Strawberry Birthday Cake

If you remember my birthday cake post last year, it's that time again. My boy just turned four and he requested a strawberry birthday cake. I am determined to make all of his birthday cakes (as long as I continue to make them) from ingredients I find locally. His request couldn't be more perfect.

Although strawberry season in Texas is short lived, we have frozen some when they were in season just a few weeks ago. I searched for a recipe and came across this Pink Lady Cake from Smitten Kitchen. Deb has saved me many occasions from Graham cracker, chocolate wafer cookies, pineapple upside down cake, meringue cookies (when we had too much egg whites left from making ice cream) and many more. It's apparent that Deb has covered pretty much all recipes on earth (or close anyway).

This time is big because it's a birthday cake. The kind that was requested. This recipe is the only one I found that did not involve cake mix from the box or food coloring (if you choose not to) or flavored gelatin. I ( or in fact Laura, our brand new baker in the house. Glad to have you on board) changed it up by making it gluten free using the recipe of gluten free flour mix from Annalise and Claudia at Food Philosopher. We didn't add Xanthan Gum as we thought it was not necessary. The outcome? Delicious and fluffy cake with no gluten in it.

I am not a gluten free girl but I am allergic to wheat products. I have exercise-induced anaphylaxis. I will puff up like an elephant and may end up in an emergency room on a bad day or scratching myself like a little monkey on a good occasion. Or, I have to sit on the couch after eating wheat products and nothing will happen. I always made a joke about how I can't dance and drink (especially beer) at the same time. I have to either drink and be seated and smile or dance and pretend that I am drunk so people won't mind that I dance so crazily. The emergence of gluten free products and ideas came as a life saver for me. On occasions, I still dive into wheat products and make sure I don't go running.





The celebration is not complete without action figures and this year his choice was Iron Man and Spiderwoman. There was no party, just a small gathering of mama and daddy and a few employees and it was a super sweet moment. The cake was delicious and I could totally taste strawberry in it. Who said pink is for girls?




Strawberry Birthday Cake
adapted from Smitten Kitchen

cake
4 1/2 cups gluten free flour (6 cups rice flour, I used white rice flour, 2 cups potato starch and 1 cup tapioca flour)
3 cups sugar
5 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups pureed frozen strawberries
8 egg whites (thanks for helping us getting rid of our egg whites, again)
2/3 cup milk
1 to 2 drops beet juice (I just freshly juice the beets for this.)

the cream cheese frosting (we cut the frosting to 2/3 of the recipe but this is the full recipe. The calories in cream cheese freaked me out a little)
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks; 6 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
3 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons beet juice

Make the cake
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter three 9-inch round. Line with parchment or waxed paper and butter the paper.

Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixer bowl. With the electric mixer on low speed, blend for 30 seconds. Add the butter and strawberry puree and mix to blend the ingredients. Raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.

In another large bowl, whisk together the egg whites, milk and beet juice, if using, to blend. Add the whites to the batter in two or three additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl well and mixing only to incorporate after each addition. Divide the batter among the three prepared pans.

Bake the cakes for 30 to 34 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow the layers to cool in the pans for 10 to 15 minutes. Invert and turn out onto wire racks and peel off the paper liners. Let stand until completely cooled before assembling the cake, at least an hour. (well, we didn't have that much time, so, our frosting kind of melted a little but it was still pretty good)

Make the cream cheese frosting

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, beet juice (if you would like your frosting pink) and then gradually stir in the confectioners’ sugar. Laura added beet juice to the frosting by accident so we just went with pink frosting which turned out perfect. We used left over white frosting to decorate the cake.

Frost and assemble the cake

Place one cake layer on a cake board or platter. Spread about 2/3 cup frosting over the layer, spreading it to the edge. Repeat with the second layer. Add the top layer and frost the top and sides of cake with remaining frosting.