Imperial Strawberry Cake

By pattynorman1947

This is like strawberry shortcake. It is a beautiful cake.
From Jami Griscom

Ingredients

• topping:
• 1 cup SIFTED flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons real butter
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanill
• 2 pints strawberries
• 1 cup heavy cream for whipping
• 1/2 cup sugar

Preparation

Step 1

Sift flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. Heat milk with butter just to scalding; cool slightly. Beat eggs til foamy. Slowly add the 1 cup sugar til VERY thick and fluffy. Add vanilla. Sprinkle flour mixture a third at a time over eggs, alternating with warm milk and beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Pour into 2 greased and floured 8" cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees (where in the world is the "degree" symbol on a computer??) for 25 minutes. Cool in pan, loosen carefully and remove.

Reserve approx 1 cup berries which you slice in half vertically, cutting off the bottom (where green leaves were) to form flat base to sit on cake levelly. Slice the rest of the strawberries and add 1/2 cup sugar to all the berries, or less if you prefer. To taste, really. Let the cut strawberries stay in fridge til juices run. Whip cream into soft peaks. Assembly: Top first cake layer with whipped cream and then the sliced strawberries. Press second layer of cake down onto cream and strawberries so they bulge outward just a bit over the first cake layer (makes it really pretty when done to see the layer of cream and berries easily). Put remaining whipped cream on top of cake only, not sides. Top with half-cut berries, pointy side up and cut side facing center of cake, in circular pattern over entire top of cake. Refrigerate til serving time.

TIPS:

Cake can be baked the day before, removed from pans and stored covered in fridge. Day of serving: Cut the berries and allow sugar to make the juices run for a few hours in fridge. Whip the cream and follow all directions after "Assembly" above.

If cakes come out of oven rounded on the top, press at least one of them down to flatten a bit and that way the assembly will be done on a flat cake surface for the berries and cream on the first layer. Top of second cake layer can be rounded.

If even taller cake is desired, bake cake batter in 3 pans instead of 2. Layers of cake will be a good bit thinner, but more of them when assembled. More whipped cream and strawberries would be needed for the extra layer. Baking time would be decreased a bit, I would think. I have never done this.