Dad’s Strawberry Layer Cake
June 16, 2019
The summer baking season is on! Which means berries are a-plenty. This corresponds exactly to what my Dad enjoys eating on his special day. So the guy in stripes and plaid gets layers of vanilla cake, tangy cream cheese coconut whip cream and a ton of fresh from the farm strawberries. (And check out my blonde hair!)
I was determined not to mess up this Father’s Day cake… since my Mother’s Day cake’s presentation was not so great. So I made the cream on Friday night, the cakes Saturday and assembled it all on Sunday morning. Because haste makes waste and all good things come to those who wait. This recipe has been adapted from Wife Mama Foodie.
Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting ☁️
- Two 8-ounce containers of dairy-free cream cheese
- 2 Tablespoons agave nectar
- Two cans full-fat coconut milk chilled upside-down overnight
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar or more as preferred
1.) Open the bottom side of the cans of coconut milk with a can opener and discard the liquid on top (or utilize elsewhere.)
2.) In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add maple syrup and beat again until fluffy.
3.) Scoop out the coconut cream into the cream cheese bowl and beat on high until light and fluffy.
4.) Sift in powdered sugar 1/4 cup at a time, tasting and adding more if need be. Chill until ready to use.
- 2 cups almond milk
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 384 grams all-purpose flour
- 268 grams granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup melted coconut oil
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1.) Preheat to 350. Combine 2 cups almond milk with vinegar and set aside to curdle.
2.) Grease three 9-inch pans with coconut oil and line the bottom with a parchment paper circle. Then grease the parchment paper circle with coconut oil.
3.) In a large bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients until combined.
4.) Mix in oil, vanilla, and curdled milk with a whisk and beat just until blended and smooth. Careful not to over-beat. And careful not to eat it all if you happen to taste it. IT is like the most delicious batter ever.
5.) Distribute the cake batter into the pans and place onto the middle rack of oven. (*If you want to be precise, weigh your mixing bowl before making your batter. Subtract the weight of the bowl from the new weight of the bowl with completed batter. Divide this by three and let that guide your filling of the pans.)
6.) Bake for approximately 20 minutes. Cake is a pale gold and the center should spring back.
7.) Let cakes cool for 10 minutes in the pan before inverting onto a cooling rack to cool thoroughly.
8.) Wrap each layer in plastic wrap and freeze overnight.
- ⅓ cup strawberry jam
- 1–2 pounds fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced
- Mint to garnish
1.) Prep your strawberries and set up the assembly line on your counter.
2.) Lay one layer cake onto your serving plate and scoop a third of the jam onto the center of your cake. Then dollop a third of the the cream onto the layer, spreading towards the edges. Now get a third of those strawberries on to the cream. Make it look nice. Stick a few pieces of mint here and there.
3.) Do that again for the second layer.
4.) Then again for the top layer, building it up a bit more in a decorative fashion with berry and mint. You can keep some berries whole.
5.) Keep cool until ready to serve.
Done and beautiful. But I am scared to pack it in the car and let the Belt Parkway ultimately slay it. So now, lots of pictures of it in its current state.
I’m so scared of it sliding that I kept checking on it in the fridge. So far, so good!
Update: The cake made it fine to Long Island and was dreamy delicious. This is going to be my new vanilla cake go-to. Here it is all sliced up and a bit of a mess.
