I had never made a cake like that before, so I took to the internet. After browsing several recipes, I settled on one by Martha Stewart. I've always trusted her cupcake recipes (I have a cookbook of hers and every cupcake turns out amazing - no matter what!), and it seemed to have pretty good reviews. So I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.
The outcome was a dense cake with a lot of flavour and freshness to it. Below is basically her recipe with some modifications based on the reviews and other things. You can view the original recipe here.
This recipe is definitely a keeper that we will make again!
Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (plus more for the pans)
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour (plus more for the pans)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs, plus 2 large egg yolks
1/2 cup milk
for the filling
1 pound strawberries, hulled and thinly sliced (a few more never hurt either!)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp unflavoured gelatin (from a 1/4-oz envelope)
1-1/2 cups heavy cream (or up to 473ml carton)
1 tsp vanilla
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Butter bottom of two (2) 8" round cake pans, and line with parchment paper. Butter and flour paper and sides. (Alternately you can bake it in 1 pan, double the cooking time and then slice it in half horizontally using a serrated knife.)
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.
3. Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat butter and 1/2 cup sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs and yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides as necessary. Beat in vanilla.
4. With mixer on low, alternately add flour mixture in 3 parts and milk in 2 parts, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix just until combined. Spread batter in prepared pans (the batter is quite thick).
5. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, about 15 minutes (or 30-35 minuets if you baked it in one pan). [The cake will look very light in colour; it doesn't brown much.] Cool in pan for 10 minutes; invert onto wire racks to cool completely. [At this point slice the cake if you used on pan. Place the bottom half cut side up, and the top half will be placed cut side down.]
6. To make the filling/topping: In a large bowl, combine strawberries and 1/4 cup sugar; set aside. Place 2 tbsp cold water in a small bowl and sprinkle with gelatin; let soften 5 minutes. Microwave gelatin bowl in 10-15 second increments until the gelatin is dissolvevd, stirring as needed. Let it cool.
7. Using an electric mixter, beat cream, vanilla and remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a large bowl until very soft peaks form. Add a couple of teaspoons of whipping cream to gelatin mixture to temper it. Then gradually add the gelatin mixture as you continue to beat the whipping cream until soft peaks form.
8. Arrange half the strawberries over bottom cake layer; top with half of whipped cream, leaving a 1" border. Cover with top half of cake (bottom side up). Top with remaining whipped cream, leaving a 1" border. Refrigerate cake and remaining strawberries separately, at least 1 hour (or up to 1 day). Just before serving, spoon strawberries over cake.
