Spelt Strawberry Layer Cake
Seriously this spelt strawberry layer cake is the easiest celebration cake I have ever made. The homemade buttermilk ensures it is light and fluffy topped off with a not too sweet white chocolate buttercream frosting. I love this muffin method of cake making beating sugar, butter and flour together first, mixing all wet ingredients separately before combining the two. I have a simple homemade buttermilk recipe by souring milk with vinegar or lemon juice 20 minutes before starting, to make buttermilk. Yes, that simple. I hope you try this delicious spelt strawberry layer cake when you are wanting to impress a loved one for their birthday or this is perfect for a Mother's Day celebration cake or when you just want to eat cake.
This recipe is inspired by Hummingbird Bakery, Home Sweet Home book however, I have tweaked it over to add my own touches.
Takes = 20 mins prep.
Bakes = 30 mins
Makes = 10-12 slices
Ingredients for the sponge
- Unsalted softened butter – 110g , 4 oz (about 3/4 cup + 1 tbsp)
- Caster sugar – 320g (about 1 cup + 1/3 cup + 2 tsp)
- White Spelt Flour – 320g, 11 oz (about 2 cups + 1/8 cup)
- Baking powder – 4 tsp
- Fine salt – 1 tsp
- Lemon zest – 2 tsp
- Homemade buttermilk *– 320ml (about 1 cup + 1/4 cup) = milk + 1.5 tbsp lemon juice, white or a.c vinegar
- Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp
- Large eggs – 3
White Chocolate Frosting
- Unsalted butter – 150g (about 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp)
- Sifted Icing Sugar – 400g (2.5 cups)
- Milk or cream – 1 tbsp
- White chocolate melted, cooled – 100g
Decorations
- Strawberries – 1 punnet
- Chopped Pistachios (optional)
- Strawberry jam (optional) – 2-3 tbsp
Method
- Oven 170˚C grease and line the 20cm x 3 (8inch) baking tins with baking paper.
- PREPARE homemade buttermilk 20 minutes before starting, by adding 1.5 tbsp of lemon juice or white vinegar to milk stir and rest at room temperature.
- BEAT with paddle attachment butter, sugar, zest, salt, sifted flour and baking powder.
- MIX in a jug by hand milk and eggs then pour slowly in the flour mix and gently combine until smooth.
- POUR batter into prepare tins, about 420g-460g per cake tin.
- BAKE for 30-35 minutes
- COOL for 2 minutes before gently removing the cakes from the tin.
- COOL completely before adding the frosting.
- FROSTING – using an electric hand mixer or the paddle attachment on your stand mixer cream the butter. Add the icing sugar a little at a time and mix on low. Drizzle in the vanilla and cream and scrape the bowl as you go, then increase the speed to high to whip for 3 minutes to make it light and fluffy, then reduce to low for a final minute to ensure it is smooth. Then using a spatula fold a few times to remove any larger bubbles. Rest in the refrigerator until needed.
- LEVEL off the cakes before adding the frosting. Spread over the cooled cakes, starting with the bottom layer. Adding a layer of strawberry jam if desired then the frosting. Repeat with each layer.
- DECORATE – slice the strawberries