In and Out Strawberry Cake

It`s summer in my corner of the globe.....not my favorite season mind you, but having the most beautiful berries make up for it! Having said that, exaggerated as I am I kept buying and buying and buying----so that goes without saying my kids are now sick of strawberry pies, strawberry cheesecakes, strawberry pancakes, strawberry on salads I mean name it and there was strawberry on it, in it, near it ;) but then it dawned on me that I haven`t made a strawberry cake yet, hmmmm , go figure.... I mean i made strawberry creams, mousses and fillings for cakes ---Yes! Tons of times but not really in the cake batter. So I searched and came across this fabulous recipe from cakepaperparty.com, and what a cake it turned out! I didn`t make their frosting I made my go to cream cheese frosting (of course) with a few minor tweaks. I absolutely love this cake it instantly became a family favorite.

Cake

2 1/3 cups sugar

2/3 cup vegetable oil

4 large eggs

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

2 tsps baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup buttermilk

2 tsps vanilla extract

1 cup strawberry puree

1-2 drops red food coloring (optional)

Cream Cheese Frosting

3 cups cream cheese

3 cups butter

6 cups confectionate sugar

2 tsps vanilla extract

1 cup strawberry jam

2-3 drops red food coloring (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour three 8-inch round cake pans. Beat sugar, oil and eggs for 1 min on medium speed of stand mixer. Sprinkle in flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Start mixer on low to blend and gradually add buttermilk until combined. Add extracts and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in strawberry puree and food coloring if using.

Pour into the three pans evenly and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes and then turn out onto wire racks to cool. Frost with cream cheese frosting or other preffered frostings.

For the Frosting:

Cream the butter and the cream cheese until well combined add the vanilla extract and jam and food coloring if using.

I decided to add a bit of glam to this already pretty cake and added chocolate ganache on top. You can make your own ganache recipe. This one is 16 oz chocolate chips and 1 cup heavy cream. Just bring the cream into a simmer on the stove, stir occasionally, just as soon as you see simmer remove from heat and pour over chocolate chips, keep swirling til all chips are covered. Whisk until smooth.