A week later - there was a sale on Amazon.com for Kitchen Aid mixers. I bought one, started baking and started a blog.
Now that I moved - physically from Tribeca to Brooklyn Heights and virtually from LiveJournal to Blogger - this cake deserves to be in my new space.
Ingredients
2 pounds strawberries
4 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
5 eggs (3 whites + 3 yokes + 2 whole)
6 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 package cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
Directions
1. Prepare the strawberries. Pick the best looking 24 strawberries and half them. Chop the rest and let sit in 4 tablespoons of sugar.
2. Bake the cake. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease 9 inch springform pan. Combine flour, baking powder and 3/4 cup of sugar in a bowl. Whisk 3 yokes, 2 eggs, melted butter, water and vanilla in a small bowl. Combine the two bowls and whisk until well combined.
3. With electric mixer, beat egg whites at medium speed until fluffy. Slowly add the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar. Fold fluffed egg whites into batter. Keep folding gently until the texture is smooth.
4. Pour batter into the pan and bake for 38 minutes. Let the cake cool.
5. Prepare whipped cream. Beat cream cheese, vanilla, sugar and salt with cleaned electric mixer until fluffy. Add heavy cream. Whip until the mixture is stiff.
6. Assemble the cake. Cut the cooled cake into 3 layers. Line the edges of the bottom layers with halved strawberries. Fill the center with chopped strawberries soaked in sugar. Pile a third of whipped cream on top. Repeat with the second layer. Put the top layer of cake on top. Pile on the rest of whipped cream and decorate with the rest of strawberries. Keep chill until ready to serve.
I love this cake. It's pretty to look at, light and fluffy - has lots of fresh strawberries.
