Ingredients
1 cup whole milk at room temperature
6 egg whites
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter softened (1.5 sticks)

Frosting
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1 cup finely chopped strawberries
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Few drops of food coloring (optional because the strawberries itself gave the nice pink color)

Few thinly sliced strawberries to place on top of the cake.

I was out of almond extract and hence used 2 tsp of vanilla extract instead for the cake.

Method
Preheat oven to 350F. Lets get the ingredients for cake together.

Combine egg whites, milk and extracts in a bowl.

Next we combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and beat in a stand mixer or hand mixer at a slow speed. Add butter and keep mixing until the mix takes a crumbly texture.

Add all but 1/2 cup of the milk mixture and keep beating at medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes.

Then add the remaining milk mixture and beat for 30 seconds. Do not overmix.

Prepare two 9 inch cake pans. First grease the pans and then dust flour on them. Divide the batter evenly between the two pans and shake to spread them out. Place in oven for 30-35 minutes until it passes the toothpick test.

When done let the cakes cool for 15 minutes and then move to a wire rack and let it cool further. Wait until the cake cools completely before applying the frosting.

Lets collect the ingredients for frosting next. Pretty small list right.

First beat the butter at a slow speed. Next add the vanilla followed by the chopped strawberry.

Keep beating at a slow speed scraping the edges down if necessary. Add a few drops of food coloring if using. Hmm a stand mixer would have been nice. (Note to K !!)

This is the frosting once done. Oh boy I could not stop eating it either. It was so delicious.

Now comes the fun part the layering and applying the frosting. Where is K? Here goes the frosting on the first layer.

Put the next layer of cake on top of the frosting.

Now apply frosting as neatly as possible on all sides and top. We were a tad short in frosting but we made it .. phew.

We thought we were done but I felt it still needed something on top to remove that bland appearance. So here goes sliced strawberries on top.

So presenting the classic white cake with strawberry buttercream frosting. The tiny bits of strawberries gave the cake a lovely look and the frosting took the cake to the next level. I received compliments from everybody on the frosting. The cake itself was moist and combined with the frosting tasted divine.

Enjoy!

Tips
1. I used fresh chopped strawberries but I read other recipes where strawberry jam is being used.
2. Instead of strawberries the buttercream can be flavored using different things like raspberry jam, lemon curd etc.

Sending to Strawberry event started by Anu and hosted at Zesty Palette.