Strawberry Shortcake Cake

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately. Lots of stuff going on...in addition to the World Cup's games at 4:30 am, my usual baking time. I apologize for missing several Tuesdays with Dorie weeks, and hope to get back into the swing of things soon. And special thanks to a few readers who sent me emails asking if I was okay! That was so thoughtful!

Remember Team Dave and the Los Angeles Marathon? I brought this lovely dessert to the post-marathon party. It's a great summer cake for a casual dinner party or way to highlight beautiful strawberries!

I adapted the recipe from Sky-High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes by Alisa Huntsman. Man, you have to get this book. It is Delicious with a capital D.

This cake is light (made with cake flour) and just delicious. Get her book for the filling which includes rose water. I didn't do that for this version, just macerated some strawberries in sugar.

Here is the Sky-High cake in three layers...see post here.

I've make this in a 6" triple layer before and it is quite lovely, but does NOT travel well at all. So this time I decided to make two 8" layers and assemble it at the party. Nothing like pulling out a whisk at the party...makes you look like a baker! :)

Strawberry Shortcake Cake
Adapted from Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes by Alisa Huntsman, page 89

Cake:
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups cake flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 - 2 cups heavy cream

Fresh Strawberry Filling (See the book for this recipe that includes rosewater...I just macerated some strawberries with sugar)

Whole strawberries, for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. I made mine with two 8" cake pans. The original recipes calls for three 6" pans.
2. Cream butter, 3/4 cup sugar and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.
3. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Add dry ingredients to the batter, alternating with the buttermilk in 3 additions. Divide among the prepared pans.
5. I don't remember how long I baked my 8" pans. The 6" pans bake for 20-25 minutes. I pulled them out when a toothpick came out clean. I let them cool for 10 minutes and then cooled them on a cake rack.

Assembly:
1. In a large chilled bowl, whip the cream with the remaining 2 tbsp of sugar until stiff.
2. Assemble the cake with cake, strawberries, whipped cream and repeat. Finish with your best strawberries on top. Enjoy!
Again, the book has a recipe for fresh strawberry filing that includes rose water.

Sky High Cakes - Triple Lemon Chiffon Cake (Cake Slice Bakers)

Triple Lemon Chiffon Cake

The Cake Slice Bakers voted to make the super delicious Triple Lemon Chiffon Cake!

The Cake Slice Bakers make one cake per month and we are spending one year using the terrific book: Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes by Alisa Huntsman.

Better get a chicken because this recipe uses 13 eggs! Eight in the 9" chiffon cake and 5 more in the lemon curd. I made mine with Meyer lemons.

The layers are filled with lemon curd and topped with a whipped cream with lemon curd frosting. Light as air.

Be sure to check out other The Cake Slice Bakers!

Seriously, celebrate the first day of Spring by purchasing the great cookbook!!! You won't be disappointed!!

Southern Coconut Cake (Cake Slice Bakers)

Southern Coconut Cake

For this month's, Cake Slice Bakers, we voted to make Southern Coconut Cake from Alisa Huntsman's book: Sky-High Cakes: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes. (Luckily, I made it early before my oven started giving me troubles.)

I must tell you something. I'm not a fan of flaked coconut. I do enjoy coconut milk in Thai food curries and the "makes me weak in the knees" mango with sticky rice. But I can't stand the texture of flaked coconut. Seriously, there is very little difference between coconut and dental floss.

And that's why I love my job. It's interesting, challenging, and there is a group of people who like coconut!! :)

I loved the cake. The cake has a lovely crumb and uses coconut milk for a delicious (sans dental floss) coconut yumminess. Okay, I had to make this cake twice. The first time, I completely missed the sugar! What?! How did that happen? Well, this recipe uses the fat-flour method and mixes the dry ingredients with the butter before adding in the wet ingredients. If it started with creaming the butter and sugar, I wouldn't have forgotten the sugar (at least I hope so! :) Oh, well, it was sorta funny when it happened!

I made the frosting twice too! The original recipe calls for an Italian meringue technique (adding hot sugar syrup to egg whites), but I tried the Swiss meringue technique (heating the sugar and egg whites over a double-boiler) since I'm more familiar with it and I can get the egg whites up to 160 degrees. But adding the cream cheese/butter mixture didn't go as planned and I ended up with soup (the meringue was probably too warm). All my fault. I should have followed the recipe exactly and not messed with it!

I ended up creaming together 12 ounces (1 1/2 blocks) of cream cheese, 4 T (1/2 stick) of butter, 2 cups of powdered sugar and 2 t vanilla for a frosting. It was yummy and easy.

My co-workers really liked it. I could smell the coconut from my desk! I pushed off the dental floss and enjoyed the cake and cream cheese frosting.

You can find the recipe on Gigi's blog but you should really buy the book: Sky-High Cakes by Alisa Huntsman. All the recipes have been sooooo good!! Can't wait for next month's selection!