A Strawberry Cake for Mary and Mothers Day

Hail Mary, full of grace,

The Lord is with Thee.

Blessed art Thou among women

And Blessed in the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners

Now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

We were sitting in church a few weeks ago, when Father Steve said that May is Mary's month. Isn't that nice?  And so, me being me, I immediately thought it an excellent reason to make a nice cake, in honor of Mary.  It took a little while to settle on which one in particular, but Emilia was fairly adamant about it being pink.  First we tried the little pink cupcakes in Tessa Kiros's Apples for Jam cookbook, but the icing turned out so nasty that I refused, on the spot, to let them have anything to do with Mary.  (As a sidenote, I do not recommend using the organic powdered sugar from Trader Joe's -- just stick with the good old fashioned C&H.  Also, I suggest you read up on red food coloring in advance.  Seriously, how do you achieve a bright pink icing with red food coloring?  For some bizarre reason the answer eludes me.) 

Then one day I was thumbing through May's Saveur Magazine, and I found it -- Strawberry Cake.  That sounded perfect for Mary, not to mention the fact that it was clearly a suitable shade of pink for the girl.  And let me just tell you that it was fabulous -- worth every bit of time consumed driving around looking for strawberry extract, texting everyone I know about levels of red food coloring used in food, and all the mess in the kitchen.  Everything about this cake is perfect.

And since the day we decided to have a crack at it in the kitchen happened to be Mother's Day, it also turned into a cake for mothers.  Personally I can't think of a better way to celebrate mothers than by making a great big beautiful pink cake.  Just the sight of it made me happy.  And even now, a few weeks later, when everything seems to have turned upside down, I have found myself looking back at this day in the kitchen with my Miss Milia in an almost fleeting sort of way.  She gave me a hat for running, which I have used every time I have donned my running shoes and i-pod. I walked into the house one Saturday morning and announced to the world in general that I reallyreallyreally need a hat for running on account of the fact that my honker appears to be getting sunburned and turning an unsightly shade of red.  To this, Emilia said, 'But we are getting one for Mothers Day!'  She then immediately clamped her hand over her little mouth and hid her face in the couch cushions.  And for that I feel grateful, not to mention quite happy.

So now, as we find ourselves in the position of making bottles for a very smiley five-month-old baby boy, changing lots of little diapers, feeling incredibly tired and worn, and going through piles and piles of paperwork, I am once again overwhelmed by the role of motherhood**.  I am incredibly grateful for Mary and my own mother, and I have much love for both of my sisters.  And I have found myself thinking that this cake, while just a silly cake with gobs of delicious pink frosting, may be just the thing for a heavy heart.   

Anyway, we ate the whole thing in four days flat.  Every night after dinner we each had a slice.  It was hilarious to see the plates afterward: Emilia's with mostly frosting gone, Michael's with cake gone and oodles of frosting left over, and mine eaten pretty evenly throughout.  I would be willing to bet you could dissect one's personality based on their plate after a lovely pink layer cake.  In fact, I may look into this as a dissertation of sorts one of these days.

**More on this later, I assure you.

Strawberry Cake (from Bertha's Kitchen)
makes one great big layer cake

16 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus more for buttering pans
3 cups flour, plus more for pans
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup seedless strawberry jam
3 tablespoons red food coloring (I used much much much less)
2 cups sugar
1 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
8 ounce package cream cheese, at room temperature
1 one-pound box confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon strawberry extract

For the cake:   Heat the oven to 350.  Butter and flour two 9" cake pans.  Set aside. 

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.  Whisk together milk, jam, 2 tablespoons food coloring (I used 1 teaspoon) in a small bowl; set aside.  Beat together the sugar, oil, vanilla, eggs in a heavy-duty mixer on medium-high speed for 2-3 minutes, until smooth and very pale in color.  In three additions, alternately add the dry and wet ingredients to the batter, beginning and ending with the dry.  Mix until combined.  Divide the batter between the pans and smooth out the tops.  Bake in the middle of the oven for about 40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.  Remove from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes before removing from the pans.  Cool completely.

For the frosting:   Using your heavy-duty mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese together until light and fluffy, roughly 1-2 minutes.  Add the remaining food coloring, the powdered sugar, and strawberry extract.  Mix until completely smooth and lovely.  Place one cake upside down on a cake stand.  Spread 1/3 of the frosting over the top.  Cover with the second cake, top side up.  Spread 1/3 frosting over the top and the remaining frosting over the sides.  Refrigerate for one hour before serving.  Serve at room temperature.  (Recipe from Saveur Magazine, May 2011. Page 89, in a nice little section devoted to Bertha's Kitchen, a restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina.)