Strawberry Cake

                    

                Hi everyone !!!! It is strawberry season here and so I decided to make a Strawberry Cake. I changed my complete cake recipe and tried out something more simple than what I usually do. The result was a fantastic soft, spongy and light cake with a totally different flavour !!!!!! This is the best cake I've ever made!!!!  I never used whipped cream in any of my cakes as it was not available here but recently I found out a shop which sold whipped cream and I tried it out and it whipped up perfectly !!!!!  So here is the recipe of my Strawberry Cake:

Ingredients:

Butter, softened                : 200 grams

Sugar, granulated             : 150 grams

Eggs                                    : 4

Vanilla essence                : 2 tsp

All purpose flour / Maida  : 200 grams

Baking Powder                  : 1 tsp

Baking Soda                      : 1/4 tsp

Cold Milk                            : 1/2 cup

Fresh Strawberries
Whipping cream

Method:

1. In a bowl, whip the butter with an electric mixer till very soft, light and creamy. Add the sugar and whip for 3-4 minutes. Then add in the vanilla essence and whip for another minute.
2. Separate the egg whites from the yolks in the eggs. Whip the egg whites for 2 minutes till it becomes airy (do not whip till the formation soft peaks or stiff peaks). Add in the egg whites in the butter and sugar mixture and whip for a minute. Add in the yolks and whip.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder and Baking soda three times.
4. Add in the flour to the butter mixture little by little and whip in between two additions. Alongside, keep adding the milk too.
5. After everything has been incorporated, whip for another 2 minutes. The mixture will be slightly thick and very airy.
6. Take an 8" cake pan and grease it with butter. Line the base of the pan with butter paper and dust the sides with flour. Add the cake batter into the pan and put it into an oven preheated at 240 C. 
7.  Remove from the oven when a skewer poked in the cake comes out clean ( This can take anywhere between 1/2 an hour to 1 hour). Cool the cake for 10 minutes in the cake pan and then remove from the pan and cool on a cake rack.
8.  In a separate bowl, take the cream and whip till fluffy and light. ( I used sweetened whipping cream but if you are using unsweetened whipping cream then add a bit of powdered sugar in the cream while whipping. The cream should be made only  slightly sweet.)  
9. Take about a cup of the whipped cream and add in some chopped strawberries and fold gently with a spoon.
10. When the cake is completely cooled, cut the cake horizontally in half and put a layer (about 1 cm thick) of whipped cream containing the chopped strawberries. Then put the other half on the top and press gently.
11. Take the remaining whipped cream (the one not containing the strawberries) and coat it on the cake ( the layer should be about 1 cm thick).
12. Decorate your cake with whipped cream and strawberries as you wish !!!!!!