Fresh Strawberry Elderflower Cake

Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

It is spring!
That means strawberries. I had a reason to bake a cake and I had strawberries in the fridge. I used to love pink cake when I was growing up, but come to find out it's hard to make without using Jell-O (not that I mind Jell-O) but I wanted to shoot for a more natural flavor. This is what I came up with:

1.5 pounds strawberries
1 cup sugar

2.5 cups flour
1.25 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
.5 teaspoon salt
1 cup white sugar
1.5 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
0.50 teaspoon almond extract
3 eggs
red food color, if you wish

Syrup
0.25 cup sugar
0.25 cup water
2 tablespoons elderflower liqueur

Frosting
1 cup whipping cream
2 8oz packages cream cheese
0.75 cup sugar
1 tablespoon elderflower liqueur

Cook the strawberries and cup of sugar down until they are thick. Cool. They should measure around 2 cups.
Preheat oven 350 degree.
Prepare 2 9-inch pans with spray and parchment.

Put the strawberries, and all the ingredients for the cake, except the eggs into a food processor. Process. Scrape the sides. Add the eggs one at a time.

Scrape the sides, whirl it one more time and pour into prepared pans. I measure the pans on a scale to make sure they have the same weight batter in them. The old school, what I learned in the bakery is stick your finger straight up and down in the pan, see where the batter comes up to on your finger in relation to your digit and make sure the pans are even that way. The scale is easier, but less tactile.

Bake 35 minutes. Cool completely.

To make the syrup on the stove top, in a small pan combine the water and sugar. Bring to a boil, make sure the sugar is dissolved. Cool. Add the liqueur.

For the frosting whip the cream to stiff peaks, set aside. Cream the cream cheese, making sure to scrape the sides and that it is smooth before adding sugar. Add the sugar and beat for a good 5 minutes to make sure the sugar dissolves. Add the liqueur to the cream cheese. Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.

To assemble: When the cake is cool remove it from the pans. Using a pastry brush, brush the syrup on the top of the cake layers. Flip them over and brush the syrup on the bottom layers. Top the layers and sides with frosting and enjoy.