaching, consult Serious Eats. I took a cake decorating class fourth year of college, because I didn't have much else to do in my free time, but as you can see, I did not channel those skills here...I forgot my tools. It tastes just as good as if it were beaitufully decorated. Keep it refrigerated, since dairy is in the icing.
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