Cupid's Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Buttercream

Don't you wish you were here?

I went to San Diego this weekend to spend some time with my Niece Lexi and my Great Niece Meg.  This is what we did, well this is one of the things we did.  Lexi is back from Japan and enjoying the use of a full size oven.  I am sharing the schedule for the Avid Baker Challenge so she can bake along.  And since this was a mid month recipe we tried it out together.

We made the Signature Yellow Cake from Baking for All Occasions.  This was so good.  Let me tell you the secret.  There are extra egg yolks.  After you bake the cake, you slice each layer in half and spread jam.

Add a layer and add the buttercream, a layer of Strawberries, and another layer of buttercream.  I have to admit, we had some technical difficulties with the buttercream.  There are a lot of steps and we needed a candy thermometer, that we did not have, so we added extra unflavored gelatin.  It was pretty scary putting the strawberries on the cake cause they kept sliding.

Our buttercream did not get as thick as I would have like the day we made the cake.  Since it was not thick enough to spread we just let it pour down the sides. 

I think it came out beautiful and tasted great.  This buttercream was very complicated and I will probably not try that recipe again.  It was very fun cooking with my Niece.  Good Job Lexi!