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Strawberry Cake

by Martha Swift & Lisa Thomas from The Primrose Bakery Book

A delicate sponge cake finished with gorgeous pink buttercream. Created by The Primrose Bakery, this strawberry sandwich cake recipe is perfect for birthdays.

From the book

Martha Swift, Lisa Thomas

Introduction

A pretty pink sponge cake with strawberries in the sponge, in the filling and on the top, this is the perfect summer cake. It is best eaten as soon as the final strawberry has been placed on top as the juice from the fruit will start to seep into the icing.

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Ingredients

For the sponge:
210 g self-raising flour
25 g cornflour
225 g golden caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
225 g unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for greasing tins
4 large eggs, free-range or organic
225 g fresh strawberries, hulled and chopped into small pieces
1 tsp good-quality vanilla extract
250 g fresh strawberries, hulled, to decorate
For the vanilla buttercream:
115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
60ml semi-skimmed milk
1 tsp good-quality vanilla extract
500g icing sugar
a few drops of rose food colouring
For the filling:
3–4 tbsp strawberry jam
A few fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced

Essential kit

You will need a food processor, an electric hand mixer and 2 x 20cm sandwich cake tins.

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. Grease 2 x 20cm sandwich cake tins and line the base of each tin with baking paper.

Sift the flour, cornflour, sugar and baking powder into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until evenly mixed, which should take about 4 seconds. Add the butter, eggs, strawberries and vanilla extract and process briefly until well combined, but not overly processed.

Divide the mixture evenly between the 2 cake tins and smooth the tops with a spatula. Bake in the centre of the oven for 25 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre of one of the cakes comes out clean.

Using an electric hand mixer, beat the butter, milk, vanilla extract and half the icing sugar in a bowl until smooth. This will usually take a few minutes. Gradually add the remainder of the icing sugar to produce a buttercream with creamy and smooth consistency.

Leave the cakes to cool slightly in their tins for 10 minutes and then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

When the cakes are completely cool, remove the baking paper circles from their bases. Place 1 cake on a plate and spread with a thin layer of strawberry jam. Then place a thin layer of sliced strawberries on top of the jam. Hold the second cake and ice the underside of it with a 1cm-thick layer of vanilla buttercream. Carefully place on top of the first cake, iced side down. Once the cakes are sandwiched together, ice the top with the remaining buttercream and top with the fresh strawberries.

This cake is best served immediately, as the fresh strawberries do have a tendency to soften and bleed their juice into the icing quite quickly.

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From the book: The Primrose Bakery Book

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