Strawberry Cake (frozen fruit)

Comparing this recipe from NPR to the one I used for the blackberry cake, I immediately saw the difference in the amount of moisture.  It doesn't reduce the purée, and there's quite a bit of it in there.  What I did was thaw the whole bag, but only run the juice and enough berries to make the 5 ounces by volume.  That saved the rest of the bag for filling.  Plus, it uses extra oil and an egg yolk to replace butter.  I've been spending so much on butter.  Surprisingly, not on cake flour.  One box has gotten me through all these projects so far, and I may have enough for the last cake.  Yes, I'm making small cakes, but I really thought I would need more by now.

(Oh shoot, I'm going to have to make a grocery list before I travel to Virginia.  Adding together all the amounts for all the cakes, their fillings, and frostings.  That's going to take at least an hour.)

The published version was already a half-recipe.  It was intended to be 12 cupcakes, which is half a standard layer cake recipe.  Happy me, I didn't have to do any math!  If you're doing two 8" layers (or 3 thinner layers), just double this.

This is still the reverse creaming method, only with just oil.  It must be a thing for fruity cakes.  And I just realized this cake is dairy-free.  The frosting won't be, but you can't win them all.

10 oz bag frozen strawberries, thawed (put in fridge the night before)
2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
pink food coloring (optional)
1-1/4 C cake flour
1 C sugar
1-1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 C vegetable oil

1.  Run enough of the thawed strawberries and their juice through the blender to get 1/2 C plus 2 Tb of purée.  If you have a use for more, go ahead and whir up all of it.  A double recipe is a full bag.  Grease two 6" cake pans, a square 8" pan, or one deep 8" round pan.  Line with wax paper, then grease again.  Preheat the oven to 350º.

2.  Mix together the eggs, vanilla, and the 5 oz purée in a small bowl.  For a richer color, add a few drops of pink gel food coloring.  Natural strawberries won't have that super-pink-ness you get when you use Jell-O.  I was unimpressed with my mixture until I realized I'd forgotten the coloring.  It makes a difference.

3.  In a mixer with the paddle, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

4.  Add the oil to the dry mix and beat on medium for 2 minutes.  It's going to look like sugar-cookie dough.  Don't panic.  Scrape the bowl and add 1/3 of the strawberry mixture.  Beat for 20 seconds.  Repeat until all of the strawberry is incorporated.  Now it will look like a regular cake batter.

5.  Pour batter into cake pans.  (Or you can make the original 12 cupcakes.)  Bake for 30 minutes, until they pass the toothpick test.

6.  Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out, peel off paper, and cool completely before frosting.  I may not have mentioned this, but I cool my cakes upside-down because I'm going to trim off the top when I level them anyway, so it doesn't matter if they get rack impressions, and the top crust is stronger than the crumbly bottoms.  If you're serving an untrimmed cake or they domed excessively, cool them right-side up.  If not frosting that day, wrap in plastic, then foil, and freeze.

Makes 12 cupcakes, 2 6" layers, or one thick 8" layer

Difficulty rating  :)