Strawberry Filling for Cake (No Leaks!)

I knew what I wanted from the strawberry filling I made for the wedding cake before I even started - fresh strawberry flavor, lightly sweetened, and not thin enough to leak.  That last part was very, very important to me.  How embarrassing would it be to make a lovely, delicious cake, only to have pink streaks through the icing because I wasn't careful about the consistency of the filling?

So I looked.  And I looked.  And my eyes started to bug out of my head.  Two cups of sugar per pound of berries?  Was I making strawberry filling or a sugar bomb?  If the point of using a specific icing (more on that later) was to avoid the sugar high most cakes would give, then why on earth would I add two cups of sugar to beautiful fresh berries?  I was making filling, not jam!  So...back to square one...

...And a filling I invented myself!  I knew, as I said, what I wanted - fresh berries, lightly sweetened, no leaking.  And so I took matters into my own hands, and what you see in the pictures is where I arrived.  To say that the filling really did taste of strawberries is an understatement.  I am not sure I have ever modified a strawberry (is that a thing?  Modifying strawberries?) and yet managed to keep them as true to the source as possible.  After all, though, when you have berries coming from your own backyard as lovely as these:

 

Why mess with a good thing?

Strawberry Filling for Cake (No Leaks!)

Proudly developed by me!

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1-2 teaspoons water

4 pounds strawberries, hulled and sliced

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon butter

1 dash lemon juice 

Stir cornstarch and water together in a bowl.  It is perfectly fine to add slightly more water if necessary to suspend the cornstarch and make a pourable paste.  Place all ingredients except the cornstarch mixture in an eight quart stockpot.  Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Add the cornstarch mixture.  Bring back to a boil, stirring constantly, for one minute.  Remove from heat, pour into a separate bowl (it will splash; wear old clothing!), cool, and refrigerate.  Use to fill a cake.  Or pour over shortcakes.  Or eat with a spoon.  I won't tell anyone if you do!  (I might have done so once or twice myself...)

Marbled Buttermilk Cake

Psst...guys...  I made a wedding cake.

Oh, er, and long time no see!

I realize it's been on the order of, let's see, three years since I last posted anything but, well...life kind of got in the way.  I went back to school (and graduated in May) - that was a large part of it -, the Resident Taste Tester went back to school (and graduates in August), I was hospitalized twice, and I have received two diagnoses in three years, both of which have given me answers, but have also led to pretty major physical adjustments, one of which I am going through now.  And that doesn't count all of the other life that has simply intervened.

But here we are!  Three years later and I have made a wedding cake.  Clearly I have not stopped baking and cooking, but this, this is an accomplishment even I did not know if I could pull off, and I am very lucky and blessed to have a friend who trusted me enough to try.  I decided that if I did pull it off I would post it, and if I didn't, well, then I probably had no business ever posting anything else ever again.  I had made promises, and I had to deliver.  So I read and I read and I gathered my recipes, and then I tossed out the recipes again and I tried something different and finally, well, I fudged it.  And I fudge it pretty darned well, if I do say so myself.

The proof that I did this, no fancy tools required:

 

 

Each of the previous pictures was taken prior to the day of - baking the cakes, leveling, crumb coating, putting on a thick coat of icing and then finally, finally smoooooothing the icing to the very best of my ability.  I have never gotten a coat of icing that smooth.  Then came transport, and let me tell you guys, that was the longest hour of my life.  One slide, one slip, and boom - several hours of icing perfection gone.  Especially since I did not use a typical buttercream, one that crusts on exposure to air, oh no, I refused to sacrifice flavor, no way!  So I used a nice, soft, fluffy buttercream. I was asking for it.  But it made it!  And then this ensued:

 

 

 

 

 Tada!  The results!  Plus a shot of all the other goodies and tools I used to get the beast...er, I mean cake...to the venue and picture perfect for the reception.  And the Resident Taste Tester's nursing book.  But anyway...  For those of you who might ask, those are flourless chocolate peanut butter cookies, white and dark hearted brownies, buckeye brownies, seven layer bars, and cut out cookies, all made by moi.  I have to give a shout out here though - as much as I put all the components together, I iced and baked and rolled, the Resident Taste Tester is the one that made it possible.  He did every dish - no dishwasher, you see - without complaint, took out the trash, and helped in all the myriad ways a good sous chef will help.  Or a good Resident Taste Tester, because sous chef doesn't really cut it.

So there you have it.  One wedding cake.  Marbled buttermilk with strawberry filling (more to come on that) and fluffy buttercream frosting.  Everything I wanted it to be, for sure.

Marbled Buttermilk Cake

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

 This makes enough for one two layer nine inch cake (do NOT use eight inch pans - it will overflow).  I made one two layer nine inch cake and then used a second batch for four six inch layers.  Two six inch layers served as a test cake, and the other is the top layer seen here.

4 cups cake flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup boiling water

1/2 cup cocoa

2 sticks butter, softened

2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract 

4 eggs 

2 cups buttermilk

Prepare two nine inch baking pans by buttering them, then covering the bottoms with parchment paper rounds and flouring the sides.

Combine the first four ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside.  Whisk together the boiling water and cocoa in a small saucepan and set aside.

Cream the butter and the sugar together until fluffy and yellow throughout.  Add the vanilla.  Add the eggs one at a time, scraping as necessary.  Add the buttermilk.  Scrape down, then gradually add the dry ingredients until combined.  If necessary, remove bowl from mixer and finish combining by hand with a spatula in order to avoid overbeating.

Remove about a third of the batter to a small bowl.  Mix the cocoa/water combination into the smaller amount of batter.  Divide the remaining yellow batter into the prepared pans, then dollop the chocolate batter on top.  It may seem like the chocolate batter completely covers the yellow batter.  That's OK.  Take a toothpick, and swirl it through the two batters, even if it does not appear to be making any swirls. Swirl away!

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the middle of the tiers comes out clean.  Allow to cool ten minutes (very important!) then remove from pans and place on racks to cool completely.  Ice with your favorite icing and enjoy!