strawberry cake

[esperanza]

DS wants a "strawberry cake" for his birthday. I'm looking for ideas, hopefully on the healthier side. But most of the guests will not want a healthy tasting birthday cake. :wink I'm not sure it really needs to be strawberry flavored- probably strawberries on top would make him happy.
Ideas? I'm going to make it myself and can bake, but nothing super fancy!

[MegMarch]

Look at Martha Stewart's strawberry cake recipe. It looks beautifully rustic which is nice to avoid stressing perfection. There are some variations on the recipe floating around, so check reviews to see what suits you best.

[Laurlor]

I haven't made this cake, but have made many things from the website and have been dying for an occasion to try this:

http://www.cookingclassy.com/2015/05/fresh-strawberry-cake/

Seriously, all the recipes on her site are amazing!

[forty-two]

I made this strawberry cake for dd10's birthday: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/simply-delicious-strawberry-cake-recipe.html (I didn't make the frosting, though - used vanilla instead). It was easy and tasty :tu. (I actually made it gluten free, using a 15oz gf cake mix instead of the 18.25oz cake mix it asks for, and it still turned out well.)

[2sunshines]

I haven't looked in to it again recently, but a few years back I had a request for strawberry cake. I scoured the internet and was distressed to discover that almost all of them required the addition of red food dye (either directly, or from an added ingredient that has red food dye, ie. strawberry jello). We can't do food dyes in general, but definitely avoid red40 because of allergies.

There were some options out there that were more natural without any added dyes, but for simplicity I ended up making a vanilla cake, with a cream cheese frosting that I added strawberries to to make it "strawberry frosting" and garnished with fresh strawberry slices. It turned out really well. :yes

[esperanza]

Yes, that was my hesitation too. No allergies but I prefer to avoid those ingredients. Do you have a good vanilla cake recipe you used? All the recipes posted look so good too! I am nervous to try a new recipe for a party but we really don't need a cake at our house to eat before the party either!

[Laurlor]

Yes, that was my hesitation too. No allergies but I prefer to avoid those ingredients. Do you have a good vanilla cake recipe you used? All the recipes posted look so good too! I am nervous to try a new recipe for a party but we really don't need a cake at our house to eat before the party either!

I used to be nervous about making new recipes, but if there are enough comments on a website saying that the recipe was fabulous, I usually find that when I make it it turns out great. I almost never use recipe books anymore because I like to read comments and know the recipe has been successful.

[2sunshines]

Yes, that was my hesitation too. No allergies but I prefer to avoid those ingredients. Do you have a good vanilla cake recipe you used? All the recipes posted look so good too! I am nervous to try a new recipe for a party but we really don't need a cake at our house to eat before the party either!

I don't remember which recipe I used. :think It was from online. I tend to stick to the blogs and cooks that I'm familiar with and definitely read the reviews.

I have a recently diagnosed gluten and dairy intolerant daughter so all the cakes I've been in recent history have been gluten and dairy free. Which I definitely wouldn't want to do were it not necessary (much more $$$ for ingredients...).

[esperanza]

Laulor's recipe doesn't have any artificial colors, and ds declared that it looks really good. I think I'm going to try that one.

Now I need to figure out how to make it/how much. We'll have 7 kids, 9 adults. Seems like a lot to get 16 pieces from one round cake. It would probably look nicer than a rectangle cake, but that would sure be easier to cut into pieces!

I will report back on how it turns out!

[Laurlor]

I actually think you could get 16 slices from it. When I've made 3 layer cakes, they are really tall so the slices need to be smaller. If you're worried about the slices being too small, I would just serve them with some ice cream and/or whipped cream and fresh strawberries to make it seem bigger. I would also refrigerate the cake before you slice it, because it's much easier to slice smaller slices when the frosting is firm.

I read all the reviews on the cake, and the only real problem people had seemed to be in the heat, so make sure you keep it cool :).

Good luck! Can't wait to hear the review!

[2sunshines]

Laulor's recipe doesn't have any artificial colors, and ds declared that it looks really good. I think I'm going to try that one.

Now I need to figure out how to make it/how much. We'll have 7 kids, 9 adults. Seems like a lot to get 16 pieces from one round cake. It would probably look nicer than a rectangle cake, but that would sure be easier to cut into pieces!

I will report back on how it turns out!

Oh yes! That recipe looks amazing! Can't wait to hear your review! And would LOVE to see pictures too if you remember. :heart

[esperanza]

Ahhh, the pressure! Not just for the party but now all the GCMers waiting to see and hear. :)

[2sunshines]

:P~

:lol

Trust me, no pressure from us. All of us are busy moms with huge aspirations but a ton of failures along the way. :lol:lol:lol

In fact, if it were me, I'd make the recipe. But I'd in no way tackle the "layer" aspect of it. Sounds exhausting. :shifty I just make sheet cakes with icing. I think I made a two layer cake once or twice. :yes I love the looks and tastes of them, just don't have the patience. :O

All that to say, do not fear our judgement. ;) We set the bar low. :rockon

ETA: I just have an obsessive love of food pictures. :shifty

[esperanza]

Ha-ha! Thanks. I think a sheet cake sounds much more manageable. The layers and frosting scare me. I have to figure out how to adjust the recipe for a rectangle cake though.

[2sunshines]

I don't think you'd need to make any adjustments. :think Do you have a sheet cake pan that's a decent size?

[esperanza]

Hmm, I have 9x13 pans but maybe I need one that is bigger. I think my mom has one.

[Laurlor]

If you're doing it as a sheet cake, here's another recipe (http://www.gonnawantseconds.com/2014/04/strawberry-sheet-cake-with-lemon-frosting/) that I haven't made :lol, but that looked good to me and I've had it pinned on my Pinterest for awhile, not finding an occasion to make it. You could look at it to try to convert the other recipe so you get the amounts right?

[esperanza]

If you're doing it as a sheet cake, here's another recipe (http://www.gonnawantseconds.com/2014/04/strawberry-sheet-cake-with-lemon-frosting/) that I haven't made :lol, but that looked good to me and I've had it pinned on my Pinterest for awhile, not finding an occasion to make it. You could look at it to try to convert the other recipe so you get the amounts right?


Thank you for this! Looking at it quickly, the measurements look very similar. So I'm going to try to making the recipe as is but as a sheet cake. That will be much easier to both frost and cut for so many people. Party is next weekend so I will report back!

[esperanza]

Finally back to update. I made the cake Laulor linked to. I don't have a picture- sorry! I realized we didn't get one of just the cake without ds.
I ended up making the cake twice. The recipe has is definitely is best as one 9x13 cake. I thought it would make a 9x13 and 8x8, but those were too thin. It took longer to bake that way, and the first ones I made weren't baked all the way through.
If you do make a 9x13 cake, I'd make half the amount of frosting. It was way too much!
The cake was good. I'd make it again, though it was somewhat labor intensive. Especially when I had to make the cake and frosting twice. :wink Definitely better than a boxed cake! Ds seemed to like it and the guests did too. Something different!