I made this cake a while back for a lovely friend’s birthday. I finally had the time to put the recipe up, YAY! The recipe for this amazing cake is taken from the Primrose Bakery Cookbook.
My friend, Kris, invited me for a dinner with her family to celebrate her birthday. So I made this cake, kind of like a present to her. There were about 13-14 of us. It was really scary to make something, food wise, for a family because it has to be really really good. I was so glad that everyone loved it.
Ingredients:
serve: 8-10
Cooking time: 25-30 minutes
Preparation time + decoration: 1 hour
For the Sponge:
(Makes 2 x 20 cm round cakes, which is sandwiched together to make 1 layer cake)
210 g self-raising flour
25 g corn flour
225 g caster sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
225 g unsalted butter, chopped and at room temperature, plus more for greasing tins
4 large eggs
225 g fresh strawberries, hulled and chopped into small pieces
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
250 g fresh strawberries, hulled, to decorate
For the Filling:
3-4 tablespoons strawberry jam
1 batch Vanilla buttercream icing (see below), coloured pink with a few drops of rose food colouring
A few fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced.
For Vanilla buttercream icing:
115 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
60 ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
500 g icing sugar, sifted
1) For the Sponge, Preheat oven to 180 °C. Grease 2 x 20 cm cake tins and line the base with baking paper.
2) Sift flour, cornflour, sugar and baking powder into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until evenly mixed, which should only take about 4 seconds.
3) Add butter, eggs, strawberries and vanilla extract. Process briefly until well combined, but not overly processed.
4) Divide the mixture evenly between 2 cake tins and smooth tops with a spatula. Bake in the centre of the oven for ~ 25 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre of one of the cakes comes out clean.
5) While the cake is baking, make the vanilla buttercream icing. For the Icing, beat the butter, milk, vanilla extract and half the icing sugar in a bowl using an electric mixer until smooth. This will usually take a few minutes.
6) Then add the remainder of the icing sugar gradually to produce a buttercream with a creamy and smooth consistency.
7) The buttercream can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days at room temperature. Beat well again before reusing.
8) Leave the cakes to cool slightly in their tins for ~ 10 minutes and then turn out onto wire racks.
9) When the cakes are completely cool, remove the baking paper. Place one cake on a plate (or cake turner if you have one) and spread with a thin layer of strawberry jam.
10) Then place a thin layer of sliced strawberries on top of the jam – This will be called the first cake.
11) Put the other cake on a plate and ice the underside with a 1 cm-thick layer of vanilla buttercream – This will be called the second cake.
12) Carefully place the second cake on top of the first, iced side down.
13) Once the cakes are sandwiched together, ice the top with the remaining buttercream and top with the fresh strawberries.
14) The cake is best served immediately, as the fresh strawberries do have a tendency to soften and bleed their juice into the icing quite quickly.
Side notes:
1) It will be FUN making this. Try it!