Strawberry Shortcake Cake

Yet another PW recipe. Seriously, you can't go wrong with her. I made this cake for the Fourth of July and it was scrumptious. It was actually pretty easy to make, especially for my first time making a cake. Be warned that the cake is very heavy and sweet. I am usually more of a chocolate or pie kind of girl. This was delicious, don't get me wrong, but I could only eat one piece. One very, very small piece. Actually, that might be a good thing.

5/27/10 Update: I made this again for a BBQ and it was a huge hit! I wanted to remake it because my original pictures for this blog post were sub-par. This is really a great cake to make for summer events. Just be sure to keep it in the fridge until ready to serve.

Ingredients:

Cake
1 1/2 cups flour

3 tbsp corn starch

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda
9 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla

 Icing

1/2 lb (8 oz) cream cheese, room temperature
2 sticks (1/2 lb) unsalted butter
1 1/2 lbs powdered sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla
1 lb strawberries (plus extra for garnish, if desired)

Directions:

Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, and corn starch.

 Cream 9 tablespoons butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well each time. Add sour cream and vanilla and mix until combined. Add sifted dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just barely combined. Pour into greased and floured 8-inch cake pan (make sure the pan is at least 2" deep or it will overflow when cooking - I used an 8"x3" cake round).

 Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes, or until no longer jiggly and a toothpick in the center comes out clean. Remove from cake pan as soon as you pull it out of the oven, and place on a cooling rack and allow it to cool completely.

 Stem strawberries and slice them in half from bottom to top. Place into a bowl and sprinkle with 3 tablespoons sugar. Stir together and let sit for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, mash the strawberries in two batches. Sprinkle each half with 1 tablespoons sugar and allow to sit for another 30 minutes.

 Make icing: combine cream cheese, 2 sticks butter, sifted powdered sugar, vanilla, and dash of salt in a mixing bowl. Mix until very light and fluffy.

 Slice cake in half through the middle (use a long serrated knife). Spread strawberries evenly over each half of the cake (cut sides up), pouring on all the juices from the strawberry. Place cake halves into the freezer for five minutes, just to make icing easier.

 Remove from freezer. Use a little less than 1/3 of the icing to spread over the top of the strawberries on the bottom layer. Place the second layer on top. Add half of the remaining icing to the top spreading evenly, then spread the remaining 1/3 cup around the sides.

 Leave plain OR garnish with strawberry halves.

 IMPORTANT: Cake is best when served slightly cool. The butter content in the icing will cause it to soften at room temperature. For best results, store in the fridge!

Notes:

• You definitely need a deep cake pan. The one I used was 3" deep and the cake came up pretty high in the pan.
• Freezing the icing and cake makes it much easier to ice. But, don't worry if not all the strawberries are completely covered. The cake looks kind of nice with a little hint of them showing through.
• The cake gets very brown on the edges so don't worry. The first time I made this I took the cake out 10 minutes early because I was afraid it might burn on the top. The second time I cooked it for 45 minutes and it was perfect.