Strawberry Lime Cream Cake

Submitted by: Heather

In the spirit of Cake Wrecks, a pretty funny blog about cakes gone wrong, here are a couple of my own wrecks:

Go ahead and laugh long and hard at these pictures.  What lopsided, beautiful messes!  Pretty embarrassing! These are two attempts at a very delicious, but very wobbly cake.  The second one had to travel in a car, so it got extra messy. I do think that even though these cakes are a sight, you still need to try this recipe.  The cake had a very nice consistency and the lime cream was so tangy and refreshing - you could just sit down and eat it from the bowl as I did.  I would recommend, though, a different approach to the assembly.

I'm not sure what I did wrong, but from the comments section from this recipe in Mel's Kitchen Cafe, I see I was not the only one having problems.  Maybe next time I'll add less sweetened condensed milk to the lime filling and substitute some powdered sugar for stability. The lime filling layer completely squished out of the cake layers - it just wasn't strong enough to support all of that cake.  If I ever get it figured out, I'll add to this post, but until then just make this yummy white cake, fill the layers with the strawberry puree and serve the absolutely delicious lime cream dolloped on the side.  It will be on the side if you try to fill the layers anyway, so save yourself the trouble! Yum!

Strawberry-Lime Cream Cake

*Serves 12

INGREDIENTS:
White Cake:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 egg whites

Strawberry Syrup/Puree:
*You can sub 1 1/2 cups of strawberry jam for the puree*
1 pint fresh strawberries, washed and hulled
4 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Lime Cream:
4 limes, for 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2 cups heavy whipping cream

Whipped Cream Frosting:
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 envelope (about 2 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin
4 tablespoons water

DIRECTIONS:
For the cake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add buttermilk, butter and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping the bowl as needed. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes. Add the egg whites and beat for 2 minutes more, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Pour the batter into 2 greased and floured 9-inch round cake pans. (I lined the bottom of mine with a parchment circle and greased the top of the parchment circle.) Bake the cakes for 28-30 minutes until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with moist crumbs. Don’t overbake or the cakes will be dry. Cool the cakes on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Loosen the sides with a butter knife and remove the cakes from the pans to cool completely.

For the strawberry puree, combine all the ingredients in a blender and process until smooth.

For the lime cream, zest and juice the limes into a medium bowl. You should have about 1/2 cup lime juice. Add the sweetened condensed milk and mix well. Add the whipping cream and beat until medium-stiff peaks form. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed.

For the whipped cream frosting, in a small bowl, place the water and sprinkle the gelatin over the top. Let the mixture stand for 3-4 minutes until the gelatin has thickened. Microwave for 20-30 seconds until the gelatin dissolves and the mixture is warm. Remove from the microwave and let the mixture cool to room temperature (don’t let it set up!). In a large bowl, whip the cream, sugar and vanilla until slightly thickened. While beating slowly, gradually add the cooled gelatin to the whipped cream mixture. Whip at high speed until stiff peaks form.

To assemble the cake, slice each cooled cake round in half horizontally to form 4 cake circles. Place one cake layer on a cake plate and spread an even layer of strawberry syrup over the top. Spread a thick layer of lime cream over the jam, leaving a 1/2-inch border around the edge as the top cake layers will press the cream out toward the edges. Repeat the same layering process with the next two layers. Top with the final cake layer and frost the entire cake with the whipped cream frosting. Garnish with fresh limes and strawberries, if desired. Chill for 1-2 hours before serving to let the cake set up.

Source: Adapted from Melskitchencafe.com