Strawberry Crazy Cure

A few weeks ago it was Easter and I made this fantastic, amazing, mouth-watering cake.  Let me just say that this cake makes me happy.  It makes me almost forget that it has been raining like, forever around here.  This cake is sooo good that if I had some right now it might slip my mind that Mr. Veen's tooth fell out today, and Thing 1 and 2 have colds.  I might even not care that precisely as a result of eating this cake my shorts fit a little snugger.  Because of this cake I may just be able to believe that the sun will eventually shine long enough to ripen instead of rot our lovely Oregon strawberries. 

I think I may need to make this cake again.  Maybe you do too.

Here's how:

Strawberry Shortcake Cake via PW

Ingredients

• 1-½ cup Flour
• 3 Tablespoons Corn Starch
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 9 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, Softened
• 1-½ cup Sugar
• 3 whole Large Eggs
• ½ cups Sour Cream, Room Temperature
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• _____
• Icing
• ½ pounds Cream Cheese, Room Temperature
• 2 sticks Unsalted Butter
• 1-½ pound Powdered Sugar, Sifted
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1 pound Strawberries

Preparation Instructions

IMPORTANT: Be sure to use a cake pan that’s at least 2 inches deep! Before baking, the batter should not fill the pan more than halfway.
Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, and corn starch.
Cream 9 tablespoons butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well each time. Add sour cream and vanilla and mix until combined. Add sifted dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just barely combined.
Pour into greased and floured 8-inch cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes, or until no longer jiggly like my bottom. Remove from cake pan as soon as you pull it out of the oven, and place on a cooling rack and allow it to cool completely.
Stem strawberries and slice them in half from bottom to top. Place into a bowl and sprinkle with 3 tablespoons sugar. Stir together and let sit for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, mash the strawberries in two batches. Sprinkle each half with 1 tablespoons sugar and allow to sit for another 30 minutes.
Make icing: combine cream cheese, 2 sticks butter, sifted powdered sugar, vanilla, and dash of salt in a mixing bowl. Mix until very light and fluffy.
Slice cake in half through the middle. Spread strawberries evenly over each half (cut side up), pouring on all the juices. Place cake halves into the freezer for five minutes, just to make icing easier.
Remove from freezer. Use a little less than 1/3 of the icing to spread over the top of the strawberries on the bottom layer. Place the second layer on top. Add half of the remaining icing to the top spreading evenly, then spread the remaining 1/3 cup around the sides.
Leave plain OR garnish with strawberry halves.
IMPORTANT: Cake is best when served slightly cool. The butter content in the icing will cause it to soften at room temperature. For best results, store in the fridge!

It really is good!  It almost makes you not care about how crazy life is.  Crazy.  Now that's something to talk about...... 
Stay tuned this week for a little (or alot) of crazy!  Can you dig it?

Ice Cream Cake

As is my custom when the kids' birthday's roll around I asked Jake this year what kind of birthday cake he wanted.  He was very specific:  "Mint chocolate chip ice cream cake" he said.  I must confess that I don't always make my kid's cake's from scratch.  There's been many a year where we've done store bought.  Although I enjoy baking I don't really care about the elaborate cakes that are shaped like hot air balloons and the like.  That said - this year I decided to find a recipe and attempt to make Jake's cake on my own. 

After a quick google search I came upon a recipe that seemed doable.  I decided rather than spend my time making the cake itself from scratch, I would concentrate on the overall assembly and use boxed cake mix.  I've learned that it's pretty difficult to beat a box mix and the time and energy saved can be well spent embellishing fillings and frostings on your cake.  This is what I did to make my cake:

1.  Used one box of chocolate cake mix  - baked this in two round cake pans.

2.  Sprayed a sheet of saran wrap with pam and put this pam side up into a third cake pan (same size as the previous two), then spread 1 gallon of softened mint cookie ice cream into pan packing it down to make it smooth and level on top.  Put this in freezer for at least 6hrs.

3.  Wrapped cooled cake layers in parchment paper and put in freezer.

4.  Made frosting as follows:

(recipe from baking bites blog)

Real Vanilla Bean Buttercream
1 lb (2 cups) unsalted butter, soft and cut into one inch pieces
3/4 cup plus 1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
5 large egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 vanilla bean

In the bowl of a stand mixer, place egg whites, with cream of tartar and 1/4 cup sugar nearby.
Heat 3/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Heat over medium high heat until sugar is dissolved. When sugar reaches 230F on a candy thermometer, turn mixer on medium high. When egg whites are frothy, add cream of tartar. Gradually add the 1/4 cup sugar. When egg whites begin to form soft peaks, turn the mixer down to medium low and begin to drizzle in the boiling sugar mixture (which should be at approximately 245-250F, firm ball stage). When all of the hot sugar is added, turn the mixer up to medium high and beat until the bowl is no longer warm to the touch. Add the butter one lump at a time and continue beating until mixture is smooth and fluffy, approximately 12-20 minutes. It will look rather like ricotta cheese for a while – just keep beating!
Once it is smooth, scrape vanilla bean and mix in the vanilla specks (or use 1-2 tsp vanilla extract).
Keep at room temperature – do not refrigerate before it has been spread on a cake or cupcakes.

 



5.  Assembled frozen cake layers - 1 layer cake, 1 layer ice cream, 1 layer cake. 

6.  Frosted cake with buttercream frosting (you have to work fairly quick before the ice cream starts to melt)

7.  Crushed up some mint oreos to sprinkle on outside of cake

8.  Wrap and store the entire cake in the freezer.  Remove from freezer about 30 minutes before you're ready to serve.

This cake turned out amazing!  It was really easy and the frosting was incredible - definitely worth the extra time.  Jake loved it and so did everyone else.  I will definitely be coming back to this recipe and trying different variations of it.  The possibilities are endless!

Have a marvelous Monday!!  Only 2 weeks until Christmas - eeek!!:)