White Cake w/ Strawberry Filling & Strawberry Buttercream

White Cake w/ Strawberry Filling & Strawberry Butter Cream

This recipe combines 2 recipes from The Cake Chica and Celebrating Sweets. Recipe was remixed to use Rader Foods products

1 cup whole milk, at room temperature
6 large egg whites, at room temperature
1 teaspoon Boyajian vanilla extract
2 ¼ cups cake flour
1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon sized pieces, at room temperature

Strawberry Filling

Strawberry Butter Cream Frosting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 3 8-inch round cake pans with nonstick baking spray and set aside.
In a bowl, whisk together milk, egg whites and vanilla extract. In the bowl of a stand mixer, with the paddle attachment attached, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt on low speed until combined. Add butter one tablespoon at a time until the mixture forms pea-sized pieces, about 1 minute. Reserve ½ cup of the milk mixture and pour the remaining to the flour mixture and mix on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Reduce the mixer speed to medium-low and add the reserved ½ cup milk mixture to the batter and mix until combined, about 30 seconds. Do not over mix. The batter may look curdled. Give the batter a final stir by hand with a rubber spatula.
Divide the batter evenly between the cake pans and smooth tops with a rubber spatula. Gently tap cake pans on the counter to settle the batter and bake about 20 to 25 minutes, switching and rotating pans halfway through baking until a clean toothpick press.
Let cakes cook in their pans for 10 minutes. Invert cakes on to wire racks to cool completely, about 2 hours.

For Strawberry Buttercream

In a small food processor, blend freeze dried strawberries until they turn into powder. Pour the powder into a fine mesh sieve, discarding the solids and seeds, keeping the fine powder that came through the sieve. Set the powder aside.
Add the fresh strawberries to the food processor and process until smooth (for this recipe you'll need about 3 tablespoons of strawberry puree)
With a mixer beat butter until smooth and creamy, scraping down the sides of the bowl and the beater as necessary. Add the powdered sugar, 1/2 a cup at a time, beating until combined.
Add freeze dried strawberry powder, 3 tablespoons strawberry puree, vanilla extract and jam, and beat on medium speed until fully combined, being sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl and beater as needed.
If necessary, adjust the consistency by adding more powdered sugar to thicken, or more strawberry puree to thin it out. Place in a piping bag, or use a spatula to frost cake or cupcakes.

Trim off cake domes on each cake layer creating an even layer of cake. Fit a piping bag with a plain round tip or a coupler and fill with about 1 cup buttercream and set aside.
Place a cake layer on a cake pedestal or serving platter and pipe buttercream around the edge of the cake. Spread half (about 1 cup) of the strawberry filling in the center of the cake layer, spreading it out until it reaches the buttercream dam. Add another cake layer on top and repeat this process with the buttercream dam and strawberry filling. Top with the last layer of cake (bottom side up) and cover the top and sides of the cake with the remaining buttercream. Decorate with fresh strawberries if desired.