Strawberry-Vanilla Checkerboard Cake

Difficulty:
1/5

Ease of preparation rating: Medium

Yield: 1 x 4 (8-inch) layered cake

Ingredients:

Strawberry preserve 

½ cup (120 ml) strawberries

½ tablespoon (7.5 ml) sugar

1 teaspoon (5 ml) lemon juice

 

Cake

1 ¼ cup (300 ml) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 ½ cups (600 ml) sugar

3 eggs

3 egg yolks

2 teaspoons (10 ml) vanilla extract

4 cups (1 L) cake flour

1 tablespoon (15 ml) baking powder

½ teaspoon (2.5 ml) salt

1 ¼ cup (300 ml) milk

Strawberry preserves (see above)

10 drops (10 ml) red food colouring

 

Vanilla buttercream

1 cup (240 ml), room temperature

4 cups (1 L) icing sugar

2 teaspoons (10 ml) vanilla

 

Method:

Let’s get baking!

To make the strawberry preserves, add strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice to a saucepan and simmer.

Stir to break up fruit.

Cook until mixture is reduced. It should be thick and syrupy.

Set aside to cool.

 

Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C).

To make the cake, cream together butter and sugar in a bowl.

Add the eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla and beat in.

In a separate bowl, sift the flour with the baking powder and salt.

Gradually mix the flour mixture into the butter mixture.

Gradually mix in the milk.

Divide batter in half.

Into one half of the batter, fold in the strawberry preserves and 10 drops (10 ml) of red food colouring.

Pour plain batter into 2 greased 8-inch (20 cm) cake pans.

Pour strawberry batter into the remaining 2 greased 8-inch (20 cm) cake pans.

Cook for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Let cool, then remove from cake pans.

Note: put cake pans in the refrigerator to speed up cooling.

 

To make the icing, cream together butter and sugar.

Add vanilla and incorporate.

 

To assemble, level cakes.

Use 6-inch (15 cm), 4-inch (10 cm), and 2-inch (5 cm) circular cookie cutters to cut concentric circles out of the cakes.

Spread a thin layer of buttercream on the inside ring of all circles.

Assemble cake layers by alternating colours.

Spread buttercream on one complete layer.

Carefully place a different alternating coloured layer on top and spread with buttercream.

Repeat until all layers are used up.

Spread remaining buttercream over entire cake.

Decorate as desired.

 

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