Strawberry cake

Close to a week ago, I had the privilege and honour to work on the Pradip Ltd end year cake. I decided to head to the factory to work from there (because they basically have everything my heart desires) and it was a lovely opportunity.

The two ladies who were to help me out with anything I’d need were more than lovely and they genuinely reminded me why I decided to teach baking in the first place.

Vanilla Cupcakes with strawberry buttercream

They were more than eager to learn and basically took notes of everything I did. They asked questions and even though I assured them I’d have the recipe up on the blog as soon as possible and they said they want to try it when they got home. They requested me to do a workshop where they can come and learn more and more things, and I was beyond excited as I said yes (if you’re interested in the workshop let me know via 0725745988).

The year is literally over and I don’t want the ladies to wait longer for the recipe as they were genuinely the loveliest company.

Ingredients

For the cake:

1/2 teaspoon Pradip Strawberry Essence (used the pink one)

1.5 cups granulated white sugar

250g margarine

1/4 cup milk

1.5 teaspoons baking powder

2.5 cups all purpose flour

4 eggs

1/2 cup chopped strawberries (optional)

For the Strawberry Puree

250g strawberries – hulled and halved

1 tablespoon granulated white sugar

1 tablespoon water

For the Icing

2 cups whipped cream

1/3 cup blended strawberries

Method

For the Puree

Put the strawberries, the sugar and the water in a pan and let them come to a boil on low heat. Stir consistently to avoid the puree sticking to the pan and burning. When the strawberries have softened and the liquid has almost doubled, remove from heat. Set aside to cool.

For the cake Batter

Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease and dust your baking tins.

In one bowl, sift together the baking powder and flour. (refer to this for the importance of sifting them together).

In a second bowl, soften your butter or margarine with your mixer or spatula. Add the sugar and mix until well incorporated.

Add your eggs one at a time to the butter mixture, until incorporated.

Add the strawberry essence. You can add or reduce the quantity by 1/4 teaspoon to suit you. The flavour is however quite strong so be careful.

Add the strawberry puree to your milk.

Slowly add your flour mix and milk mixture into the butter and eggs mix. This should be done alternating so as to incorporate air into the batter and make your cake lighter as opposed to dense. Starting and ending with flour.

Fold in the chopped strawberries into the cake batter.

Once everything is well incorporated, pour the batter into your prepared baking tin(s) and bake for 50 minutes (if baking in two tins, bake for 28-35 minutes).

Let the cake cool for at least 3hrs before icing it.