I made this cake for a friend’s daughter’s first birthday. It was so adorable and delicious, I just had to share! This makes a great smash cake or mini cake (6”). It makes enough for 3 tall layers, I only used two in my cake to avoid sending a 1 year old into a sugar coma! 🙂 You could also probably make a bigger two layer cake with the same recipe. It’s a moist, smooth white cake with a light, tasty frosting with just enough strawberry to make it taste wonderful! Let me know what you think of this recipe!

White Velvet Cake

From Wicked Good Kitchen

Makes enough 6” 3-layer cake

Ingredients:

• 2½ cups sifted self-rising flour
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ¼ cup shortening
• ¼ cup canola oil
• 1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
• ¾ cup egg whites (about 6), at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons pure almond extract
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• All-purpose flour and shortening or vegetable oil to prepare cake pans

Instructions:

1. Arrange oven rack in lower third of oven and preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease three 8-inch round cake pans with shortening or oil. Line bottoms with parchment or wax paper circles. Grease paper linings and dust lined pans with flour, tapping out the excess. Set aside.
2. Using an electric stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix 2 1/2c self-rising flour and 2c sugar on low speed until well combined and aerated, about 1 minute. Add 1/2c butter, 1/4c shortening and 1/4c oil and mix on slow speed until thoroughly combined. Mixture will be very thick.
3. In a 2-cup glass liquid measuring cup, whisk together 1c buttermilk, 3/4c egg whites, 2t almond extract and 1t vanilla extract using a fork until well blended. Slowly add half of the liquid mixture to the batter and mix on low speed. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat until thoroughly combined, scraping down the sides of bowl as necessary with rubber spatula, about 2 minutes. Add remaining liquid mixture and beat just until smooth and thoroughly combined, again scraping down the sides of bowl as necessary, about 1 minute.
4. Pour batter into prepared pans dividing evenly (a little over 2 cups of batter per cake pan). Smooth tops evenly with rubber spatula and then tap each pan on counter surface 2 to 3 times to expel any air bubbles. This step will create a nice level cake.
5. Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 25 to 30 minutes. (I have found that 28 minutes is perfect.) Cool cakes in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Run thin metal spatula around edges of each cake to loosen, then invert onto wire rack and peel away parchment or wax paper. Turn right side up onto wire racks (using an additional rack to flip) and cool completely or wrap while still warm to retain moisture.

 

Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

From Blissfully Delicious

Ingredients:

• 3 sticks (1 ½ cups) salted butter at room temp
• 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 1/4 cup fresh strawberry puree
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions:

1. Cream 1 1/2c butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the 4 1/2c powdered sugar about a cup at a time and beat just until blended.
2. Wash and cut tops off your strawberries (3 large strawberries did the trick for me). I used my food processor to puree.
3. Add 1/4c strawberry puree and 1 1/2t vanilla, scrape bowl as needed and beat until the buttercream is light and fluffy, approximately 3-5 minutes (mine was perfect at about a minute). I added a little pink frosting gel to mine to achieve the color you see, but it is a lovely pale pink naturally.
4. Frost cake using a Wilton Frosting Tip #1M to achieve the rosettes like mine!

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Happy Baking!

-SugarB