Strawberry Shortcake Cake Shortcake

Last week was Marissa's birthday, and she requested a cake with strawberries involved. I didn't really want to make sweet rolls and do shortcake, as that seems too easy. Also it is hard to serve that at work. It is also hard to make in to a big letter M! So I did some looking around and found this recipe that based this cake on. Thanks Ree.

Strawberry Shortcake Cake Shortcake

prep time: 2 hours
cook time: 2 hours
serves: 15-20 depending on if Marissa is eating half of it or not.

Cake:
These are for one single cake. See notes below.
1 1/2 cup Flour
3 Tablespoons Cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 cup Unsalted Butter (soft)
1 1/2 cup sugar
3 Eggs
1/2 cup Sour Cream
1 teaspoon Vanilla

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Whole Shebang:
2 Cakes

Topping:
1+ pound of Strawberries (as fresh as you can get, this means frozen is ok...)
A few handfuls of sugar

Icing:
1 cup Unsalted Butter (soft)
1 1/2 pound Powdered Sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1/2 pound Cream Cheese (soft)

So I made two of these cakes in a 9 x 13 inch pyrex dish, giving me two 3/4 inch thick cake. You can use this recipe in a smaller pan, and then slice the cake in half if you would rather. But to be clear, the above ingredient list is for one single cake. I made two cakes, in two different runs, but if you have a large enough blender, you could just double the recipe.

Preheat to: 350 degrees

To start out making a cake, cream the butter and the sugar until well mixed, creamed you might say. Then add the eggs one at a time, mixing well each time. Once thoroughly mixed add sour cream and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix remaining dry ingredients. Slowly add dry mix in to wet mix. Blend until well incorporated.

Grease the heck out of your cake pan. I used a pyrex dish, but you could use traditional cake pans, or other interments. If you are worried about sticking, you can throw down some parchment paper. Pour the batter in to the pan. Evenly spread out the batter, this is not as liquid-y as most cake batters, and it needs to be evened out.

Throw it in the oven for 40-50 minutes. This cake is going to brown and get crispy on the outside. It is ok if it is brown. Don't go for black, but a healthy brown color is great. Remove the cake from the oven let cool for a little bit, and remove to rack to continue cooling.

While your cake is baking you can prepare your strawberries and filling. Wash the berries, remove the stems, cut in to quarter pieces. Put the berries in to a large bowl. Add a handful of sugar, toss the berries around for a bit. Let this sit. As it sits the cut berries will let out some juice, this will then mix with the sugar making a nice syrup. After a little mash up the berries with a fork or potato masher. You need to break the berry down a but, not puree it. Add another handful of sugar. Let this sit for some more time. When I say sit, I mean 20-50 minutes, you want them to let off as much water as you can.

In a mixer cream together the cream cheese, butter and vanilla. Once well mixed add some powdered sugar, not all of it though. Mix well. If the frosting is to liquidy, add some more sugar. If the frosting is too thick add some milk. Whenever you add anything make sure to mix everything really well. It is easy to go too far in one direction. Once you get the right consistency, put the frosting in the fridge.

By this point everything should be done, and cool. Transfer one cake to your serving tray. Poke a bunch of holes in the cake with a fork, this will aid in getting the strawberry juice soaked in to the cake. If you are cutting a cake in half, just make sure to have the raw cake side up. Spoon out half of the strawberries, with syrup on to the cake. Spread out evenly. Apply a decent layer of frosting. Just enough to cover the berries.

Part way through construction.

Add the second cake, and repeat with poking the top with a fork, adding strawberries, and a layer of frosting. This time be careful as this will be the final covering. Continue to frost around the edges. You are looking to cover, and encase the berries in the frosting, but it is ok to have some poking out.

You are now ready to enjoy!

I was going to cut this one in to an M, but it was about 10:30PM when I got the top layer done. With frosting running low and patience thin, I just finished the side frosting and called it good. This meant that there was plenty of extra cake.

It was really well received. Marissa loved it, all of my coworkers said it was the best thing I have made yet. Dang... I can't use box cake mixes anymore....

I forgot to take a picture before other people got to it.