Strawberry Cake

This cake breaks all of the rules in our house - flour, sugar, red food dye... I did eliminate the imitation strawberry flavour from the original recipe but more because I couldn't be bothered to search the grocery store for it when I already have a killer fresh strawberry frosting recipe.

But I had good reason to break the rules... David's birthday!

Anyone who knows David knows he loves all things Superman so when I stumbled across a Superman cake pan on etsy, I knew I just had to make it for him. The pan has been hiding the basement for a couple of months now and thankfully he worked three shifts right before his birthday to give me enough time to make it without him seeing it.

I couldn't have been happier with the results.

Adapted from Lottie + Doof, makes 2 9" round cakes (or one Superman!)

3 cups flour, plus more for pans
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup seedless strawberry jam
Red food coloring, optional
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs

1 cup unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pans
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
Red food coloring, optional
1 pound icing sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon strawberry extract or 1/4 cup fresh strawberries, pureed

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease two 9″ round cake pans with butter and coat well with flour, set aside.

Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together milk, jam and food coloring.

With a stand mixer, beat together sugar, oil, vanilla and eggs on medium-high speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Alternately add dry and wet ingredients to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with dry mix until combined.

Divide the batter between the prepared pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle of cakes comes out clean, about 40 minutes.

Let cool 10 minutes before removing from pan. Allow to cool completely before icing.

In the stand mixer bowl, beat butter and cream cheese on high speed until smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the food coloring, 3 cups of icing sugar and strawberry extract or puree and beat until smooth. If fresh strawberries are used, more sugar will be required. Continue to add icing sugar until the desired consistency is reached.

Apply the icing to the cake and refrigerate for 1 hour before serving.

Amy