Strawberry Cake
Ingredients:
Roasted Strawberries:
300g fresh strawberries, sliced
30g caster sugar
juice of half a lemon
Strawberry Cake:
225g unsalted butter (room temperature)
225g caster sugar
3 medium eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g roasted strawberry puree
225g self raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
pink food colouring
Buttercream:
225g unsalted butter (room temperature)
450g icing sugar
3 tbsp whole milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
Pink and green food colouring
handful of strawberries and edible flowers to decorate
Method:
Place the sliced strawberries on a lined baking tray, sprinkle over the sugar and lemon juice, and roast at 180°C for 10-15 minutes.
Once cool, leave around 1/3 aside, and blitz the rest to a purée and set aside.
Lower the oven temperature to 175°C
Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
Add the eggs and mix until fully combined.
Add the strawberry purée and vanilla.
Mix in the flour, baking powder and salt.
If you want to enhance the pink colouring, add some pink food colouring.
Transfer to two greased and lined tall 4 inch cake tins (as seen in the photo) or 2x 6 inch cake tins (for a wider but shorter cake).
Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean (time may vary depending tin size).
For the buttercream, cream the butter and icing sugar until very pale, and add the vanilla and milk. Use food colouring to achieve the pink and green for the background and strawberry stalks/leaves.
Once the cake is cool, level the sponges and sandwich with the buttercream and the roasted strawberries you set aside.
Crumb coat the cake, and leave to set in the fridge before covering with buttercream and decorating with strawberries!
Enjoy!