Fresh, seasonal berries are one of the best parts about the spring and summer months. Toss ripe blackberries into your morning smoothie, use strawberries to top your favourite salads, or incorporate plump blueberries into your next bake-a-thon. This beautiful pink cake is our ode to strawberry season.
In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking, powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside. Using your Hamilton Beach® stand mixer beat butter until creamy. Then add sugar, vanilla, and (optional) red food colouring and beat until well blended. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Then gradually add the mixture of dry ingredients and fresh strawberries until you have a perfectly blended batter.
The Test Kitchen added a little food colouring to achieve a deep pink colored cake (this cake is begging to be served at a bridal shower or baby shower), but feel free to leave the food coloring out if you want to let the strawberries speak for themselves. FYI, if you omit the food colouring you should expect a light brown cake color rather than pink. The Test Kitchen experimented with the amount of food coloring to find a middle ground between red velvet-esque red and hot pink. And ¼ teaspoon was the magic number.
Pour the batter evenly into two prepared 9-inch baking pans and bake for 25 to 40 mins. After baking, cool on wire racks for 10-15 minutes before frosting.
We topped this pretty-in-pink layered cake with a homemade white chocolate cream cheese frosting and you guessed it, even more fresh strawberries. Cream cheese is arguably the best frosting there is (after all it also tops Hamilton Beach staff favourite hummingbird cake and classic carrot cake), and adding white chocolate to the mix only upgrades its already delicious flavor.
I think we can all agree that cakes baked with fresh ingredients (and a little love) are the best cakes. So skip the store-bought mix and make time for baking with berries this spring.
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup butter
- 1 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon red food colour
- 3 large eggs
- 1 quart strawberries, hulled and mashed
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 3 cups confectioners sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Heat oven to 350°F. Spray bottom and sides of two 9-inch baking pans and line bottoms with parchment paper. Dust sides with flour.
- In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In a large mixer bowl, beat butter until creamy. Add sugar, vanilla and food colour beating about 2 minutes until well blended.
- Beat in eggs, one at a time until blended. Gradually add flour mixture and strawberries on LOW speed beating for 1 minute or until blended.
- Pour mixture evenly between prepared pans.
- Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes on wire racks.
- Remove from pans; cool completely on wire racks.
- Place one cake layer on cake plate; spread top of layer with 1 cup White Chocolate Frosting. Top with remaining layer; frost side of top of cake. Garnish with whole strawberries, if desired. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
- In a microwave safe medium bowl, stir together chips and heavy cream. Microwave on 50% power in 30 second intervals, stir each time until chips are melted and mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool.
- In a large mixer bowl, beat butter, vanilla and salt about 2 minutes or until creamy.
- Begin gradually adding confectioners' sugar and beat about 2 minutes until smooth.
- Pour heavy cream mixture into mixer bowl. Beat on medium speed about 30 to 45 seconds or until mixture is blended. Do not over beat, mixture would look curdled.
- Spread onto cupcakes or cake. Store in refrigerator.
- Frosts one 2-layer cake
TAGS: cake, cream cheese, frosting, icing, stand mixer, strawberries, strawberry, white chocolate
CATEGORIES: dessert, Everyday Recipes, mother's day
