Cooking Spree: Strawberries-and-Cream Sheet Cake

Last week I went on a cooking spree.  Since receiving my April edition of Southern Living, I've wanted to try out the recipe for Strawberries-and-Cream Sheet Cake, I recently discovered a recipe for Tuna Croquettes with Avocado-Lime-Buttermilk dressing, and the July edition had a very tasty looking recipe for Watermelon-Feta Orzo Salad.  Since I turned in my paper and promised myself I'd relax a little before starting my thesis, I decided to take a few days to try to make these tasty treats.

(Looks a little like a cake from a MarioParty mini-game)

First up, I made the Strawberries-and-Cream Sheet Cake.  Making cakes from scratch takes lots of time and work.  I know I did it last year for my job a lot, but that felt different.  Time flows differently in the eighteenth-century kitchen, and I never really noticed how long I spent making a pound cake.  But this cake!  I started at 9:00 AM and finally put the finishing touches on around 1:00 PM.  Not that all of that time was hands-on, but still.

Speaking of hands-on: I really wish I'd just creamed my butter and sugar by hand (like I did for all my cakes last summer) and then started using the electric mixer once that step was complete.  Don't get me wrong, I loved using that electric mixer for the rest of the cake, but creaming butter and sugar by hand really is the best and fastest way.

I decided to do this cake right, so I specially bought cake flour and buttermilk.  I tried to do the whole "parchment paper" bit recommended, but it wasn't working quite right, and after spending nearly two hours preparing the cake batter I didn't want to ruin it during the baking process.  If you just grease and flour your pan you'll be fine-- although, I warn you, I tried to invert my 9x13 cake onto a wire rack and it broke in half.  "Oops," I thought, "Guess I'll just slip this half back into the pan and cover up the mess with icing."  I think you'll agree based on the picture, you can't tell anything went wrong!  Icing works wonders.  But, if you do want to take it out of the pan, you might go ahead and buy extra large parchment paper  and try that fancy step in the recipe.

One bright part of the cake breaking in half was that I got to eat some of the broken bits (necessary to clean up the look a little, that's how I justified it).  The cake was very moist and very sweet.  Very, very sweet.  Given this little taste of the cake itself, I decided to cut back on the sugar in the icing when I made it about an hour later-- I think I used probably 1/2 a cup, rather than the called for 2/3 cup.  The icing consists of whipped cream, cream cheese, and fresh strawberries.  This presents a bit of a conundrum.  How to store this cake?  The first day, I put it in the refrigerator.  When I served a couple of slices that night, the cake tasted dense and dry.  So, I put a couple slices of bread in with it, covered it in saran wrap, and left it out overnight.  The next day it tasted MUCH better.  But, after about two days out (and still only about 1/2 eaten), the strawberries in the icing started to mold.  So, my suggestion to you is, eat this cake fast!  Take it to functions, make it for your friends, put it in the break room at work.  Don't let it sit around for very long!

I highly recommend making this cake (especially if you like strawberries)!

The recipe can be found on the Southern Living website, here.