Strawberry Cake

Just like I promised, I am going to give you the recipe for the absolute best strawberry cake.  It is our family’s favorite, hands down. This started as a recipe from a friend.  I have tweaked it over the years to serve our family preferences. I took this to a party yesterday and it was gone in 5 minutes, so there is no picture of a piece of it, just the whole cake.  Enjoy!!

Oh, yeah!  Disregard the toothpicks – nothing weird, I promise – I was about to wrap this in plastic wrap and didn’t want the icing to stick to it. Kind of looks like an alien cake!

Strawberry Cake Recipe:

1 BOX WHITE CAKE MIX
4 EGGS
1/2 CUP WATER
1 CUP OIL
1 BOX STRAWBERRY JELLO (SMALL)
1 CUP FROZEN STRAWBERRIES (THAWED)**

MIX ALL INGREDIENTS AND POUR INTO  GREASED AND FLOURED 9 INCH CAKE PANS. BAKE FOR @35 MINUTES AT 325.  TEST FOR DONENESS AND ADD EXTRA TIME IF NEEDED. This also makes a great 13x9 cake, if you don’t want to mess with the layers.

Cool cakes in pans for about 10 minutes.  Remove from pans onto parchment paper to cool completely.  Refrigerating the layers is great.  It makes the cake really easy to ice.

Icing:

6 egg whites

2/3 cup sugar

1/8 tsp. cream of tarter

4 sticks salted butter (not margarine!!!! use the real thing)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

12 ounces (about 1 1/2 cups) frozen, sliced, sweetened strawberries that have been thawed

2 cups powdered sugar

Place egg whites and sugar in a large metal mixing bowl over a pan of boiling water (make shift double boiler).  Whisk together until the egg whites feel warm to the touch and all of the sugar is totally dissolved.  Remove the bowl to the counter, add cream of tarter,  and start beating the egg white/sugar mixture with an electric mixer.  Start on low and increase the speed every 20 seconds until you are at high.  Beat until soft peaks form.  Add the butter a chunk at a time, beating well between each chunk.  The mixture will start to look clumpy after a while.  That’s ok! Keep on beating!  Pour in the vanilla extract and strawberries and keep on beating.  Dump in the powdered sugar and beat for a few more seconds.  The consistency will become very creamy and almost wet looking with strawberry chunks scattered throughout.  If you like the icing more red, just add a couple of drops of red food coloring.  Spread between layers and on top and sides of cake. This makes a huge batch.  If you want to pipe on extra to make it ‘fancy’ – go for it!!  This cake needs to be kept refrigerated once it is iced.

**I usually buy a 24 ounce tub of frozen, sweetened, sliced strawberries and use about a cup (I don’t measure – I just dump them in) for the cake and about a cup and a half (whatever is left in the container) for the icing.**