Strawberry Cream Cake

Light and Fluffy

Strawberry Cream Cake

Well, its been about two months since we started our PCS journey, we have gone from our home in Nebraska, to Ohio, to Massachusetts, and now tomorrow we finally head to Virginia to complete the move.  It has been crazy, which is why I haven't shared in a couple months, but it will be well worth it to get settled and be together in our new home next week. 

With the new year at our door steps, my father wanted to have everyone over for dinner to celebrate so I offered to make dessert.  I, like everyone in my family, am tired of sweets at this point so I wanted to make something light and fluffy that wouldn't knock us over with the sweetness.  So I decided to make a strawberry cream cake.  I thought that the light dessert might be a nice way to end our holiday feast and set us on track for better eating in the new year.

This cake is four layers, I baked two 9 inch cakes and then sliced them making them thin.  I did this so that the strawberry and cream would soak into the cake like a sponge.  It also is appealing to the eye.  Believe it or not, I used a boxed cake - which was delicious and made the whole process super easy.

This is how I did it...

Ingredients:

1 boxed French Vanilla Cake Mix  - follow directions and ingredients to make the cake in 2 - 9in pans

1/2 cup strawberry preserve

1 - 8oz block of cream cheese softened

2/3 cup of confectioner's sugar

3 cups of heavy cream

1 teaspoon of vanilla

2 containers of strawberries - washed (1 container diced in a bowl and 1 container sliced in half)

1/2 cup white sugar

First, bake your french vanilla cake in two 9 inch pans, then allow them to cool on racks for at least 2 hours to ensure they are completely cool before you slice them.

In a cool bowl whip 3 cups of heavy cream with 1 teaspoon of vanilla then set it aside.  In a separate bowl whip the strawberry preserve, cream cheese, and confectioner's sugar.  Then fold the cream into the strawberry and cream cheese mixture. Set this aside.

Dice one package of strawberries and place them in a bowl with 1/2 cup of white sugar - allow this to sit for about a half an hour so they begin to macerate.  Then slice your remaining strawberries in half and set aside.

To assemble your cake, slice your 9 inch round cakes in half making a total of 4.  Put a scoop of your cream on your clean plate then lay the first of your cakes on top of it.  Cover with cream, place sliced strawberries around the outside of the cake, then spoon the macerated strawberries in the middle on the cream.  Cover this with your next layer of cake and repeat the process for all four cakes.  

Cover and refrigerate.  I made my cake the night before and it held up great over night and was a perfect dessert.  This cake served 14 of us with a little left over!