Should we let our life overflow with love or refrain ourselves from vanities? It’s not a question when making a Strawberry lemonade cake.
As I lately have some time, I was surfing on the web last week. In search of new, interesting thoughts, inspiring dishes that I have never tested before, to impress my family with. Hunting for quite some time but could not come across any interesting things. Right before I thought to give up on it, I stumbled on this yummy and simple dessert simply by accident over Suncakemom. It seemed so fabulous on its snapshot, that required urgent action.
It had been simple enough to imagine how it is created, how it tastes and how much my husband will probably want it. Actually, it is rather easy to delight the man when it comes to cakes. Anyhow, I visited the page and followed the detailed instuctions that had been coupled with nice photos of the process. It just makes life faster and easier. I can suppose it’s a slight hassle to shoot pics in the midst of baking in the kitchen as you usually have sticky hands thus i sincerely appreciate the time and effort she placed in to build this post .
With that in mind I am inspired presenting my personal recipes in the same way. Many thanks for the concept.
I was fine tuning the initial formula to make it for the taste of my loved ones. Need to say it turned out a terrific success. They enjoyed the flavor, the overall look and enjoyed having a treat such as this in the middle of a busy workweek. They ultimately wanted lots more, many more. So next time I am not going to make the same miscalculation. I am likely to double the quantity .
Thanks to Suncakemom for the mouth-watering Strawberry Lemonade Cake Cupcake.
Cake
Measure flour, baking powder, salt, lemon zest, butter, eggs, vanilla extract and milk into a mixing bowl.
Combine all ingredients together.
Mix in lemon juice or lemon extract. Lemon juice will whiten the batter. Acid in lemon juice can negatively affect the baking soda’s ability to raise the cake. A teaspoon of baking soda can help neutralize its effect on the cake.
Pour the batter into parchment papered and/or greased baking form.
Bake in a 360°F / 180°C preheated oven’s bottom rack until the top gets some golden brown spots for about 30 – 40 minutes.
Let it cool a bit then shape it by removing the uneven parts.
Slice the cake into three layers.
Jam
Bring the chopped strawberries and water to boil with the lid on.
Cook the strawberries on medium heat until soft.
Mash them or use a hand blander to puree.
Filter out the bits and seeds. This can take long and require some stirring and mashing things through the sieve.
Put the strawberry puree back to the cook top and reduce it by half or even more. The thicker it will be the more we can stack onto the layers. We can use a somewhat runny jam too but it will seep into the holes and crevices which still taste good but won’t look that nice. Any leftover jam can be canned and stored for later.
Cream
Beat cream cheese and sweetener of choice until soft and creamy.
Mix in the strawberries.
Beat heavy cream and lemon juice until hard peaks form.
Mix cream cheese and heavy cream together. Taste and add more sweetener if desired.
Assembly
Spread strawberry jam onto the first layer and spread it out evenly. If we haven’t reduced the strawberry to a thick spread then seal the outer side of the cake with some frosting first so the jam won’t escape sneakily.
Repeat it with the second layer.
On the third topmost layer skip the jam as it can ruin the even spreading of the cream and go straight to the frosting. Spread about half of the cream cheese frosting on top and the other half on the side of the cake.