Friday, March 20, 2009

Strawberry Cake from Scratch



I made this for Ainsley's first birthday.  Cecily thought a strawberry cake would be perfect (since she is the biggest strawberry fan ever!).  Yes, I realize the cake looks hideous, but I am a terrible cake decorator.  It tasted great, though!  I got this recipe off of Allrecipes.com.  I have been finding some great recipes from that site recently.  I used a homemade strawberry filling and cream cheese frosting.  **One change I made to the recipe:  I whipped the egg whites to peaks and folded them in at the end.  



INGREDIENTS:

2 C white sugar
1 (3 oz) pkg strawberry flavored gelatin
1 C butter, softened
4 eggs
2 3/4 C sifted cake flour
2 1/2 t baking powder
1 C whole milk, room temperature
1 T vanilla extract (I actually used almond extract for a twist)
1/2 C strawberry puree made from frozen sweetened strawberries (I didn't use sweetened strawberries, and the cake was still plenty sweet)

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour 2 9-inch round cake pans (I like to use parchment paper on the bottom to ensure it doesn't stick).  

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar and dry strawberry gelatin until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each (see egg note above).  Combine the flour and baking powder; stir into the batter alternately with the milk.  Blend in the vanilla and strawberry puree.  Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.

Bake for 25-30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a small knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.  Allow cakes to cool in their pans over a wire rack for at least 10 minutes, before tapping out to cool completely.


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