My first attempt at this cake a few weekends ago brought every baker’s fear to life: the middle was raw. Fearful of over-baking, I’d pulled what appeared to be a fully baked cake from the oven after 30 minutes of baking, only to watch it deflate on my countertop. Despite its raw middle, the edges were baked and tasted delicious. So back I went to give it another try last weekend, leaving it to bake longer (about 35-37 minutes) and achieving success. I found the original recipe at Bake with Zoha and adapted it to include buttercream, rather than cream cheese frosting. I think either would work very well.

I meant to put lemon zest in the cake batter, because I did that on my first attempt, but I got distracted by text messages from the man in my life and there sat my lemon, un-zested as the cake went into the oven. It’s delicious even without the zest in the batter, though; the frosting is a strawberry lemon buttercream so you get a nice sweet/tart balance.

Ingredients

For the cake

• 2 3/4 cups flour
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 3/4 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup milk
• 340 grams fresh strawberries, pureed to make about 1 1/2 cups liquid

For the frosting and decoration

• 1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 5 – 6 cups powdered sugar
• About 3/4 cup seedless strawberry jam
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
• Zest from 1/2 medium lemon (optional, you can leave it out if you don’t like zest in your frosting)
• Green, pink, and red gel food coloring, for flower and leaf decorations
• Wilton M1, 4B, and 352 piping tips

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 baking tin with baking spray.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In another large bowl, whisk vegetable oil, melted butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, milk, and strawberry puree. Add dry mixture to wet mixture and whisk gently, folding to combine until no lumps remain.

Pour into prepared baking tin and bake for 30 – 35 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. I think it’s easier to under-bake this cake than to over-bake it, so make sure your center is fully baked. Cool completely before frosting.

To make frosting, beat butter on medium speed for 1 minute. Add about 4 cups powdered sugar and beat on low until all the sugar is incorporated into the butter; this takes several minutes. Add strawberry jam, vanilla extract, and lemon extract and beat to combine; add 1-2 additional cups powdered sugar to reach a soft but pipeable texture; add lemon zest if desired.

To decorate the cake, reserve a small portion of frosting and tint green for leaf accents. Fit a piping bag with a coupler and a large star tip (I used the Wilton M1 for my rose shapes) and  use about 3/4 to 1 cup of frosting to pipe swirls of frosting to look like roses and individual stars to look like blossoms. The palest pink color in the photo above is the natural color of the frosting; tint a shade or two darker to add more flowers and blossoms. I switched to the Wilton 4B tip (this is where the coupler comes in very handy) for additional swirls and blossom-type shapes to fill in the remainder of the cake. Fit a smaller piping bag with the 352 leaf tip and pipe leaves as you like.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature; makes about 18 servings, depending on how large you slice the cake. This beauty went to work with me and got demolished in less than about four hours.