Friday, February 20, 2009

Strawberry Layer Cake

I looked into my refrigerator this morning and saw a pint of strawberry puree and a quart of strawberries and thought, yes, today I will make strawberry cake!



 I headed straight to the cabinet to look on the back of a box of cake flour for a recipe I had noticed there. Alas, Swan's Down did not have the recipe I was looking for, apparently that recipe is on Soft-As-Silk. Not to worry, I made a bee line to the computer, there's nothing Google can't find. I Googled and Googled and could not find the recipe I had in mind.  However, I stumbled upon a recipe that I would never normally make, but I was intrigued by the ingredients: a box of cake mix (not with pudding)? strawberry jello (in powder form)? At first I thought, I'll just whip up my own white cake and add my strawberry puree. Next, I realized I was out of sugar. Well, if a trip to the store was inevitable, why not go ahead and try the recipe as written! What a concept!? This whole strawberry cake was becoming more work than I had anticipated, but I'll go to most any length for a cake!  Here's the recipe for Strawberry Layer Cake:



I'll spare you the pain of my trials and tribulations with this cake and just say I made some switches and substitutions, so much for following the recipe "as written." I found the frosting (when I made it as the recipe instructed) a bit soft, so I added 1/2 cup vegetable shortening and 1 - 2 cups powdered sugar. I'll be honest, I tried the cake and found it perhaps a bit overly moist (And here's why, box cake sneaks pudding into their mix. I was just washing some dishes and glanced down at my recycling, yes, I am recycling non-corrogated cardboard hooray me, go earth, and noticed in small print on the box "with one cup of pudding." Argh. Box cake. Why are you darning me?). The frosting was a bit acidic for my taste. If I make this cake again I might cut down on the frozen strawberries in the frosting by about half and add a teaspoon or so of strawberry flavor for candy.




Strawberry Cake is so wonderfully pink!

2 comments:

  1. My mom makes an amazing strawberry cake that I have been honestly been daydreaming about all month. Yours has truly shown me that it is destined to be cooked in my kitchen before February is over! Yours is so delicious looking, and honestly, my mom probably has NO IDEA where her recipe is. Thanks for sharing, I can't wait to start baking it up! -e

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