Strawberry Lemonade Chiffon Layer Cake

I view my culinary endeavors as an artistic and creative act, and of course they taste good too! Combine ingredients, different flavors, textures, and tastes and wah-lah, you have a (most of the time) delicious, finished product. I really really enjoy baking, probably because I have a sweet tooth. When I was a little girl, I won the 4-H Baking Competition for my Banana Nut Bread and my Oatmeal Cookies. In high school, I remember making a decadent three layer chocolate cake for one of my teachers as her Christmas present. While living in New York, I usually helped head the Thanksgiving dinners that I would have with friends. I can make a mean Red Velvet Cake. Due to my work schedule, the limitless types of food available in the city, and Delivery.com, I didn't cook as much as I would have liked. Chris and I would make dinner occasionally, but it was usually on the simple side. Since I've been home I've had plenty of time to cook and bake. The fully furnished and spacious kitchen to work in has been nice too, not to mention actually having countertops rather than an ironing board to prepare dinner on.

A friend told me about a dessert combination of cookie and a cupcake, where the cookie is the crust of the cupcake. So I thought I'd give it a try, going into the actual process a little blindly. Big disaster. We don't have a normal size cupcake pan, and the two recipes had different cooking times so the peanut butter exploded out of the cake. It didn't taste terrible, just not my best attempt. To make myself feel better about failure in the kitchen, and because I told a friend I'd share the recipe, I am going to post the cake I made for my Grandpa's birthday instead. I got the original recipe from Baking Bites. This cake is probably the best thing ever! I give you-

Strawberry Lemonade Chiffon Layer Cake

2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
1 1/2 cups sugar2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
6 tbsp vegetable oil
3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tbsp lemon zest
6 large egg yolks8 large egg whites, room temperature
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
*Note: I didn't have cake flour, and used this substitution with corn starch. 

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans and line with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, sift together cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl, whisk together vegetable oil, lemon juice, lemon zest and egg yolks until smooth.
Add to flour mixture and whisk until just combined. In another large bowl, beat egg whites at medium speed until foamy.
Beat in cream of tartar, then turn the mixer up to high speed and beat to soft peaks.
Fold into lemon mixture, working in 3 or 4 batches. Divide batter evenly into prepared pans. Bake for 24-28 minutes, until the cake springs back when lightly pressed.
Cool in the pans for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.


Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting:
 2 pkg. reduced fat cream cheese
2 sticks unsalted butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp agave nectar
1/2 cup or so powdered sugar to taste
1/2 cup pureed strawberries

Puree strawberries in blender. Soften cream cheese and butter at room temperature. Combine in medium bowl and mix at low speed. Add vanilla, agave, then sugar and pureed strawberries. Increase speed to high for a few minutes until everything is incorporated.

You will need about 2 cartons of fresh strawberries for the filling and frosting. Thinly slice strawberries (about 1/2 a carton) for the top and bottom layers. You can macerate them if you'd like, but as I said, I was trying to use less sugar. For the filling and frosting I wanted a naturally sweet taste that wasn't too sugary to complement the wonderful lemon flavor of the cake. I added sugar to the icing until it was the amount of sweetness I wanted. I did have some extra icing, but that's ok because it was good enough to eat by itself.


Assembly
To assemble, slice cooled cakes in half horizontally. Place one layer of cake on a serving platter. Top, covering entire layer with thinly sliced strawberries, then place another cake layer on top of that. Top second cake layer with the strawberry cream cheese frosting. Place another cake layer on top and top that with sliced strawberries. Place final cake layer on top.
Frost the whole cake evenly with a layer of frosting. Place in refrigerator for 10 minutes to allow frosting to set. Decorate top with remaining strawberries. 

I was so happy with the cake. Perfect for summer, and there are still a few weeks left!! Enjoy!