Spring Sunshine Cake | Strawberries Lemons & Vanilla Bean Buttercream

 

Spring has arrived!

Besides the longer days, warmer weather and abundance of bugs trying to invade my home, my lovely coral roses tell me so.

I have been frequenting my local produce store a little more often and stocking up on lemons, strawberries and other yummy bright fruits and veggies. Spring is my favorite time of year. I love all the beautiful colors and yes, the abundance of nature that blossoms too. I felt inspired to make something with all this spring-time bounty. So, I decided to make a cake that reflected how I am feeling.

I came up with this sweet and tart, creamy sunshine cake made with lemons, strawberries and Madagascar vanilla beans.

I don't have a recipe to share just yet, because I was just experimenting and need to do some tweaking first. But I started with a basic yellow cake from scratch that was infused with lemon zest, coconut/pineapple juice and of course some fresh lemon juice.

I usually don't make my cakes from scratch because I find them to be very dense and box cake mixes always seem to be light and fluffy. However, I found a basic yellow cake recipe and it looked promising. I added a few of my own ingredients to mix it up and I will say that it did come out a little denser than I would have liked but overall it was good and had good flavor.

{This is where those tweaks need to be made}

I do like that the cake mix from scratch stayed fairly level and I didn't have to cut a hug mound of cake off the top to get it level, like I would have had to do with a box mix. I think they add massive amounts of baking powder to the box mixes.

{Just a guess}

After I let the cakes cool, I poked holes all over the cakes and basted them with this lemon and vanilla bean simple syrup that I made. I did this to make sure that the cakes were extra moist and also to infuse them with a little extra flavor. Doing this was very helpful and it did not make them soggy at all. I only used a few tablespoons on each cake.

Once the syrup soaked into the cakes, I then made a strawberry and lemon reduction that I used to fill the middle layer with. I usually don't like fruit fillings in the middle of my cakes but since I wanted this cake to represent some of the yummy fruits of Spring and not overwhelm it with buttercream, I felt this would really make it delicious.

I covered the whole middle layer with the reduction and it almost looked like a strawberry glazed cheesecake. I could have left the cake like this, gone no further and it probably would have tasted like heaven on it's own. But I didn't . . .

I added the second layer of cake and pressed firmly on the top which allowed some of the strawberries to ooze and drip down the sides.

{kind of like blood. LOL. I kid}

I added my homemade Vanilla Bean buttercream just on the top of the cake and used a spoon to create this swirl pattern. You can see all the specs of vanilla bean seeds in the buttercream and it just seems to add a little extra sweetness to the buttercream as opposed to just using a vanilla extract.

Oh how I do love Vanilla Beans. I love the way they look, smell and taste.

I can't say the same for my fiance' because he said it looked like I put two sticks on the top of it. Lol

{Not everyone gets it}

But that is okay. I like the way the vanilla beans and the curls of lemon peel looked on the top. I also added a couple of my coral roses to the top as per my first picture. It just looked so good with the colors. I had too.

Overall I am happy with the way my cake came out and besides needing a couple of tweaks in the cake mix, It was really yummy, bright and fruity.

Think of sunshine in your mouth.

That is what I was going for after all.

I hope this cake gives you a little inspiration to get in the kitchen and make something yummy of your own. If not to kick off Spring, then just to stuff your face with. In moderation of course. I ended up sharing this with the neighbors because I certainly couldn't eat it all, no matter how much I may have wanted too.

Blessings to all

 

How to freeze berries

It has been such a gloomy and dreary day. But I got these fresh strawberries and a giant thing of blueberries on sale and I am washing them up good so I can freeze them. I love fresh berries and freezing them while they are in season or on sale is a great way to ensure their availability.

I can't stand to see my fruits and veggies go bad before I can eat them. For some reason I always forget about freezing them. Really, you can freeze just about anything. Think about all the varieties of food that fill the packages in the frozen food aisle at the grocery store. Green beans, corn, onions, squash, zucchini and everything else under the sun. In order to stock my freezer up and make sure that I don't waste any of my food, I am going to start taking half of my fruits and veggies and wash them and freeze them. I started with my berries that are so sweet and bright. I was surprised to stumble upon such good berries and at such a great price in January. I don't want to let these puppies go to waste.

Freezing berries or really anything is actually quite simple. First, I get a baking sheet and cover it with two layers of papers towels so that I can dry/drain the berries of their excess water after rinsing.

Take all of your fruit that you want to freeze and give it a good washing. I use a strainer and let them sit in the sink for a few minutes to drip off as much excess as possible. I then spread the fruit out over the paper towels to dry off. After a few minutes I turn the fruit over and try to get the other side too. If you have any paring or trimming to do with your food, this would be the time to do it. I usually cut out the core and take off the greenery on my strawberries before freezing them.

I then throw away the paper towel and use a silicone mat on the baking sheet to prevent the berries from sticking. This isn't necessary. I just happen to have one. You can place your berries directly on the cookie sheet. I wouldn't use paper of any kind because the berries may stick to the paper as they freeze. Try to separate your fruit as much as possible. Sometimes the berries will freeze together when they still have water on them. The goal is to try to freeze your berries separately so that you can use as much or as little as you want from your bag without them all being frozen in one big clump. That is why drying them on the paper towels is an important step. After they are washed, dried and spread out on the cookie sheet, you can then put the cookie sheet of fruit in the freezer for about an hour. You mostly want the berries to get pre-frozen enough not to stick together. After an hour, take the berries out of the freezer and put them into your freezer-friendly ziplock bags that have been pre-labeled with the date they were frozen and the name of the item. Then you can store them in your freezer for up to six months.

If you like smoothies as much as I do, then this will also make smoothie-making that much easier. A great idea for smoothies is taking this same concept but preparing baggies of pre-prepared fruit combinations for your smoothies. For instance if you love strawberry banana, then you can make a bag of already sliced bananas and strawberries for a smoothie. It's a great way to save time and to make sure that you have the fruits you want when you need them. Try this with spinach and yogurt too. Like I said before, you can pretty much freeze anything.

Happy Berry Freezing!!!

Blessings to all