Ingredients
Yellow Cake
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup of milk
Strawberry Filling
1 pound fresh strawberries, cut into ¼-inch pieces
½ cup sugar, or to taste (too much is too much!)
½ teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Strawberry Buttercream
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
5 ounces of liquid strawberries (approximately 1 pound of strawberries puréed in food processor until there are no chunks)
8 cups confectionary sugar, sifted
1-2 tablespoons heavy cream, plus more if needed
Directions
1234 Yellow Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees (320 degrees for convection). Grease two 9-inch round cake pans with butter.
- Sift flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl and set aside.
- medium speed, beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Scrape down sides of bowl, and add eggs one at time, mixing after each. Mix in vanilla.
- Alternate adding ⅓ of flour mixture with ⅓ of milk at slow speed, until barely incorporated.
- Bake for approximately 20−25 minutes until the center bounces back to the touch. Cool for 15 minutes and turn onto drying rack to cool completely.
Strawberry Filling
- In a medium bowl, mix strawberries with sugar, then add vanilla and lemon juice. Mix well.
- Strawberry Buttercream
- Beat the butter until very smooth. Scrape down sides of bowl and add about one ounce of strawberry juice. Mix just to incorporate.
- Add the sugar and the rest of the juice gradually. Mixture will be quite stiff. Finish by adding heavy cream as needed, beating until the frosting is well incorporated. Note: while icing the cake, more cream may be necessary—add gradually to avoid runny icing.
Assembling the Cake
- Cut the layers of cake in half horizontally with a serrated knife. Lay cut sides up so strawberry juice will soak in, and spoon the strawberry filling onto each side.
- Carefully use a flat surface such as a tart pan liner to “sandwich” the cake layers back together so that the layers of strawberries are facing each other. Place on a cake stand.
- Ice the cake with strawberry buttercream, possibly putting a thin coat of icing on, then placing cake in the refrigerator for 20 minutes to set before adding a final coat.
- Decorate top and base of cake with any extra strawberries—or eat them as your reward appetizer for baking this cake for friends and family.
