Strawberry Cream Cake

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter the bottom of an 8-inch round cake pan. Cut out a piece of parchment paper to fit the bottom of the cake pan perfectly. Place the parchment paper in the bottom of the pan and smother that with butter, too.

Sprinkle a little bit of flour in the buttered and parchment-papered pan. Shake it all around and make sure that you cover the entire bottom and sides with a light dusting of flour. Tap out any excess. Now set this aside. We’ll use it later, obviously.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour and baking powder. Set aside.

In your stand mixer, beat butter and 1/2 cup of sugar on high speed until light and fluffy. Now it’s time to add the eggs. Add one whole egg and beat well. Add another whole egg and beat again. Now add one egg yolk and beat. And finally, add another egg yolk and beat. Add vanilla and mix well.

At this point, we are ready to add our wet and dry ingredients alternately, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, with the mixer at a low speed. Add some of the flour mixture first, and then some of the whole milk. Add some more of the flour mixture, then the wet again, and finally end with the flour mixture. Continue mixing until everything is just combined.

Don’t be alarmed! The batter is quite thick. It’s supposed to be this way. Now pour it in your prepared pan. Spread the batter around in the pan so it’s all lovely and even. Put that bad boy in your preheated oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Or, until you poke a toothpick in the middle and it comes out clean.

Cool the cake.

Place sliced strawberries in a bowl and mix with 1/4 cup of sugar. Put the bowl aside and let the sugar do its magic and turn the strawberries into syrupy strawberry goodness.

Place 2 tablespoons of cold water in a small saucepan. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of Knox gelatin powder. Let it soften up for a minute or two, and then place the saucepan over very, very low heat and stir until gelatin is dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool. Immediately, start whipping up some heavy cream. Slowly add the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar. Keep whipping until very soft peaks form. By this time, the gelatin will have cooled. Add the dissolved gelatin mixture (it should look like thick water) to the whipped cream and continue whipping until soft peaks form.

Cut the cooled cake in half horizontally with a serrated knife. Place the cake, cut side up, on a pretty cake stand. Cover the cake with half of the strawberry syrupy goodness. Place a huge dollop of whipped cream on top of the strawberries. Leave about an inch around the edges. Place the top of the cake, cut side down, on top of the whipped cream and press gently. Top with the remaining half of the whipped cream.

We’re not quite done yet. No siree. Now cover the cake and place that bad boy in the fridge for a few hours. The gelatin allows the whipped cream to stay all dense-like, and not get watery and flop down. The refrigeration time allows all the layers of the cake to meld together and become all merry-like.

After a few hours (or up to 24 hours), remove your cake from the fridge and top with the remaining strawberry syrupy goodness, right before you serve. See how the fridge time allows it to become all mellow and merry and droop a little, but in a good way?

Slice and serve.

Hello, lover!