Strawberry Cake

Ingredients

4 1/2 cups cake flour
3 cups sugar
5 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 sticks 12 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into chunks
1 1/2 cups pureed frozen strawberries this was just a little over 12 ounces for me
8 egg whites do not use egg whites from a carton
2/3 cup milk room temperature
a couple drops red food dye optional

For filling and assembly:

1/2 cup seedless strawberry jam
2 separate batches of Whipped Cream Cream Cheese Frosting
fresh strawberries for garnish

Instructions

Make the cake. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter or spray three 9 inch round cake pans. Line with parchment and butter or spray the parchment paper as well.
Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl with an electric mixer. Blend for 30 seconds. Add the chunks of room temperature butter and room temperature pureed strawberries into the flour mixture and mix on low to blend the ingredients. Raise speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
In another large bowl, whisk the egg whites, milk and red coloring (if desired) until you've thoroughly broken up the egg whites and they are well combined with the milk.
Add the egg white mixture to the batter in three additions, scraping down the sides as needed and mixing only to incorporate each addition.
Pour batter evenly into the three prepared pans. Bake the cakes for about 30-34 minutes until a toothpick comes out with just a very few moist crumbs attached.
Cool in pans for 10-15 minutes. Remove cakes from pans, peel off the liners and finish cooling on wire racks. Let them cool completely before assembling cake.
To assemble the cake, slightly warm strawberry jam in the microwave to melt it a bit and make it easier to spread. Stir and set aside.
Make your first batch of Whipped Cream Cream Cheese Frosting.
Place first cake layer on serving plate, flat side down. Spread evenly with 1/4 cup of the jam. Top with a generous cup of frosting and spread to within a 1/2 inch of the edge. Place the second layer of cake on top of the first, then repeat the spreading of frosting and jam.
Place the final layer flat side up on top of the two layers that have been filled with frosting and jam.
Use the rest of the frosting to fill in all the gaps left between layers and form a good crumb coat on the sides of the cake. Generously frost the top with at least a cup of frosting or however much you want for your finished cake. (This is only important if you want to use a heavy piping technique on the side of the cake as you will want the entire second batch to go to the sides.)
Place the cake in the refrigerator while you make another batch of frosting.
Use the second batch of frosting to finish covering the cake. There is enough for you to do a heavy piping technique as I did or you can just use an off set spatula to swirl the frosting in any pattern you choose. See notes for piped frosting technique.
Decorate with fresh strawberries, if desired.
Cake should be stored in refrigerator, but will taste best if you let it sit for 30 minutes at room temperature before serving.

Recipe Notes

*When I filled the layers, I spread the jam on the cake and then spread the frosting (as the photos in the post illustrate.) The first time I did it the opposite way. I actually prefer spreading the frosting first and then the jam on top. Either way it's good, but I like the way it looks when you cut it when the jam is on top.

*I used a 1M piping tip and starting at the bottom, made columns of ruffles. I should have taken video, but here's a tutorial

*The cake makes about 10 cups of batter. It's a lot of batter. The first time I baked it, it went into a 16" square pan and baked for about 22 minutes and made a one inch layer, which was perfect for what I needed at the time. I've not tried it, but I'm pretty confident that you could cut this recipe in half for a smaller batch of batter.

*Not all cakes work as cupcakes. I haven't tried this batter as a cupcake yet, if you do and it works, please let me know. I will do the same.

*I freeze leftover cake all the time. I slice it and wrap each slice in wax paper and place the wrapped slices into a freezer Ziploc. Thaw in the refrigerator, or if you're careful, you can also thaw in the microwave at one of the lower powers.

*Update 8-15-16: I use the spoon and sweep method for measuring flour. First I stir the flour in the canister to lighten it up, then I spoon the flour into the measuring cup and then level with a knife. There are 4 and 1/2 cups of flour in this recipe. With so many cups of flour, if you over measure your flour, you could end up with a lot more flour than the recipe calls for and have drier cake with a different texture.

Cake adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Frosting from Whipped Cream Cream Cheese Frosting