Homemade Strawberry Cake

My son recently turned 4! I still can’t believe it. He’s so smart, energetic, and stubborn (gets that from me ). When I asked him what kind of cake he wanted he was very specific – pink cake with pink frosting and crushed oreos on top. ok…I can do that, I thought.

So I ended up finding this delicious looking recipe for a strawberry cake and it turned out wonderful! The cake wasn’t as pink as I thought it would be, but no big deal.

I ended up making it a layer cake for fun and the recipe makes TONS of frosting. But I only had one 9 inch cake pan, so I ended up improvising. I made the one cake, then when it was cool, I cut it in half horizontally. It worked just fine, just wasn’t the most perfect cake.

Homemade Strawberry Cake

• 1 (10 ounce) bag frozen strawberries
• For the Cupcakes:
• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1½ cups sugar
• 4 egg whites, room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 cup whole milk, room temperature
• ¼ cup strawberry reduction (from frozen strawberries)
• 1 Tb white vinegar
• For the Frosting:
• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 3 to 4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• 12 ounces cream cheese, cut into 12 pieces and softened
• remaining strawberry solids (from frozen strawberries)
• pinch salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Microwave strawberries until they are soft and have released their juice in a microwave safe bowl. About 5 minutes.
3. Using a fine-mesh strainer, firmly press fruit dry over a small saucepan. You should have at least 3/4 cup of liquid. Place strawberry solids in refrigerator.
4. Over medium-high heat, bring the juice to boil and cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid becomes syrupy. Liquid should be reduced to 1/4 cup ( takes about 6 to 8 minutes). Then whisk in the milk and vinegar until combined. Set aside.
5. In a large bowl cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Then add the egg whites one by one, mixing well after each one. Mix in vanilla.
6. In a separate medium bowl, sift together the dry ingredients; flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to evenly combine. Begin to add to the butter/egg mixture alternately with the milk mixture (beginning and ending with the flour), beating well after each addition.
7. Divide batter amongst two 9-inch cake pans and bake 30-35 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
8. For the Frosting: Using a mixer, mix butter and 3 cups confectioners’ sugar for about 30 seconds on low until combined.
9. Increase speed to medium-high and beat for about 2 more minutes until fluffy. One at a time, add the cream cheese and beat until well mixed.
10. Add a pinch of salt and the strawberry solids and mix until combined. If you need/want to thicken the frosting, add additional 1 cup confectioners’ sugar to thicker. Refrigerate until ready to use, up to 2 days.

Notes

Original recipe, from Laura’s Sweet Spot was for cupcakes; Fill cups ⅔ full and bake 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Grey and Yellow Bunting

A really good friend of mine is having a baby soon too and I wanted to make something special for her. So naturally I stalked her Pinterest board to see what colors she was going with and what kind of things she might like. thank you Pinterest!

I hope this is something she’ll like, cuz I love how it turned out and am dying to make another for my baby’s nursery.

It was simple. First I just made a template from some cardstock. I probably could have done it a little more exact, but I wasn’t being picky.

Then I traced it onto the fabric I picked out.

After cutting out the triangles with my rotary cutter – much faster- I pinned two pieces with right sides together and sewed down both sides. I found that it was easiest to sew down and off the point instead of trying to turn and go back down the other side. Maybe that’s just me though. My sewing machine and I were fighting at the time. Not really on speaking terms, well I did a lot of speaking, just not nice things :)

Once I sewed all the triangles together, I flipped them right side out and ironed them flat. I got some 1” single fold bias tape and ironed that in half. Stick the triangles in the bias tape and pin, pin, pin.

I finally negotiated a truce with my sewing machine and got her working nicely to sew the triangles to the bias tape.

Last Minute Summer Trip

You may have noticed I’ve been a little MIA from the blog lately. Well between being pregnant and this hot summer we’ve had, I have lost motivation to craft and blog. This last week the boys and I took a last minute trip to Utah to get out of the heat and have fun. The boys wore cowboy hats to be just like Papa.

We played in the sprinkler

Had a picnic lunch outside.

We also watched the hummingbirds that swarmed the feeder Nana had. We helped build some cabinets, the boys loved that. We went for a couple quad rides and played with the wagons and trucks in the backyard. Just a lot of time outside which the boys haven’t gotten this summer with it being so hot.

It was nice for me to get away from the house for a few days and focus on time with the boys before the baby comes. I didn’t have the computer nearby or have to worry about getting the laundry done, etc so we got to spend lots of time together playing. The boys also got to spend a couple hours with some cousins and had  a blast bouncing on an old mattress Papa was getting rid of.

I’m cracking down this week and getting as much done as I can to prepare for baby – which may or may not include a couple projects I’ll post about. Other than that I do have a line up of several awesome guest posts and some other odds and ends I’ve been compiling and saving up for a while. I’m hoping that before long I’ll have a wonderful new baby to share with you as well!