Elijah's Butter Cake with Strawberry Frosting

Strawberry frosting flavored with real strawberries. Imagine that! Please don't use fake fruit flavorings. For one thing, they don't taste anything like fruit. For another, they are nothing but chemicals... so they aren't really food at all. It is never a good idea to eat something that isn't food unless it's medicine and your doctor has prescribed it. Apparently blue food coloring in M & Ms might help your spine... but I doubt that eating red food coloring or strawberry Jell-O or other flavorings I've found in strawberry frosting recipes is going to do anything good for your health. And why eat something that tastes terrible unless it's good for your health? Brussel sprouts, for example, might be worth eating.

My son, Elijah, wanted strawberry frosting on his cake. I did some research and found that most people have not been successful in putting fresh strawberries into frosting, because they are just too full of liquid. It ruins the consistency. So I came up with the idea of using fresh strawberry preserves in the recipe. That way, I was using real strawberries, but they were already thickened. It was a bit sweet... but the frosting tasted like real strawberries, which was the point. It was so good, that my kids kept sneaking the leftover frosting from the fridge by finger-fulls.

The cake is to die for and probably would cause you to die young if you ate it every day. BUTTER! It's rich, dense and deliciously self-indulgent. But for birthdays? Yes. We can eat this way on birthdays.

Butter Cake:
3 cups flour (I used King Aurthur Unbleached all-purpose)
2 cups sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups of butter, softened (hello, Julia Child!)
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
6 eggs

Combine all ingredients in a bowl but eggs. Beat with electric mixer until smooth. Beat in one egg at a time. Pour batter into greased 10inch tube pan. Bake at 350ºF for 1 hour 15 minutes or until done.


Strawberry Frosting:
1 lb of powdered sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup fresh strawberry preserves (or to texture)
2 tsp vanilla

Whip the butter and sugar until crumbly. Add the vanilla, then add the preserves a couple tablespoons at a time until the consistency is just right for spreading over cake.

Allow cake to cool completely before frosting.