Strawberry Cake

Posted on 10 Jul 2010 - by Katkat In: food

Ever since we bought a 10lb box of strawberries from Costco, a thought came to mind: I want to make a strawberry cake! However before I moved into action I brainstormed what kind of strawberry cake I wanted. I researched recipes, pictures, and videos. I finally settled for a 2 layer chiffon cake with buttercream frosting. This was such a huge undertaking for an amateur baker like me.

So here goes my Strawberry Cake project.

Strawberry Chiffon Cake

Cake:
2/3 cup canola oil
8 egg yolks
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
14 oz cake flour
7 oz sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
8 egg whites
7 oz sugar
4 oz strawberry puree
1 cup sliced strawberries, hulled

Buttercream Frosting:
1 stick butter
2 tbsp vanilla
3 tbsp milk
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/4 cup strawberry puree

For the Chiffon cake:

1. Lightly spray a 3-by-8-inch or 2-by 10-inch cake pan with canola oil spray. Line with parchment and flour the sides of the pan.
2. In a bowl, whip the canola oil and egg yolks until combined. Add the strawberry puree and vanilla extract.
3. In a mixer bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Place the bowl on the electric mixer.
4. Add the egg yolk mixture and beat gently just to combine. Scrape down the bowl.

5. Beat at high speed for 20 seconds to fully aerate. Remove from mixer machine and scrape down bowl. Set aside.
6. In another mixer bowl, whip the egg whites to a foam. Slowly sift in the second measure of sugar and whip to firm peaks.
7. Gently fold meringue into reserved batter. Transfer to cake pan.
8. Bake in a 325°F convection oven for about 30 minutes.
9. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool thoroughly.

Buttercream Frosting:

1. Make sure butter is at room temperature. Mix all ingredients until smooth consistency is achieved. If too thin, put in more sugar.

2. You’ll need 3 batches of frosting: one, for white frosting to pipe around the cake; 2nd strawberry colored frosting with sliced strawberries (to be placed in between cake layers); 3rd, strawberry colored frosting to ice the whole cake.

Assemblying and Frosting the Cake:

1. Wrap your cake with cellophane and refrigerate them overnight so you’ll get better frosting. Depending on thickness of cake, you can halved the cake or just put one cake on top of the other. Make sure the cakes are level. If not cut away and level the top part of the cake with a knife.

2. Brush a small amount of icing on the bottom of one cake and place on cake cardboard.

3. Pipe a thick white frosting around the cake’s perimeter. Then spread your frosting with strawberries inside the white frosting circle. Do not go beyond the wall of the white frosting.

4. Place the next cake layer on top of this cake. Frost the sides and top of the cake. Making sure to smoothen out the frosting. Let it stand for 15 minutes.

5. Make a smoother frosting by placing a dry paper towel on top of the cake and rub your fingers gently and quickly over the towel to smoothen out the frosting.

6. Pipe the sides of the cake with white frosting. Garnish the top of the cake with strawberries.

Chef’s note:

Follow the suggestions in the video. Try looking for a buttercream frosting that is not too sweet. Mine turned out way too sweet. My chiffon cake is moist but not light-as-air-chiffon-y enough. For some reason I didn’t taste the strawberry by the strawberry puree incorporated in the cake batter when my cake was baked. I didn’t taste any strawberry in my chiffon cake. Use fresh strawberries! Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature. If your frosting turns runny, refrigerate or put in freezer for a few minutes before resuming frosting. Be patient with frosting, I was not. Research more videos on frosting to get a better feel on how to frost your cake. Better to weigh your dry ingredients than converting them into cups (although that’s what I did).

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