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Strawberry Cake Help (1 Viewer)

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So I tried a new strawberry cake recipe and I’m not happy with it at all. It was a little different than the usual methods I’ve used but I’m certain I followed the instructions well. The cake came out very dense. I’m not sure if I overmixed the batter or if it’s something to do with the technique or recipe. What are your thoughts?

Recipe used below:
4 large eggs, room temperature ( can warm the eggs by putting in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes)
1 1/2 cups (340 g) strawberry puree ......I used frozen strawberries that were lightly sweetened, you could also use fresh.....puree the strawberries in food processor or blender
1 teaspoon (4 g.) vanilla
2 teaspoons (8 g) strawberry extract
2 to 3 drops AmeriColor Pink or your pink coloring of choice (optional but makes for a prettier shade of pink)
3 cups (342 g) cake flour
1 3/4 cups (350 g) granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon (14 g) baking powder
1 teaspoon (6 g) salt
1/4 cup (50g) vegetable oil
1 stick (1/2 cup) (113 g) unsalted butter, cut butter into small pieces so it can be added slowly during mixing process. I cut mine into 1/2 to 1 inch slices onto waxed paper on the countertop, letting it soften only about 5 to 6 minutes.

INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. (This recipe uses the reverse creaming method.)
Grease and flour three 8 x 2 inch round pans
In a separate bowl, combine eggs, strawberry puree, vanilla, strawberry extract, pink coloring (as desired). Blend together with a fork.
In the bowl of your mixer, hand whisk the dry ingredients (cake flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt) for 30 seconds to combine. With your mixer on low to medium speed, add the pieces of butter, a few pieces at a time, also add the oil at this time. Mix until the dry ingredients form moist crumbs that look like coarse sand.
Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Method is important when using Reverse Creaming, so with the mixer on LOW speed, SLOWLY add 1/2 of the egg mixture to the dry ingredients, increase the mixer to medium speed and beat for 1 1/2 minutes, the batter will be thick and fluffy.
Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, then add the remaining egg mixture in 2 pourings, beating 20 seconds after each. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and pour into prepared pans.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pans 10 min. then turn out.
Makes 7 1/2 cups batter IF USING FONDANT: If using fondant to cover the cake, our first choice is to cover the cake in ganache for a nice firm shell before laying on the fondant. You could also use all butter buttercream, that is well chilled to firm it up before the fondant.
 
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Hi Vaughn

Thank you for your post. :)

It’s unfortunate when all your hard-earned efforts don’t prevail, but with baking sometimes it can be trial and error. After checking out a similar recipe for Strawberry Cake, your ingredients seem to be similar to what I’ve seen.

My thoughts are as follows:

Reasons for dense cakes:
  • Too much liquid.
  • Overbeating.
  • Lack of leavening agent.
  • Incorrect recipe or ingredients.
Eggs – You can warm them in a bowl, but as you are using the reverse creaming method, you are not going to get the opportunity to trap lots of air in between your butter and sugar. For maximum aeration in your bake, it is best to let eggs acclimatise to room temp. If your eggs are still cold...
Hi Vaughn

Thank you for your post. :)

It’s unfortunate when all your hard-earned efforts don’t prevail, but with baking sometimes it can be trial and error. After checking out a similar recipe for Strawberry Cake, your ingredients seem to be similar to what I’ve seen.

My thoughts are as follows:

Reasons for dense cakes:
  • Too much liquid.
  • Overbeating.
  • Lack of leavening agent.
  • Incorrect recipe or ingredients.
Eggs – You can warm them in a bowl, but as you are using the reverse creaming method, you are not going to get the opportunity to trap lots of air in between your butter and sugar. For maximum aeration in your bake, it is best to let eggs acclimatise to room temp. If your eggs are still cold, this will have a knock-on effect with your bake.

Strawberry puree – Frozen strawberries contain additional liquid and should be added to your bake directly from the freezer and then straight to the oven. I’m thinking because you pureed them you have an additional liquid that’s adding to your recipe which may cause you issues.

Baking Powder – Due to the amount of liquid that is in the recipe plus the additional from your frozen fruit I’m wondering if you may need additional leavening to help the cake structure.

Over-beating - I use a hand whisk when mixing so I can feel the actual batter if you are using a stand mixer, sometimes you run the risk of overbeating/mixing so do be careful.

Here is a link to a lady who has made multiple strawberry cakes and has played about with a whole host of ingredients so it may be worth checking out her recipe and see if that fairs any better for you. Strawberry Cake

I hope this helps. 😊

Kind regards


Angie
 
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