Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

As I write this, I'm eating a second piece of this cake. It is good. Spoiling my dinner completely, but good.

I made this cake as a sort-of going away/I'm-being-really-really-nice-to-you-because-you're-leaving-soon gift for Mark. On Saturday, he's heading over to Georgia to his parents' house, where he'll spend a couple days, then depart on an overseas mission trip as... get this... a CHAPERON. Are we really old enough to be chaperons? Yeesh.

Anyway, he'll be gone a while, which makes me sad, so I'm doing things to make us both feel better. Like baking this cake...

Anyway, kudos to Whole Foods for the Strawberry Cake recipe! I was looking for one with actual strawberries, not strawberry Jello powder. And I found one! Here we go...

You're gonna need...

2 c. flour

1 c. sugar

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

4 eggs

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted

1 c. strawberry puree

1/2 c. milk

First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Then prep your pans, however you like to do 'em. Then, whisk all your dry ingredients (the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt) in a big bowl. Like so:

Then beat all your wet ingredients together in your mixer (or a separate bowl, using a hand mixer.) Like so:

(I know, looks gross, right?)

Lucille, in action!

Then, after all that's been beaten into a frenzy, you're gonna add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and whisk THEM together. Like so:

When it's ready, it's gonna look like this:

So then you pour all that into whatever you're baking it in. I used 2 round 9" cake pans. 

And then you patiently wait while it bakes for 30-35 minutes.

An excellent while-you-wait activity? Lick the bowl!!!

And then proceed to go insane from the heavenly smells coming from your oven. I swear, this batter smells like pure BUTTER while it's baking.

And then, DING, it's done!

Isn't this pretty?

Goodness, I love to bake.

Okay, so then you've got to let those cakes cool. While I was waiting, I made cheesy zucchini frittata for lunch. It'll be another post :)

Then, once those cakes are cool, time to make the icing!!

Keep in mind: this cake was made for my husband, who loves cheese. I swear, if I'd let him, he would LIVE on cheese. So I made the icing very, very cream chees-y. If you want your icing to taste more like sugar than cream cheese, don't use this one. (Or, do, and just cut the cream cheese in half.)

Here's what I did:

Cream 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter and 2 8-oz. packets of cream cheese really really well.

Then add some vanilla. I used whatever was left in my bottle ... probably somewhere between 1 and 2 tsp. 

Cream that together.

(I love my mixer and her action shots!)

Then add confectioner's sugar - the original recipe I was using called for 2 cups, but I upped it to three so it'd be a bit sweeter.

Then mix all of THAT together, and ice and decorate your cake!!

Another helpful hint: this icing is really creamy. REALLY. It would be next-to-impossible to pipe with. So if you're loving a piped look, you probably want to go with Royal icing to do your pipe work. I personally thought the strawberries were just as good, even though I LOVE a piped cake :)

And then ... eat it!!

(Why yes, we are pigs! However could you tell?)

Happy baking, everyone!