Description
Strawberries and lemonade say ‘summer’, don’t they? Combining these flavors in a cake makes a tangy, sweet dessert or snack. Garnish with additional fresh strawberries and lemon slices.
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups cake flour
- 1 ½ cups white sugar
- 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ cup frozen pink lemonade from concentrate, thawed
- ½ cup milk
- 4 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons strawberry extract
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract
- 2 drops red food coloring, or more as needed (Optional)
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, cubed
- 8 large fresh strawberries, stemmed, or more as needed
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1 pinch kosher salt
- ⅛ teaspoon strawberry extract, or to taste
- 1 (16 ounce) package confectioners’ sugar
- 1 (10 ounce) jar lemon curd
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 8-inch cake pans.
- Place cake flour
- sugar
- baking powder
- and 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt into the bowl of an electric mixer and stir to combine.
- Stir lemonade concentrate
- milk
- eggs
- 2 teaspoons strawberry extract
- lemon extract
- and food coloring together in a separate bowl.
- Add 12 tablespoons cubed butter to the flour mixture
- 2 to 3 pieces at a time
- and mix on low speed until all butter is added and the mixture resembles coarse meal. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- Resume mixing at medium speed; add 1/2 of the egg mixture slowly and mix
- about 20 seconds. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Resume mixing at medium speed; add remaining egg mixture in 2 batches
- about 20 seconds after each addition
- scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl after each addition. Pour batter evenly into the prepared cake pans.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean
- 28 to 33 minutes.
- Remove cakes from the oven and let cool on cooling racks for 10 minutes. Turn cake layers out onto the racks to cool completely
- 15 to 30 minutes.
- While cakes cool
- place 8 strawberries into a small food processor or an electric blender. Blend to make 1/4 cup puree.
- Place 10 tablespoons softened butter and a pinch of kosher salt into the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy
- about 2 minutes. Mix in 1/8 teaspoon strawberry extract. Gradually add about 1/3 of the confectioners’ sugar to the butter while continuing to mix. Add 1/2 of the strawberry puree
- scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl
- and continue mixing.
- Add the next 1/3 of the confectioners’ sugar
- scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl. Mix in remaining strawberry puree. Sprinkle in the remaining confectioners’ sugar and mix until desired consistency is reached
- adding more confectioners’ sugar or strawberry puree as needed.
- Place the cooled bottom cake layer on a serving plate and spread the top with lemon curd. Place the second layer on top of the first and frost with strawberry buttercream starting with the sides
- then the top of the cake.
Prep Time: 45 mins
Cook Time: 30 mins
Total Time: 1 hr 25 mins
Servings: 12