Summer's Scratch Strawberry Cake

I wanted to bake a strawberry cake that didn’t use a box of mix or strawberry Jell-O. This is based on the scratch WASC that was recently posted here on CC. I replaced some of the liquid with strawberry puree and also replaced some of the sugar with the strawberries (to add even more strawberry flavor and because strawberries are so sweet). I like to reserve aside the juice from the defrosted strawberries to use in place of water when making my sugar syrup for Italian Meringue Buttercream to make it strawberry instead. It also makes the frosting come out a nice pink color.

This recipe makes two 10-inch cakes. You can halve it (use 3 eggs if you halve it) to get one 10-inch cake, or you can get two 8-inch cakes out of a half recipe. This recipe also makes great cupcakes.

Ingredients

  • 5 C cake flour
  • 2 Tbsp + 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1 1/3 C butter
  • 2 2/3 C sugar
  • 5 eggs
  • 8 oz sour cream
  • 2 2/3 C strawberry puree*
  • 1 Tbsp vanilla
  • 10-15 drops red food coloring (optional **)

Instructions

  1. 1. Grease and flour cake pans and preheat oven to 350.
    2. Sift flour, baking power, baking soda and salt together and set aside.
    3. Cream butter and sugar together.
    4. Beat the eggs together, then beat in slowly, scraping the bowl down halfway through.
    5. Combine sour cream, strawberry puree and vanilla (and food color if using) in a small bowl.
    6. Add flour and strawberry mixture in alternating batches beginning and ending with the flour. Pour into cake pans and bake 30-40 min (depending on size of cake pans).

* Strawberry puree – Take 32 oz of frozen strawberries and defrost. Strain out the juice (set aside the juice to use in your frosting if you desire) and puree the strawberries in a food processor until smooth. After making the cake, you will have about 3/4-1 C of strawberry puree remaining that you can use between the layers of your cake if you so desire.

** This cake has a brownish color when baked so if you’re looking for a pink cake, you’ll need to add a little color. When cooking for myself, I don’t care about the color of the cake, but for a child’s birthday cake, I add a little red food coloring to give it a slightly pink color.