Homemade Strawberry Cake

PREPARE THE PUREE:
Place the cut strawberries in a blender or food processor. Add sugar and lemon juice (without the seeds). Purée the mixture until smooth.

THE CAKE:
Set oven rack in middle position (If oven is too small to cook both layers on a single rack, set racks in upper-middle and lower-middle positions). Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray two 9-inch round cake pans with non-stick cooking spray; line the bottoms with parchment or waxed paper rounds. Spray the paper rounds, then dust the pans with flour, and invert pans and rap sharply to remove excess flour. (If you use the baker’s spray, you don’t need to do all of those steps. Just spray and proceed to the next step).

Pour milk, egg whites, and extracts into a 2-cup glass measuring cup, and mix with fork until blended.

Mix cake flour, sugar, strawberry gelatin, baking powder, and salt in the bowl of your electric mixer at slow speed. Add butter; continue beating at slow speed until mixture resembles moist crumbs, with no powdery streaks remaining.

Add all but ½ cup of the milk mixture to crumbs and beat at medium speed (or high speed if using hand-held mixer) for 30 seconds. Add 1/2 cup of the purée and beat for 30-45 seconds. Then, add remaining milk mixture, and beat 15 seconds more. Add another 1/2 cup of purée, and beat for 15 seconds more. Stop mixer and scrape sides of bowl. Return mixer to medium (or high) speed, and beat 20 seconds longer. (Tedious steps but necessary to avoid over-mixing)

Divide batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans (I weighed them out on a scale). Using a rubber spatula, spread batter to pan walls and smooth tops. Arrange pans at least 3 inches from the oven walls and 3 inches apart. (If oven is small, place pans on separate racks in staggered fashion to allow for air circulation OR bake them individually like I did.)

Bake until a thin skewer or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 22 to 24 minutes.

Let cakes rest in pans for 5 minutes. Loosen from sides of pans with a knife, if necessary, and invert onto wire racks for a few minutes. Then re-invert onto additional wire racks. Let cool completely, about 1- 1½ hours.

FROSTING:

Beat butter and shortening for 3 minutes. Slow down beater or mixer, and add powdered sugar one cup at a time. Once the mixture is well-integrated, add in the purée and the lemon extract (optional) and mix until desired consistency is reached. Spread in between the two cake layers and use the remaining frosting to cover the assembled cake.

Recipe based on Bridget’s Vanilla Cake from crumblycookie.net