Ingredients
3cupscake flour
1tbspbaking powder
½tspsalt
1cupunsalted butter,softened
1¾cupgranulated sugar
3large eggs
2large egg yolks
1¼cupsmilk,anything but skim
2tspvanilla extract
3cupsheavy cream
1cuppowdered sugar,divided
8ozcream cheese,left at room temperature for about 20 to 30 minutes, until partially softened
½tspvanilla extract
1½lbstrawberries,hulled and sliced into pieces slightly under ½-inch
strawberries,sliced for decorating, optional
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 3 9-inch round cake pans then line bottom with a round of parchment, butter parchment and lightly dust pan with flour, shake out excess. Set pans aside.
Sift cake flour into a medium mixing bowl. Add baking powder and salt and whisk 20 seconds. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip together butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. The paddle attachment constantly scrapes bowl while mixing, which is important to ensure even mixing. If there is no paddle, then stop mixer occasionally throughout entire mixing process and scrape down sides and bottom of bowl.
Mix in eggs and egg yolks one at a time, adding in vanilla with last egg yolk.
Add ⅓ of the flour mixture at a time to the butter/egg mixture, alternating with ½ of the milk and mixing on low speed just until combined after each addition. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl and gently fold batter several times.
Divide batter among prepared baking pans. Bake in preheated oven 25 to 30 minutes until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.
Cool in pan for about 5 minutes, run knife around edges of cake to ensure they are loosened then invert onto wire racks to cool completely.
Once cool, frost with Strawberry Cream Cheese Whipped Cream. Store cake in an airtight container in refrigerator.
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip heavy cream until soft peaks form. Occasionally scrape down sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure even mixing.
Add ⅓ cup of powdered sugar and whip until stiff peaks form (Make sure they are stiff or your topping will be runny. It should get to the point where it doesn’t have a wet sheen). Scrape cream out into a separate bowl.
Add cream cheese to bowl of stand mixer, fit with paddle attachment and whip cream cheese until smooth and fluffy.
Mix in the remaining ⅔ cup of powdered sugar and vanilla.
Add strawberries and mix until uniform in color. Remove bowl from stand mixer, add whipped cream and fold into mixture. Frost over cooled cake.
