Should we let our life overflow with love or refrain ourselves from vanities? It's not a question when making a Strawberry lemonade cake.
Course Dessert
Cuisine Sugar free recipe
Prep Time 1 hourhour
Cook Time 40 minutesminutes
Total Time 1 hourhour40 minutesminutes
Ingredients
Cake
3cupsFlour
4teaspoonsBaking powder
½teaspoonSalt
1Lemon Zest
2sticks Butterroom temperature
4Eggs
½teaspoonVanilla extract
¾cupMilk
1lemon Juice or 1 teaspoon Lemon extract
Jam
32ozStrawberries
⅓cupWater
Cream
8ozCream cheese
3tablespoonSweetener of choice
1 ½cupHeavy cream
3tablespoonsLemon juice
1cupChopped strawberries
Instructions
Cake
Measure flour, baking powder, salt, lemon zest, butter, eggs, vanilla extract and milk into a mixing bowl.
Combine all ingredients together.
Mix in lemon juice or lemon extract. Lemon juice will whiten the batter. Acid in lemon juice can negatively affect the baking soda's ability to raise the cake. A teaspoon of baking soda can help neutralize its effect on the cake.
Pour the batter into parchment papered and/or greased baking form.
Bake in a 360°F / 180°C preheated oven's bottom rack until the top gets some golden brown spots for about 30 - 40 minutes.
Let it cool a bit then shape it by removing the uneven parts.
Slice the cake into three layers.
Jam
Bring the chopped strawberries and water to boil with the lid on.
Cook the strawberries on medium heat until soft.
Mash them or use a hand blander to puree.
Filter out the bits and seeds. This can take long and require some stirring and mashing things through the sieve.
Put the strawberry puree back to the cook top and reduce it by half or even more. The thicker it will be the more we can stack onto the layers. We can use a somewhat runny jam too but it will seep into the holes and crevices which still taste good but won't look that nice. Any leftover jam can be canned and stored for later.
Cream
Beat cream cheese and sweetener of choice until soft and creamy.
Mix in the strawberries.
Beat heavy cream and lemon juice until hard peaks form.
Mix cream cheese and heavy cream together. Taste and add more sweetener if desired.
Assembly
Spread strawberry jam onto the first layer and spread it out evenly. If we haven't reduced the strawberry to a thick spread then seal the outer side of the cake with some frosting first so the jam won't escape sneakily.
Repeat it with the second layer.
On the third topmost layer skip the jam as it can ruin the even spreading of the cream and go straight to the frosting. Spread about half of the cream cheese frosting on top and the other half on the side of the cake.