Strawberry Cake

For weeks now I have been dying to try two things: a new strawberry cake recipe and decorating with buttercream roses! This kind of decorating is new territory for me, but with the birthday of our friend Jen taking place this past weekend, it was the perfect opportunity to celebrate her pre-30th birthday AND do some experimenting. Here's a preview of the finished product... see below for more details!

strawberry rosette cake

Cake Ingredients:

2 3/4 c AP flour

1/2 c cake flour (not self rising)

1 tbs baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 sticks butter, softened

2 1/4 c sugar

3 large eggs

1 large egg white

1 c whole milk (I used skim, and it worked fine)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 c chopped fresh strawberries or pureed frozen strawberries

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Meanwhile, whisk dry ingredients together in a large bowl and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar with a hand mixer until it becomes light and fluffy. Add each egg, one at a time, and beat after each addition just until the egg has been incorporated. Beat in egg white.

Combine the milk and vanilla in a separate bowl and set aside. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture on low speed in 3 additions, alternating with the milk mixture, and ending with dry ingredients. Finally, stir the strawberries into your batter.

batter, pre strawberries

batter, post strawberries

(it was SO difficult to resist taking a little taste)

Grease two 9 inch round cake pans and fill each pan evenly with batter. Bake in the oven until a tester comes out clean. I'll be honest with you, I didn't watch the clock very closely (I know, shame on me) so I couldn't tell you precisely how long it took for the cakes to bake. I'd recommend checking on them at 20 minutes and then every few minutes afterwards until they are done. Remove the cakes from the oven and let cool completely on a wire rack.

While the cakes are cooling, make your buttercream according to the following recipe.

Buttercream ingredients:

2 c shortening

8 c powdered sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbs vanilla

6 oz heavy cream

1/2 c finely chopped strawberries

In a large bowl, cream the shortening with a hand mixer until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar, 2 cups at a time, until well blended. About halfway through this process, my frosting got VERY thick and difficult to work with, so I added a little bit of the cream to soften it up. After all of the sugar has been incorporated add the salt, vanilla and remaining heavy cream. Blend until combined, then mix on high until the frosting is light and fluffy. Fold in strawberries. **This makes A LOT of frosting, which is needed for the rosettes, but if you will simply be icing a cake, you might consider cutting this recipe in half.**

Once the cakes have cooled, assemble your layers and cover in a good crumb coat. It does NOT need to be pretty, it just needs to be thick enough so that you aren't able to see any cake through the frosting. Example:

On to the really fun part! Assemble a pastry bag fitted with a Wilton 1M decorating tip, and fill the bag about half full with frosting. Work around the side of the cake first. Beginning in the center of the rosette, hold your decorating tip at a 90 degree angle to the cake, and make a circle around the center point. You will likely need to loop around twice so that the rosettes cover the height of the side of your cake. Once you've made your way around the entire cake, it should look something like this:

half-way there...

Next, cover the top of your cake using the same method.

ta-da! all finished.

The roses weren't as neat and tidy as I would have liked. However, considering this is my first attempt, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.



I think the roses would hold their shape better with a less creamy/more stiff buttercream. That's something to look into for next time. Until then, have fun and happy baking! :-)

up close detail

pretty AND delicious!