It's a wedding cake . . . and I helped!"

Remember this commercial?

I feel just like those little kids . . . only instead of vile-looking cornflake dusted chicken, I helped my mom make a wedding cake!

Well, sort of. I got to cut out the little flowers and leaves out of black fondant. The white stuff is cornstarch, which keeps the fondant from sticking to itself. While very pretty and functional, fondant is not very tasty . . .

Unless, of course, you're my kid who can't get enough (as you can see from his black teeth). We had to move all the cutouts because he kept stuffing them in his mouth!

My mom also made the groom's cake in the shape of UTK's logo:

He LOVED it. My mom did a great job but as a Georgia fan, I'm contractually obligated to hate it. ; )

The groom wanted strawberry cake, which was a first for my mom. I'm not a fan of fruit-flavored cakes, especially cake mixes. Ick. My mom searched and searched and could only find strawberry cakes flavored with Jell-O. Uh, no. My mom was not about to do Jell-O for a wedding. If we sound like dessert snobs, we totally are! Don't get me started on the evils of Cool Whip . . .

Anyway, FINALLY my mom found a recipe that used real strawberries. I was doubtful about it since strawberries have such a mild flavor. I will tell you, this cake tastes AMAZING. There's strawberry puree in the batter and you pour the leftovers over the baked cake. It actually tastes like strawberries. It is amazing paired with my mom's buttercream frosting.
Give it a try!

Strawberry Cake

This recipe makes approximately 3 9-inch cakes.

1 1/2 c. strawberry puree, room temp*

1/2 c. milk, room temp

12 egg whites, room temp

2 tbsp vanilla

4 1/2 c. sifted cake flour

3 1/2 c. sugar

8 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

3 sticks butter, room temp

Set oven to 350 degrees. Spray and flour the pans and cover with parchment paper.

Combine puree, milk and vanilla. Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat egg whites untill stiff. Add flour mixture alternately with liquids, starting with flour and ending with flour. fold in beaten egg whites. Pour into pan. Bake 25 minutes (or longer if the pan is big). When cake is cooled, drizzle or brush the reserved liquid* from the puree onto the cake.

*2 24 oz. bags of frozen strawberries, thawed. Pour into fine sieve placed over a bowl and let sit. Reserve liquid for wash. Place strawberries in food processor and puree. Makes about 2 1/2 cups puree.