TL/DR – Strawberry Lemon Cake. Key words for this cake are fresh, moist, and subtle. A roasted beet is a sneaky, healthy ingredient in an otherwise cakey cake. No buttercream, but whipped cream lightens everything and interacts deliciously with the strawberries and the bright lemon flavor. –
The inspiration for this cake was my daughter’s second birthday. I’ve been experimenting with beets in baking recently and I love that the batter for this cake is bright pink. Of course as anyone who has baked with beets knows, the color fades almost completely in the final product.
The flavor is definitely lemony, but it’s not over the top. I hesitate to use lemon extract. For me it’s too much like a grocery store baked item. Fresh strawberries work really well with a simple vanilla whipped cream and don’t overwhelm the lemony flavor.
Start with one small roasted beet, about 1/3 cup diced. Blend it in a blender with buttermilk and lemon juice. Then cream together softened butter and sugar. Add eggs, lemon zest, vanilla, and oil and mix on medium speed. Add in the bright pink beet mixture and mix until combined. Follow with the dry ingredients and pour into two 9 inch round cake pans coated with cooking spray and lined with parchment paper circles. Bake for about 25 minutes.
Make a double batch of whipped cream. Slice strawberries so that you have pretty ones for the outside of the cake and the rest can be the filling. To assemble, dollop a generous amount on one layer and place the hodgepodge strawberries as the filling. Then add the second layer and cover completely with whipped cream, making a pretty design with strawberry slices on the sides and strawberries and lemon rind on the top.
Strawberry Lemon Cake
A subtly flavored lemon cake that contains the undetectable nutrition from a roasted beet, is moist and fluffy and is topped with fluffy whipped cream and filled with fresh strawberries.
Ingredients
- For cake:
- 1 small beet, roasted, peeled and diced, about 1/3 c
- 1 c buttermilk
- 2 T lemon juice
- 1/2 c softened butter
- 1 1/4 c granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 t vanilla extract
- zest of 2 lemons
- 1/4 c canola or vegetable oil
- 2 1/2 c all purpose flour
- 1 t baking powder
- 1 t baking soda
- 1/2 t iodized salt
- For filling and topping:
- 2 c heavy whipping cream
- 4 T granulated sugar
- 1 t vanilla extract
- 8 oz strawberries, greens removed, sliced into about 4 slices per strawberry
Directions
- Step 1 Roast the beet ahead of time if desired at 400 degrees F, wrapped in foil, for about 40 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Cool the beet, peel and dice.
- Step 2 Prepare two 9 inch round baking tins by spraying with nonstick spray, inserting a parchment paper circle in each, then spraying once more. Set aside.
- Step 3 Place the beet, buttermilk and lemon juice in a blender or a food processor and process on the high setting until liquified.
- Step 4 Cream the butter and sugar together for 1 minute with an electric mixer.
- Step 5 Add in the eggs, vanilla, lemon zest and oil and beat on medium speed until combined.
- Step 6 Add in the beet mixture and beat on low until combined.
- Step 7 Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and beat on low until just incorporated.
- Step 8 Pour the batter evenly into the two round cake tins.
- Step 9 Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes.
- Step 10 Cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire racks and cool completely.
- Step 11 Make the whipped cream by pouring the heavy cream, vanilla and granulated sugar into a cold bowl and beating on high with cold beaters for 1 – 2 minutes until stiff peaks form.
- Step 12 Once the cake layers are completely cool, place one layer on a cake plate and top with about a cup of whipped cream, spreading it out evenly. Place the misshapen strawberry slices all over the first layer. Save the nicer shaped slices for the exterior.
- Step 13 Place the second layer carefully atop the whipped cream and strawberry filling, then coat the whole cake evenly with the remainder of the whipped cream. Decorate the sides with the strawberry slices, then make a pretty design on the top using strawberries and peels of lemon rind, if desired. Serve immediately or refrigerate, covered, for a few hours. Remove from the refrigerator a half hour before serving.
