Strawberry Cake

Now that warm weather is here the grocery store has lots of sweet strawberries.  I had bought 2 packets from Longo's....then I went to my mom's and she had bought a packet for Hasan...so now my house is overflowing with strawberries.  I hate it when food goes bad so I knew I had to do something with them or else I was going to end up with some rotting strawberries.  I found a recipe at Smitten Kitchen which was perfect because it used strawberries, had no vanilla (I am all out of vanilla powder) and it used 4 egg whites (I had exactly 4 egg whites sitting in my fridge).  I replaced the butter with margarine and made a low fat cream cheese frosting.  I made half the recipe because the whole recipe was way too much for our family.  I didn't have cake flour so I just used all-purpose but reduced the amount.  I should have sifted it but I was lazy.  Next time I would do a proper substitution to make the cake less dense.  I omitted the food colouring.  The original recipe uses frozen strawberries which would be a great idea when strawberries aren't in season.  This was so yummy...I am really looking forward to making it again!

The cake was very fragile.  I tried to flip the cake over on the wire rack but it was all falling apart.  Invert the cake pan onto the wire rack to release the cake.  Peel off the parchment paper and let it cool upside down.  Place your cake plate on the cake and carefully holding the rack and cake plate together flip the cake.  Next time I'm going to try this as a cupcake.

Strawberry Cake
July 2011 - Made this cake with Robin Hood Nutri Flour.  It resulted in a very dense cake.  Stick to regular all-purpose flour when making this.
 
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

2 1/4 cups minus 4 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 1/2 plus 1/8 tsp baking powder
1/4 plus 1/8 tsp salt
3/4 cup margarine
3/4 cup pureed fresh or frozen strawberries
4 egg whites
1/3 cup milk


Low-Fat Cream Cheese Frosting
1/8 to 1/4 cup light cream cheese, softened
icing sugar to taste


Preheat oven to 350F.  Spray a 9 inch round cake pan with oil.  Line the bottom with parchment paper and lightly oil the paper.


In the bowl of a mixer add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  On low speed, blend for about 30 seconds.  Add the margarine and strawberry puree and mix until combined.  Increase the speed to medium and mix until light and fluffy.

In another large bowl, whisk together egg whites and milk until blended.  On low speed add the egg white mixture in 3 additions scraping down the bowl after each addition.  Before each addition, mix until just incorporated.  Pour batter in the pan.


Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool in pan for 15 minutes.  Invert cake onto a wire rack and peel off parchment paper.  The cake is very fragile so don't try to handle too much or flip it over.  Allow to completely cool upside down.  When cool, place you cake plate on the cake.  Holding the wire rack and cake plate together, flip it all over so now the cake is right side up on the cake plate.  Now frost!


Low Fat Cream Cheese Frosting
I don't have exact measurements.  It was just taste and go until I had the sweetness I liked.

In a small bowl mix cream cheese until nice and smooth.  Sift in desired amount of icing sugar and mix until incorporated.  (I was lazy and didn't sift the icing sugar)  Taste to check if it is the desired amount of sweetness.  Spread on top of cake.