Strawberry Layer Cake
Posted by in Food
Did you drool over the strawberry layer cake in August Living like I did? What a gorgeous looking cake. I had the perfect excuse to make it – I needed to send something over to my sweet tooth uncle.
The layers were a basic cake but included buttermilk which added moistness. (beat 2 sticks butter with 1 3/4 cup sugar. Add 4 eggs. Alternate 1 1/3 c buttermilk with dry mixture of 3 cups flour, 2 1/4 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp baking soda, and 1 tsp salt. Then add 1 tbsp vanilla. Bake in 2 round cake pans in a 350 degree oven. Martha says to bake for 40 min but when I checked mine at 30 min they were a bit past done, so check them at 25 min).
Once you’ve baked the layers, you cut both in half horizontally. Now you take 
2 lbs of strawberries and mix with 3/4 cup sugar, 1 tbsp lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Let that sit for half an hour and drain off the juice and reserve it.
Whip up 2 cups of heavy cream with 3 tbsp powdered sugar. Get 1 1/2 cups of rhubarb or strawberry jam ready (I used strawberry).
To assemble, brush 1/3 of the strawberry juice on, then 1/3 of the jam, then add 1/3 of the berries and 1/3 of the whipped cream. Put on the next layer and repeat. Then do the third layer the same way. Top with the 4th layer. Refrigerate for at least an hour. Dust the top with powdered sugar.
It did turn out to be a pretty cake but I have some issues. First of all, it didn’t knock my socks off with flavor. It was almost bland. The problem with this is you drain all the juice off the berries and you are left with mealy, tasteless berries. Not a good situation. The cake layers were moist and tasty, but just a plain white cake. I wouldn’t make this again. Sigh. At least it looked nice.
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This looks so good.
I can so see myself messing it up (probably when cutting the layers of the cake horizontally) and then just mixing everything together to eat it. Not pretty, but still tasty.
It wasn’t that hard to put together really. And cutting the layers is not hard if you use a thin, long bread knife and spin the cake while cutting it.
I saw the recipe and it is so on my list!! My stuff never looks as good as Martha’s, but my husband always says – who cares what it looks like if it tastes good. I guess….. Your looked pretty darn good!
You would fit in well here at the butt-ugly bakery where everything tastes great but is nowhere near camera ready.
Aww bummer I hate it when you have high hopes for a recipe and it doesn’t live up to them. Well it looks wonderful either way!!
Looks beautiful, too bad the taste doesn’t match the picture! What would you do differently? Up the amount of jam? Add more fresh strawberries? I’ve started using almond extract instead of vanilla in most of the dishes that I make. Adds a cool hint of flavor my crew likes.
I don’t know if there is a fix. If you used fresh strawberries and didn’t drain the juice off, you might end up with a soggy cake. More jam wouldn’t really help since it was the berries I found flavorless. I just would find another recipe I guess!
I am not a fan of almond extract at all! I’ve used orange and lemon extracts though and they can add a lot of flavor!
This looks so good! I think I’ll have to put my Virgo honey to work to cut the cake (otherwise, we’re looking at disaster). 🙂 I wonder if it would be possible to do with blueberries? Hmm… you’ve got me thinking. Thanks!
If you did it with blueberries, I would recommend doubling the amount of berries. Use half to make the syrup then toss them, then use whole fresh berries in the cake.
hmm — I don’t add sugar to strawberries (or fruit in general, actually), usually they are more than tasty enough on their own for me…sorry Martha’s recipe did not turn out well for you, but I’ll bet you have a good strawberry recipe or two of your own.
I love strawberries and I just know I’d love this cake. If only it were on my diet :-).
i love how honest you are on the recipe front. ’cause this cake sure looks good, but if it tastes kinda bland, then i’m not going to bother.
Really, I think I miss strawberry cakes more than anything else since I’ve gone gluten free. Your post made me all misty. 🙂
Oh! Sorry! Maybe you can make a GL version!
Exactly. It was certainly gorgeous, but did not taste as good as it looked in my opinion!