strawberry cream cheese cake

This cake was so good that the morning after I made it, I sent the rest in to work with Steve so I wouldn’t eat it one forkful at a time throughout the day.   The cake itself was delicious (and probably would have been even more delicious if I’d used Cake Flour like the original recipe called for instead of regular flour) but the frosting was what put it over the top.

I have had mild successes (Pink Champagne Cake) and epic failures with homemade frosting.  This frosting recipe was unbelievably good. Honestly, I think you could just make the frosting and use it as fruit dip and skip the cake!

I found the original recipe on Pinterest.  In fact, I pinned it twice from two separate places (here and here).  So, obviously, it looked good enough to try!  I made it on Easter Sunday, which for us was a pretty low-key meal – ham and cheese sliders, some stuffed eggs and a corn and tomato salad.  This cake made it a special dinner, though!

Here’s the recipe:

The cake:

3 cups of flour (if you have cake flour, use it, otherwise regular flour works fine)

3/4 teaspoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

3 cups of sugar

2 sticks of unsalted butter, room temperature

7 large eggs

2 tablespoons of vanilla extract

1 cup of sour cream

6 tablespoons plus 1/3 cup of seedless strawberry jam

2 large containers of strawberries, hulled and sliced (about 6 cups)

Frosting

2 eight ounce packages of cream cheese, room temperature

2 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature

4 cups of powdered sugar

1/2 cup seedless strawberry jam

3/4 chilled heavy whipping cream

 

Make the frosting first, so it can chill.

I only have one mixer, so this is the method I used.  If you have a hand mixer and a stand mixer, you could probably use a different method.

In you mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth, Beat in the sugar, then the jam.  Transfer that mixture to a bowl, cover, and place in the fridge.  Wash your mixing bowl and then stick it in the freezer to chill.  I filled mine (it’s stainless steel) with ice water to speed up the chilling process and it chilled really well in about ten minutes. Remove the chilled bowl (and dry well if you used the ice water method).
Beat the whipping cream in the chilled bowl until peaks form (this really didn’t take long at all!).  Fold the whipped cream into the egg/sugar/jam mixture.  Cover and chill for a couple of hours in the fridge or about 30 minutes in the freezer.

Now, make the cake:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.   Butter and flour two 9-inch cake pans   In a medium bowl, stir together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each one. Beat in vanilla. Add sour cream and beat for 30 seconds. Add flour mixture in gradually. Divide the batter into prepared pans.

Bake cake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean,  about 50-60 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for ten minutes. Run a sharp knife around the edges of the pans, then turn cakes out onto a rack to cool completely.

Using a serrated knife, divide each layer in half horizontally. Place one half, cake side down, on a cake plate.

Spread 3 tablespoons of strawberry jam over the cake, then spread 3/4 of a cup of the frosting over the jam. Arrange 3/4 of a cup of the sliced strawberries on top of the frosting in a single layer. Repeat two more times with cake layer, jam, frosting, and strawberries.

Top with remaining cake layer, cut side down. Frost the top and sides of the cake. Stir the remaining jam to loosen, then spoon by teaspoonful onto the top and sides of the cake. Use the back of a spoon to swirl jam decoratively into the frosting. Top with the remaining strawberries.

Keep the cake in the fridge until ready to serve (and after serving).  It was delicious cold!