Strawberry Balsamic Cake
I have a new mantra for baking - it’s hard to get it right on the first shot. My routine has truly transformed into try it once, blow it, & then come back for redemption. I can’t help but feel this pending need to repeat the process, correct my mistakes, and prove to myself that I can have a beautiful bake. Cake making has become this task for me where I can’t seem to get it right on the first try, and the past 3 cakes I’ve made have been ones I’ve baked twice to correct flaws and to be able to walk away feeling like I’ve got it right. The piece I so badly want to master is that perfectly frosted final touch. Skip the fondant & the fancy icing - I’m satisfied with a smooth coat, sharp edges, & a good bit of height for dramatic effect. & there’s so much that goes into that - a perfectly risen cake, a sturdy filling, and a fluffy & creamy frosting. Truly - it’s f*cking hard. & I want to be able to produce just that every time. This Strawberry Balsamic Cake was a step in the right direction. On the first attempt, it came out just right - perfectly neat with a homemade touch, 3 sturdy tiers, & yummy flavors in all of the components that were a total dream put together.
So another cake that we definitely didn’t need. For literally just me and Jordan. All I can say is the chocolate cake of 2 weeks ago didn’t go as planned, and I’ve been upset about it for weeks. I used my spare Sunday & my husbands preoccupation with the Seahawks as an excuse to just go for it - devote a little time to tiered cake round 2 that was truly un-necessary, but just fun. & I made the kind of cake that I love to eat - one that’s fluffy, light, fruity, & not too sweet. This cake fit the bill big-time, which is both a good thing and a bad thing because I’ve beens ending my evenings with a slice of cake & Mindhunter for the last 4 nights, because hello irresistible left-overs combined with my total lack of self control. Nonetheless, I swear this bad boy is my new go to when in need to impress my friends.
If you haven’t roasted strawberries, it’s literally the best thing you will do for yourself. & the best thing can do for a strawberry bake. The strawberries take on this deep red color & shrink up just slightly so they stay juicy, but develop a pretty concentrated fruit flavor that’s super pleasant. At the same time, the juices cook up to create a fruity syrup that, in this particular cake, soaks up into pieces of the vanilla sponge and acts as a syrup, and it’s pretty f*cking delicious.
Roasted strawberries taste so good on their own - they taste like a perfectly sweet strawberry should & you’ll have fun sampling them right when they pop out of the oven. They’re also so good blended up with the syrup to create a spreadable filling. For this cake, you’ll blend half of the strawberries while leaving the others in their roasted glory, giving a hefty dose of strawberry to this treat.
The blended strawberries are used in the frosting for a little color and flavor, and as a thin base layer for the filling between the cake layers. You add just a few tablespoons of the purée to the buttercream in place of milk to get a fluffy and light consistency. It gives your frosting a slight fruity flavor & the a pleasant pink tint. The sliced and roasted strawberries are then used for a simple and organic topping. There are enough sliced strawberries to span across the entire top of the cake so that each slice of cake comes with a generous amount of freshly roasted strawbs. Even better, that strawberry syrup just drips down the side of the cake wherever it can, creating a natural and non-unfiorm pattern of drips down the side of the cake that really just looks so pretty. & just to emphasize, it’s purpose is a sauce, so it’s just another little something to get soaked up by the vanilla layers.
I was hesitant about balsamic roasted strawberries, and truly all I can think of is the Strawberry Balsamic Ice Cream at Salt & Straw that I always steer away from. To me, that vinegary taste should be reserved for a salad. But I know it’s the rage, and so on trend to have something like balsamic in a dessert. & I read so many blogs about roasting strawbs & balsamic, and they all stated it was a super mild flavor. So at the risk of turning my Sunday bake into cake-tastrophe #2, I went with it. Decided there must be something to it &, as a total skeptic, let me say the taste is delicious. If you taste one of the strawbs right out of the oven, you’ll be like “Oh, that’s different.” Not bad, but you definitely get a tangy bite. For whatever reason, not a tinge of that expected balsamic flavor comes through with the cake. It’s like the balsamic really mellows things out pairs perfectly with the sugary stuff, & essentially produces a cake that’s not super sweet.
The vanilla cake itself isn’t super sweet, the strawberries are just fruity opposed to sweet, and the only rich component is the frosting. I mean, it’s buttercream, so butter and sugar whipped to fluffy perfection. It’s a rich component, but it’s fool proof & so good. A bit of the frosting + cake + strawberries is the perfect bite that is the epitome of what a strawberry cake should taste like.
Thing to note: do the prep work! The strawberries can be roasted 2 to 3 days in advance, and I made sure to get mine all cooked up a couple days ahead of time. It’s not a super time intensive, or involved process, but it’s one thing to check off the list & not be a distraction when it comes to cake making & icing. You can leave the roasted strawbs & puree in the fridge, eliminating any risk that they’ll be too warm when ready for use. & for me, a girl that likes to clear the schedule & make sure any room for error is eliminated when it comes to icing a cake, being ahead of schedule is great.
Another thing to note: if you have any left over fresh strawberries that don’t get roasted, use them! I placed a layer of fresh, sliced, & un-roasted strawberries right on top of the frosting that comprise the 2 layers of filling. Just another bit of freshness, so why not? Totally optional and something I opted for because I bought way too many strawberries, but it was real good.
My sweet tooth was very happy about this one. I’m effectively undermining any Peloton workout I manage to get in, but this is the best treat we’ve had in our house in a while, so I’m chalking it up as being worth every calorie. & one of my new co-workers was super impressed with how pretty it looked via Instagram, so further confirmation this falls into the category of a simple bake that I can pull out of my back pocket later to impress any dinner guests that come our way. & you better believe that’ll happen! But for now, I’ll embrace that our weekend wrapped up with a bit of cake, and there’s something special about that.
For the Balsamic Strawberries
6 cups of sliced strawberries
1/4 c. brown sugar
6 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
For the Vanilla Cake
1/2 c. canola oil
1 1/4 c. sugar
3 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla (plus a little extra dash for good measure)
1 3/4 c. flour
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 c. almond milk
For the Frosting
4 1/2 sticks of butter
2 lb. powdered sugar
Start with roasting the strawberries. Preheat the oven to 375. Line a large baking pan with foil. Toss the sliced strawberries with the balsamic and sugar. Lay the strawberries in a single layer, and roast for 40-45 minutes. The strawberries will turn a deep red color, and the balsamic thickened with the juices from the fruit to a syrup-like consistency. Let them cool for 30 minutes. Puree half of the cooled strawberries, trying not to get too much of the syrup with that pureed half, and set aside the puree for the frosting. Reserve the remaining roasted & sliced strawberries and the syrup for cake assembly.
To make the cake, grease and flour 3 cake pans. Line the bottom of each with parchment. Heat the oven to 350. In a large bowl, mix together the oil & sugar. Add in the eggs & vanilla, and beat until the mixture is light and airy. Add in a cup of the flour, the baking powder, and salt, and stir until incorporate. Stir in half of the milk. Add in the remaining flour & milk, beating until the mixture if smooth and appears light. Spread the cake batter evenly between each cake pan. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes. Once baked, let the cakes cool in the pan for 30 minutes before removing the cakes from the cake pans and transferring them to wire racks. Let them sit on racks until completely cooled.
To make the frosting, beat the butter & powdered sugar in an electric mixer until it’s light and fluffy - just a perfectly airy buttercream consistency. Put the mixture on low for 2 minutes, then medium low for a minute, and medium to medium high for another 3 minutes. Add in 4 tablespoons of the pureed strawberries, adding it in 1 tablespoon at a time until each tablespoon is evenly mixed into the frosting. Keep the frosting in the fridge until you’re ready to ice the cake.
For the cake assembly, follow these steps:
Place the bottom cake layer on your cake tray. Pipe a border of frosting right along the edge of that base layer. Spread half of the remaining strawberry puree directly on the vanilla cake in the middle of the frosting border. Spread a thin layer of frosting right on top of the puree (I also recommend piping on the frosting right on top of the strawberry to fill in the frosting).
Place the second layer of cake right on top of the frostinng, and repeat the previous steps for the filling.
Place the top layer on top of the second filling. Place a dollop of frosting on the top layer, and pipe a bit of frosting around the side of the cake. Proceed to dirty ice the cake - running a cake scraper along the sides of the cake so the frosting lightly coats the edges of the cake, and then spreading the layer of frosting on the very top of the cake into a thin layer. Scrape off any extra frosting. Give the cake a final scrape around the sides so that the edges of the cake are a bit exposed, and if a lip of frosting forms at the top of the cake that’s totally fine.
Let the cake & frosting firm up in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Last step is spooning the balsamic roasted strawberries on the top of the cake. Let the syrup drip down the sides of the cake organically. All done & it’s ready to eat.