Strawberry Country Cake (Barefoot Contessa)

Happy 1st Birthday to our Bake-Along! I can't believe Joyce from Kitchen Flavours, Lena from Frozen wings and I have been baking-along for 1 year!

I really enjoy baking along with all my friends and love the fact that we have learned lots of baking skills and techniques together. Ultimately, our best thing of all is to be able to enjoy all our yummy bakes with our families :D

Today, I'm presenting this very-simple down-to-earth layer cake that I baked for our Bake-Along first anniversary. This cake composes of a basic sour cream cake base that was sliced into halves, sandwiched and topped whipped cream and strawberries! That's all. I was trying to defy the "fat factor" by replacing the heavy whipped with a lighter version... and not surprising, the cream did hold itself for a while but not for long... Bottom line is we still need "fat" for some good reasons. LOL! See my photos and you will see what I mean :p

Happy 1st Birthday Bake-Along

Baking the cake

Assembling the cake

And a self-narrated birthday song for our Bake-Along...

Ops! The lighter cream is beginning to melt... LOL!

Here's the recipe from Food Network

(with my modification in blue)

12 tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature

3/4 cup sour cream, at room temperature

1/2 tsp grated lemon zest

1/2 tsp grated orange zest (replaced with lemon zest)

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract (replaced with vanilla seeds from vanilla pod)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp baking soda (replaced with baking powder)

For the filling for each cake:

1 cup (1/2 pint) heavy cream, chilled (replaced with light whipping cream)

3 tbsp sugar (I didn't add this)

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 pint fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Butter the bottom of two 8-inch cake pans. Then line them with parchment paper and butter and flour the lined pans.

Cream the butter and sugar on high speed in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy. On medium speed, add the eggs, 1 at a time, then the sour cream, zests, and vanilla, scraping down the bowl as needed. Mix well. Sift together the flour, cornstarch, salt, and baking soda. On low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and combine just until smooth.

Pour the batter evenly into the pans, smooth the tops, and bake in the center of the oven for 40 to 45 min, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in the pans for 30 min, then remove to wire racks and let cool to room temperature. If using 1 cake, wrap the second well and freeze.

To make the filling for one cake, whip the cream, sugar, and vanilla in a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until firm. Slice one of the cakes in half with a long, sharp knife. Place the bottom slice of the cake on a serving platter, spread with 1/2 the whipped cream and scatter with sliced strawberries. Cover with the top slice of the cake and spread with the remaining cream. Decorate with strawberries.

Note: 

Using 1/4 of recipe, I baked this cake in 12 cm round cake tin at 160°C fan forced for 40 min. 

As cakes with whipped cream have to be stored in the fridge instead of room temperature, we tried to finish eating this cake within the day that it was baked but it was too much for us to finish and so I had to store a quarter of it in the fridge. 

Sadly, the texture of the refrigerated cake had changed on the next day as it was not as good as it was served at room temperature.

Happy Baking
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