Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. Celebrate with your loved ones by making this Vanilla Buttercream Layer Cake with Strawberry-Rose Preserves!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I love cake. I could eat cake every day; that wouldn’t be good for my health, but it’s incredibly tempting. Especially when you’re in the grocery store and you pass the bakery section. I have to move at a swift pace past that bakery case that contains all those goodies.
Sometimes I pause and stare, and then the aggressive grocery shoppers that seem to always congregate around the deli and bakery section in the store, stare me down, or push there carts against mine, and I get the willpower to keep moving.
The wonderful thing about layer cakes is that they freeze beautifully. My husband and I can’t, or more realistically, shouldn’t consume an entire layer cake to ourselves in a week’s time. Therefore, I feel comfortable making these beautiful and delicious cakes for no reason, and freeze them later for a snack.
This cake; however, is the perfect layer cake for the upcoming Valentine’s Day holiday. With a delicious vanilla buttercream frosting, and sweet strawberry-rose preserves for the filling, this dessert is perfect.
The cake can be made in advance and frozen, or the layers can be made in advance and frozen until the day of.
This cake is slightly adapated from Food52’s 1-2-3-4 Cake with Raspberry Buttercream.
Ingredients
- 1cup salted buttersoftened
- 1-3/4cups cane sugar
- 4large eggs
- 1/2teaspoon salt
- 3cups all-purpose flour
- 2teaspoons baking powder
- 1cup milk
- 1teaspoon vanilla extract
Vanilla Buttercream
- 4 egg whites
- 3/4cup cane sugar
- 1cup unsalted buttersoftened
- 2teaspoons vanilla extract
Strawberry-Rose Preserves
- 1cup strawberriesstems removed, sliced
- 1/2cup cane sugar
- 1/2teaspoon rose extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350
- Grease and flour three 8-in or 9-in cake pans.
- In a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing untill fully incorporated.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together remaining dry ingredients for cake, and gradually add to mixer, alternating with milk. Finally, add vanilla extract and mix until all are combined.
- Divide the batter into three cake pans, and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the cakes cool completely on a wire rack.
- For the frosting, add egg whites and sugar into a double boiler and whisk rapidly over low heat until sugar dissolves. Add the egg/sugar mixture to a stand mixer, and beat at high speed until stiff peaks form. Add softened butter gradually. Mix until incorporated and smooth. Set aside until ready to frost.
- For preserves, add strawberries and sugar into a small saucepan, and cook over medium-low heat, until sugar dissolves and strawberry mixture thickens. Once thickened, add rose extract; stir. Cool completely.
- To assemble cake. Add first cake layer to a cake stand. Top with half the strawberry-rose preserves; spread. Add second cake layer, spread layer with remaining preserves. Finally add final cake layer.
- Frost the cake with a thin layer of frosting first. Refrigerate for 20 minutes. Then add the remaining frosting, smoothing out with an off-set spatula.
- Phew. Done. Now, EAT
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