Fresh Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Swiss Meringue Buttercream

I am considering this Lucy's very first birthday cake.

Okay, okay.. right now, it's more for Mama than it is for little Lucy, but I will certainly make it for her again some day. Lucille Naomi joined the world a week ago today; at home, in the water, and much quicker than I expected. But that's a story for another day.

Another thing I didn't expect: to be baking a cake just days after she was born. I am feeling blessed to have bounced back quickly (and to have a few extra hands around the house).

Little Luce and I have had a great first week. We have some extra help from Daddy and Nana right now; which is the real reason that I was able to get back to baking so quickly. I actually put the strawberries for this cake into the freezer to thaw the night before she was born, so they were staring at me for a few days and I just had to use them up. We have a lot to celebrate, after all- a beautiful, healthy baby girl.

 

There aren't too many from-scratch strawberry cake recipes out there that don't include strawberry gelatin as one of the ingredients. This cake is made with strawberry puree- the only added ingredient is a little bit of pink food coloring. That's mostly just because I wanted it to look beautifully pink for the photos instead of  pinky-grey. If you want to go all-natural with it, be my guest!

I decided to give Whisk Kid's Cream Cheese Swiss Meringue Buttercream a try on this cake instead of my own tried-and-true cream cheese frosting recipe. I am so glad I did. I love the subtle tang of the cream cheese, and the fact that it's not heavy or sickly sweet like many cream cheese frostings. For the filling, I just mixed some of the frosting with the leftover strawberry puree that's used in the batter. Strawberry jam or a layer of the plain frosting (or both!) could be used as filling, too.

This would make a great Valentine's Day treat for your sweetheart or for a crowd. If you want to get really crazy, pair it with some homemade strawberry ice cream.

I hope you enjoyed Kristina's guest post this week. You have two more to look forward to in the coming weeks, as well as Fridays with Julie. I hope you're hungry!

Fresh Strawberry Cake
adapted from Confections of a Foodie Bride

• 24 oz frozen or very ripe fresh strawberries, hulled (if frozen, thawed)
• 1-2 tsp sugar (for fresh berries only)
• 1/4 cup milk, at room temperature
• 6 large egg whites, room temperature
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cup cake flour, sifted
• 1 3/4 cup sugar
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 12 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened (not melted)
• pink or red food coloring, preferably the gel type (optional)

1. Thaw frozen strawberries in whatever form (sliced, whole, etc) and in whatever container/bag you have them in. Pour into a fine strainer placed over a bowl and let sit. Lightly toss the strawberries occasionally to remove any pockets of excess liquid. Reserve the liquid for another use or discard.
2. Place strawberries in a food processor or blender and puree. (You can use fresh strawberries if you don't have a stash of frozen strawberries in your freezer. Just hull, slice and toss with a teaspoon or two of sugar and cover. Let them sit at room temperature for a couple of hours, until nice and juicy. Place strawberries in a food processor or blender and puree.)
3. Reserve 3/4 cup puree for the cake. Use leftover puree to fill the cake or fold into the frosting, if desired.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare two 8 or 9 inch pans: spray inside with baking spray with flour (or use some sort of grease/flour combination).
5. In small bowl, combine puree, milk, egg, vanilla and mix with fork until well blended. In bowl of stand mixer, add sifted flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and mix to combine. Continue beating at slow speed and add butter. Mix until combined and resembling moist crumbs.
6. Add liquids and beat at medium speed for about 1 minute or until full and evenly combined. Stop mixer to add food coloring if using and  to scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat to combine. Divide the batter evenly among the pans and smooth tops.
7. Bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (time will vary). Let cakes rest in pan for about 10 minutes and turn out onto wire racks. Let cakes cool completely (about 2 hours).

Cream Cheese Swiss Meringue Buttercream
via Whisk Kid

• 3 (100g) egg whites
• 2/3 c (130g) sugar
• 10 Tbsp (142g) butter, cubed and at room temp
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 oz (113g) cream cheese, cubed and at room temp

In the base of a double boiler, bring water to a simmer. In the top bowl (or just a bowl to place over a pan of simmering water) combine the egg whites and sugar and whisk constantly until the mixture is hot to the touch (160F on a candy thermometer if you want to be completely accurate), about five minutes depending on the original temperature of the eggs. When the mixture has warmed sufficiently, pour it into the bowl of your stand mixer and whip on high speed until the bottom of the bowl is room temperature, ten to fifteen minutes. When the bowl is no longer warm, turn the mixer to medium-low and begin adding the butter piece by piece. Let each chunk incorporate completely before adding the next and don't rush the process!

After all of the butter has been added, add the vanilla and turn the speed back to high. Whip for about 3 minutes or until the buttercream comes together. Turn the speed down to low and add the cream cheese, then mix on medium to fully incorporate.