Since we have strawberries now, we try to enjoy them for that short period of time they are available. I have done strawberries a bunch of different ways (shortcake, over pancakes and French toast, pie, with angel food cake, etc.) but I wanted to try something a bit different.
One of the blogs I enjoy reading is The Pioneer Woman. She has a whole section on her blog about cooking (she lives on a ranch in Oklahoma and does a lot of cooking). Her Strawberry Shortcake Cake intrigued me due to a childhood memory. For most of the birthday parties in our family when I was young, my aunt always bought a birthday cake filled with a strawberry filling. Everyone loved it except me (I was always the fussy one.) But in my defense, I figure the filling used California strawberries and I didn't like them much. Once I moved to Michigan and tasted Magicland Farms' strawberries, I realized how good strawberries could taste. This recipe seemed very similar to the cakes my aunt got so I decided to give it a whirl. After tasting a small piece, I think it comes very close to the cakes we got from the bakery so long ago - except the strawberry filling tastes better!
Strawberry Shortcake Cake from
The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Ingredients
Cake
1-½ cup Flour
3 Tablespoons Corn Starch
½ teaspoons Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
9 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, Softened
1-½ cup Sugar
3 whole Large Eggs
½ cups Sour Cream, Room Temperature
1 teaspoon Vanilla
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Icing
½ pounds Cream Cheese, Room Temperature
2 sticks Unsalted Butter
1-½ pound Powdered Sugar, Sifted
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 pound Strawberries
Preparation Instructions
IMPORTANT:
Be sure to use a cake pan that's at least 2 inches deep! Before baking,
the batter should not fill the pan more than halfway.
Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, and corn starch.
Cream 9 tablespoons butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add
eggs one at a time, mixing well each time. Add sour cream and vanilla
and mix until combined. Add sifted dry ingredients and mix on low speed
until just barely combined.
Pour into greased and floured 8-inch cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees
for 45 to 50 minutes, or until no longer jiggly. Remove
from cake pan as soon as you pull it out of the oven, and place on a
cooling rack and allow it to cool completely.
Stem strawberries and slice them in half from bottom to top. Place
into a bowl and sprinkle with 3 tablespoons sugar. Stir together and
let sit for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, mash the strawberries in two
batches. Sprinkle each half with 1 tablespoons sugar and allow to sit
for another 30 minutes.
Make icing: combine cream cheese, 2 sticks butter, sifted powdered
sugar, vanilla, and dash of salt in a mixing bowl. Mix until very light
and fluffy.
Slice cake in half through the middle. Spread strawberries evenly
over each half (cut side up), pouring on all the juices. Place cake
halves into the freezer for five minutes, just to make icing easier.
Remove from freezer. Use a little less than 1/3 of the icing to
spread over the top of the strawberries on the bottom layer. Place the
second layer on top. Add half of the remaining icing to the top
spreading evenly, then spread the remaining 1/3 cup around the sides.
Leave plain OR garnish with strawberry halves. IMPORTANT: Cake is best when served slightly cool. The butter
content in the icing will cause it to soften at room temperature. For
best results, store in the fridge!
My notes on the recipe:
- Instead of making one cake and slicing it in half, I split the batter between two cake pans. My skills at slicing cakes in half are poor at best, and I needed to figure out an easier way for me to get two layers. I also poked the layers with a fork in order to allow the juices to seep into the cake.
- I skipped the step where you put the cake in the freezer before icing it. I didn't seem to have any problem with this step with a room temperature cake. However, I can imagine that on a very warm day things might have turned out differently.
- Since I split the batter between two pans, it didn't take 45 to 50 minutes to cook. It was more like 30-35 minutes.
- You could even make this a fancier cake by splitting the batter between three cake pans and creating a cake with thinner layers and more strawberry filling. You would need more strawberries so be sure to adjust your purchase for that and remember to adjust your cooking time.
