... with strawberries on top...

My office is going to be a little hectic this week: our final production of the school year is opening tomorrow, and everyone is a little stressed. To lighten the mood, I decided to make Pioneer Woman's Strawberry Cake over the weekend to take to my coworkers.

Here's what it required:
(I don't often sift my dry ingredients, but if PW says I should, she's probably right...)
Here's what the rest of the batter needed:
The original recipe called for a single cake pan, but I decided to use 2 pans... I'm rebellious like that.
After I had used my favorite baking product, I poured the batter and slammed the pans on my counter top until they were smooth.
Just thirty minutes later, I had these lovely rounds of cake, cooling by the window.
In the meantime, I started on the frosting... with this much butter and cream cheese, you know it'll be good!
And then, I added the pound and a half of powdered sugar... my scale sure came in handy!
Once the frosting was finished, I started on the strawberries.
There's a lot happening in that picture, right? I started by choosing the prettiest berries (which I planned on using for garnish), and the rest were cut up and dusted with sugar.
A few minutes later, I used my immersion blender to mash 'em.
Once all the components were complete, the fun really began! I started by piping a border of frosting on my first cake. I figured when I added the strawberry filling, the frosting would keep the berries from seeping out.
Then I added the second cake, and frosted the whole shebang. But that's kind of boring, right?
So I got out my pastry bag, and went to town.
I know- it's a little much... but I couldn't help myself! Oh, and do you want to know the ironic part? After I added all those strawberries, I couldn't fit the cake into my cake-carrier... so my coworkers are totally missing out!
Oh well- I guess now there's more for me!
If you'd like to make this cake for the lucky people in your life, here's the recipe:

PW's Strawberry Cake

Cake Ingredients:
1-½ cup Flour
3 Tablespoons Corn Starch
½ teaspoons Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 stick unsalted Butter, Softened
1 ½ cup Sugar
3 whole Large Eggs
½ cups Sour Cream, Room Temperature
1 teaspoon Vanilla
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Icing Ingredients
½ pounds Cream Cheese, Room Temperature
2 sticks Unsalted Butter
1-½ pound Powdered Sugar, Sifted
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 pound Strawberries
_____
Directions: Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, and corn starch. Cream 1 stick of butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well each time. Add sour cream and vanilla and mix until combined. Add sifted dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just barely combined. Pour into 2 greased and floured 8-inch cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from cake pan and place on a cooling rack and allow it to cool completely. Stem some strawberries and place into a bowl- sprinkle with sugar. Stir together and let sit for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, mash the strawberries. Make icing: combine cream cheese, 2 sticks butter, sifted powdered sugar, vanilla. Mix until very light and fluffy. Spread strawberries between cakes, including all the juices. Frost and garnish with strawberries.

By the way- if you're in my neighborhood, feel free to stop by... I need some help finishing this cake! I hope you have a wonderful Tuesday- thanks for visiting!

Mmm mmm good!

There are plenty of times when living in Astoria isn't all it's cracked up to be. While I have to contend with the commute and crazy train schedules sometimes (February weekends were ROUGH), there are lots of pros that MORE than make up for the cons. For example, a new store opened this weekend, just a couple doors down from the subway stairs in my neighborhood. It's a 24-hour organic grocer, and the prices can't be beat. I stopped by last night, and got all of this for under $5!
If you're reading this in MI, I guess that price isn't going to sound so outstanding... but for my NYC following, what a deal, right? With all this yummy food, I decided to make a salad for dinner. This is what I started with:
I thought the onion looked especially cool:
Doesn't this look delicious and colorful?
I needed a closer look... YUM!
After that, I whipped up a quick blackberry cobbler. I saw the recipe earlier in the day on Pioneer Woman, and when all those blackberries above cost $2, I had to give it a try! First, I washed those pretty berries...
Then I mixed up some self rising flour and sugar.
After adding some butter and milk, I put it in a baking dish. Then I added those amazing blackberries, and sprinkled more sugar on top of the dish.
While it baked for an hour, I watched "The Office" and "Thirty Rock"... both were HILARIOUS! Can I just say I'm glad that Michael and Pam are back at Dunder Mifflin? Also, how funny was 30 Rock with all the Slanket references? (Clearly they were referring to the SNUGGIE!) After an hour, I went and got this out of the oven...

Not too bad. Admittedly, it looks NOTHING like the dessert that Pioneer Woman made, because her berries still poked through the surface. Maybe my self-rising flour was extra potent? But inside it was pretty- and YUMMY!
It had more of a cake-y texture, which wasn't what I was expecting, but was still really good! I think I'll have to make one more before I'm ready to make it for others... but this was a good start! Now I just have a work day to get through before the WEEKEND! We're supposed to have AMAZING weather here all weekend- with a high of 86 on Sunday! I plan on enjoying every last drop of my two days off... I hope you have a great weekend as well!