This strawberry cake recipe is wonderful if you love strawberries. There is something horrible about artificial strawberry cakes. Between the taste of red dye and the attempt to mimic one of the best fruits on earth, it’s just a sad day when you are served a fake tasting strawberry cake.
If you ever noticed, I bake most of my cakes in a loaf pan. There is a great explanation for this: I am lousy at decorating cakes right now. I’ve tried and tried, but my arm not bending a certain way just makes it impossible to have a pretty cake. But I don’t despair! I focus on what I can do and so should you! We can’t all be like cupcake Jemma, can we? And that is okay. That is how we strive to become better at what we can and admire what we can’t.
On the positive side of life, I’ve found the solution is using loaf tins and making Madeira style cakes. Loaf cakes give you a nice presentation without a lot of work. Just check out my cinnamon ginger cake for an example at how nice they can be.
Also, in using loaf pans, baking cakes now becomes accessible for most people out there. When I was first starting out, I bought one of those cheap baking kits for around $10. It’s the one that comes with a loaf pan, two different sized cookie sheets and a rectangular pan. That’s all I used for nearly a decade. You don’t need to buy expensive equipment. Seriously, you can get a loaf pan for just under $1.50 at Walmart guys. Is it a pan that will last a lifetime? No. But it will last several years with a little TLC.
If you spend time on this sight, you’ll begin to notice the majority of my recipes will use cheap, easy to find items. I wanted everyone to have the opportunity to bake my dishes, not just those that buy expensive bakeware and ingredients. There are websites out there that will actually tell you to go out and buy a $300 Le Creuset casserole dish for baking bread! You’ll never see that here. Most of the pans I cook with costs less than $5 each. I grew up poor and enjoyed learning how to make wonderful dishes for a little as possible.
I personally love using a powdered sugar glaze over buttercream because it looks classy and isn’t too heavy. When it comes to cakes made with fruit flavors, lighter icings really help the flavor of the strawberry shine.
Which is an excellent time to bring up this point: Taste over style wins every time. A beautifully decorated cake that tastes like cardboard, who would want to eat it? Focus on flavor. Work on style as you learn to bake. Find out what your limitations are and skirt around them.
For example, I found that swiss rolls are an easy way for me to use buttercream and have a very pretty cake. And if you never get the presentation down, so be it. People will still love your cooking as the taste will be phenomenal. After all, simply natural strawberry cake all about the love of real strawberries.
Simple Strawberry Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (225g) flour
- 4 large (200g) eggs
- 1 cup (200g) sugar
- ¾ cup (180mL) oil
- 1 tsp (5mL) strawberry extract
- 1 tsp (2g) freeze dried strawberry powder
- 1 ½ tsp (6g) baking powder
- ½ tsp (2.5g) salt
- 3-6 drops red food coloring (optional)
For the Glaze
- 1 cup (125g) powdered sugar
- 1 – 2 tbs (15-30mL) milk
- ¼ tsp (1.25mL) vanilla or strawberry extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F (160C.)
- Grease and flour a 9×5 (23x13cm) loaf pan or line with parchment paper.
- In a small bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat eggs, oil, and strawberry extract until smooth. Beat in sugar and strawberry powder. Add flour mixture and beat until you no longer see lumps, about 1 minute. If desired, mix in a few drops of food coloring until it is a dark pink. Pour into prepared pan.
- Bake 50 – 60 minutes or until the sides just separate and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Center should read between 200F (93C) and 210F (99C.)
- Cool in pan for 10 minutes; remove to wire rack to finish cooling.
Icing
- In a medium bowl, mix together powdered sugar, vanilla and milk, one teaspoon at a time, until desired consistency is achieved. Spread evenly over cooled cake.
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