Strawberry Lemon Trifle with Homemade White Cake

 

This is the second time I've made this white cake and I love it!  A very simple recipe, standard creaming method, and you get a nice tender, yet firm cake.  It reminds me of typical wedding cake base.  We used it for hubby's birthday cake and everyone loved it.  This time I needed it for a luncheon for which I was donating a trifle.  I wanted something lighter, with fresh, not cooked fruit like you would find in an English trifle.  I debated making a custard, but decided to stick with whipped cream.  Strawberries were the easiest fruit for me since they hold up well and have great color.  And since I started making my lemon curd in the blender, it is even easier than before and guaranteed no straining necessary, so I flavored part of the cream with that.  Trifles are infinitely customizable, so you could choose whatever fruit and cream combination you desired.  Lemon curd is optional but delicious!  I made the cake and curd ahead and froze the cake for a couple days.  Thawed the cake the night before and dessert assembly was easy the next morning.  Just whip, fold, cut and layer.  I ended up with enough ingredients to fill my 8-inch trifle bowl and two mini trifles, so this recipe would probably work for a punch bowl sized trifle.

Go To White Cake

makes 1 9x13" cake (or about 2 dozen cupcakes)

1¾ cups all purpose flour

¼ cup potato starch

2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

½ cup (1 stick) salted butter, softened

¼ cup un-hydrogenated shortening

 1½ cups sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

¼ tsp almond extract

5 large egg whites

¾ cup whole milk

Preheat oven to 350º.  Line a 9x13" baking dish with parchment and grease the bare ends with butter.  

Whisk together the flour, starch, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside.  

In a large bowl or stand mixer, mix the butter and shortening until combined.  

Add the sugar and cream until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.  

Scrape down edges, add extracts and mix again.  

Add the egg whites, one at a time, and beat well after each addition.  Scrape the sides if needed.  

On low speed, add the flour mixture alternating with the milk.  Start and end with the flour.

Scrape batter into pan and smooth top with an offset spatula.  Rap the pan on counter a few times to minimize bubbles in the batter.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, rotating pan halfway through, until lightly golden and a wooden pick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool in pan for 15 minutes.  Loosen the edges with a knife and turn cake out onto wire rack.  Remove parchment and allow to cool completely.

Decorate as desired.  (Cakes are easier to frost when they have chilled or settled for a few hours or overnight.  Wrap or cover when cool, to prevent drying out.)  Cupcakes will bake in 18-20 minutes and may be frosted when cool.

To Assemble a Trifle

makes one large trifle or 1 medium and two mini

1 recipe white cake (or pound cake or angel food cake)

1 batch or jar lemon curd (7-8oz or more to taste)

2 pints heavy whipping cream

3 16oz pkg fresh strawberries  (Save a few for garnish)

1-2 cups powdered sugar (depends on how sweet the strawberries are)

Wash and hull the strawberries and allow to dry.  Set aside a few for garnish.  Take 1 cup of strawberries and mash or blend with ¼ cup sugar or as needed.  Whip one pint of the cream with ¼-½ cup powdered sugar and stir a dollop into the lemon curd in a medium bowl to lighten.  Then fold in the remaining cream and set aside.  Whip the next pint of cream and sweeten with ½-1 cup powdered sugar.  Fold in the mashed strawberries and set aside.  Cut the cake into small cubes.  The smaller the trifle bowl, the smaller the cubes.

Slice the remaining strawberries and toss with up to ½ cup sugar as needed.  Let sit for a few minutes.

Now layer the cream, cake, and berries, in repeating layers as desired, until you reach the top of the bowl.  I did lemon cream, cake, berries, strawberry cream, cake, berries and then garnished with strawberry cream in the middle and sliced, fanned berries, with the lemon cream piped around the edge.

 

Refrigerate until serving, up to two hours.  If longer, cover with plastic wrap or a lid, to keep the cream from gathering off flavors in the fridge.

Serve with a large serving spoon or scoop. 

Wow, looks like they liked it!  Just a scoop or two left and that was a full dessert buffet along with a full BBQ buffet!  That always makes me happy, I love feeding people.