Strawberry Lime Cream Cake

This cake was AMAZING. I don't even like cake that much, and it rocked my world. While eating it, I understood why people would ever want to have cake for their birthday. It was amazing. It was also very time intensive. But all of the steps can be done in advance. I made the cake the night before, the fillings before church, the whipped cream after church and assembled the cake after church as well.

I made mine as directed as a cake. However, the original recipe gives you lots of extras on the filling, so to use all of the extra filling and to not be as scary with the stacking, I think this would also make a delicious and easy trifle that you could throw some fresh strawberries in with. That would definitely take out the scary part of the potential of cake toppling.

The lime cream sauce never got so thick to make peaks for me, but I whipped it until it got thick and didn't seem to be changing any more and put it in the fridge for about 4 hours and when I got back it was perfectly thick.

http://www.melskitchencafe.com/strawberry-lime-cream-cake/

• White Cake
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/3 cups buttermilk
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 egg whites
Strawberry Syrup/Puree:
• You can sub 1 1/2 cups of strawberry jam for the puree
• 1 pint fresh strawberries, washed and hulled
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
Lime Cream:
• 4 limes, for 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
Whipped Cream Frosting:
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 envelope (about 2 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin
• 4 tablespoons water

DIRECTIONS

1. For the cake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add buttermilk, butter and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping the bowl as needed. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes. Add the egg whites and beat for 2 minutes more, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
2. Pour the batter into 2 greased and floured 9-inch round cake pans. (I lined the bottom of mine with a parchment circle and greased the top of the parchment circle.) Bake the cakes for 28-30 minutes until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with moist crumbs. Don’t overbake or the cakes will be dry. Cool the cakes on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Loosen the sides with a butter knife and remove the cakes from the pans to cool completely.
3. For the strawberry puree, combine all the ingredients in a blender and process until smooth.
4. For the lime cream, zest and juice the limes into a medium bowl. You should have about 1/2 cup lime juice. Add the sweetened condensed milk and mix well. Add the whipping cream and beat until medium-stiff peaks form (mine never formed peaks. Just throw it in the fridge for a bit to thicken up). Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed.
5. For the whipped cream frosting, in a small bowl, place the water and sprinkle the gelatin over the top. Let the mixture stand for 3-4 minutes until the gelatin has thickened. Microwave for 20-30 seconds until the gelatin dissolves and the mixture is warm. Remove from the microwave and let the mixture cool to room temperature (don’t let it set up!). In a large bowl, whip the cream, sugar and vanilla until slightly thickened. While beating slowly, gradually add the cooled gelatin to the whipped cream mixture. Whip at high speed until stiff peaks form.
6. To assemble the cake, slice each cooled cake round in half horizontally to form 4 cake circles. Place one cake layer on a cake plate and spread an even layer of strawberry syrup over the top. Spread a thick layer of lime cream over the jam, leaving a 1/2-inch border around the edge as the top cake layers will press the cream out toward the edges. Repeat the same layering process with the next two layers. Top with the final cake layer and frost the entire cake with the whipped cream frosting. Garnish with fresh limes and strawberries, if desired. Chill for 1-2 hours before serving to let the cake set up.