Vanilla Bean Cake with Strawberry Frosting and Filling

It's been awhile since I shared a cake recipe so thought today might be a good day. I had my grandkids over for a post birthday celebration for two of them. And since the 3 year old won't care as much as the 14 year old over the cake flavor, I let the oldest decide. To my sruprise he asked for Strawberry.

I originally was going to make it all Strawberry but then decided it might be a bit much. I then opted for this Vanilla Bean cake, home made strawberry filling and frosted with a Strawberry Buttercream.

Recipes follow



Yield: 2 9” Cake Rounds

1 1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 vanilla bean

3 1/3 cups cake flour, not self-rising

2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

3 large eggs, room temperature

1/2 cup full-fat sour cream

1/3 cup canola oil or vegetable oil

1 1/2 Tablespoon pure (not imitation) vanilla extract

1 cup (whole milk

Preheat oven to 350

Grease and Flour pans

In a small bowl, combine sugar and seeds from the vanilla bean. (Using the back of a spoon, move around the bowl and apply pressure to break up any clumps of seeds and to better infuse the vanilla flavor into the sugar. Set aside.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, mix together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Add the vanilla bean sugar and mix until well combined.

Add butter and mix on medium-low speed for three minutes.  Because there is so little butter, you'll end up with a very fine crumb texture.

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, sour cream, oil, and vanilla extract until smooth.

Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined.

Slowly add milk and mix on low speed until just combined.  The batter will be liquid. 

Bake for 20-25 minutes and then test to see if they are done. They are done when a toothpick comes out clean. 

Frosting

1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1/4 teaspoon salt (if using unsalted butter)
4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon Strawberry extract
2-3 tablespoons Strawberry Puree (from the filling below)

Directions-
In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, beat butter (on medium speed) until completely smooth (30 seconds to a minute).

 Add salt (if needed).
 One cup at time, add 2 cups of powdered sugar, beating after each addition.
 Add strawberry flavoring
 Add about 1 tablespoon of puree, and continue beating.
 Add the remaining 2 cups powdered sugar, one at a time.
 Add an additional 1-2 tablespoons puree until desired consistency is reached.  Let mixer beat the frosting for a good 5 minutes after the final puree.

Filling

3 C Chopped Strawberries

½ C Sugar

2 ½ Tablespoons cornstarch

Puree the strawberries and reserve ¼ Cup for the frosting

Bring all the ingredients to a boil in heavy saucepan, stirring constantly.

Boil for 2-4 minutes to thicken, stirring constantly

Remove from heat and pour into a bowl to cool

Assembling the cake

Split the cake layers and add filling between each layer, frost with butter cream frosting. Enjoy!