A Berry Strawberry Cake!

The first slice was for my youngest daughter!

I remember the first time I baked a cake was when I was doing my degree in the UK.  It was done out of necessity, where with Hari Raya around the corner and with no one amongst us who knew how to bake a proper cake, that was when I decided to give it a try.  I did not only surprise myself, but also surprised my colleagues with my Walnut Coffee cake (recipe to come soon in this blog!).  And, the rest as they say with much cliche, is history!

Call it a knack or what ever you like, I quite like baking and today was no exception.  I remembered I had a punnet of strawberries (a week old!) and a small carton of whipping cream hidden behind a bottle of mustard and a can of tomato juice, in the fridge.  And my youngest child had been pestering me to make a strawberry cake for almost three weeks now.  I was just too tired to bake today but she was almost to the verge of throwing a tantrum and tears (with shrieks!) were starting to roll down her chubby cheeks.  And so I gave in and baked a Strawberry Cake with the following recipe!  Do give it a try (before your daughter starts crying!)

I thought  the split cake looked more delicious!

• 8 oz self-raising flour
• 7 oz butter (I simply used margarine, since it was what I had in the pantry!)
• 7 oz castor sugar (actually I was 1 oz short, so I made it up with icing sugar!)
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 165g strawberries, sliced
• 1 small carton whipping cream
  

The hot weather quickly melted the cream!

First cream the butter and sugar until pale, then beat in the eggs, one at a time.  Incorporate the sieved flour carefully, followed by the vanilla essence and the sliced strawberries.  Pour into an 8-inch round cake tin and bake for 45 minutes in a 170 C oven.

When cooked, cool the cake and split into two.  Beat the whipping cream until stiff and spread half onto one part of the split cake, then top it with the other half of the cake.  Pipe the remaining cream onto the cake using a star nozzle and top each cream-shape with a fresh strawberry!