Just My Culinary Concoctions

A while ago I saw this cake on P-Dub’s site and I’ve been wanting to make it for a while. And even though I’m sure the cake part of it is fantastic, I’ve been dying to try this Vanilla Bean cake and I figured that combining the 2 of them together would be like a bit of heaven in your mouth. I was correct. I didn’t have a Tahitian Vanilla bean but I did have Madagascar Vanilla bean and it worked GREAT! This cake is so moist, so light and airy, so soft and so damn good.

Vanilla Bean Cake Strawberry Short Cake

For the cake:

3 cups cake flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tahitian vanilla bean, split and scraped (I used Madagascar)
1 cup unsalted butter, cubed and softened to room temperature
2 cups sugar
5 large eggs, at room temp
1 1/4 cups buttermilk, at room temp
2 tsp-1 Tbsp Tahitian vanilla (I used regular)

Preheat oven to 350. Butter and line two 8-inch square pans with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Place butter in the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment. Split and scrape the vanilla pod into the butter, discard pod (or reserve for another use). Beat for 3 minutes on medium-high speed until the butter is light and creamy in color. Stop and scrape the bowl. Cream the butter for an additional 60 seconds.

Add the sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, beating 1 minute after each addition. Scrape the sides of the bowl before each addition. Add the eggs one at a time. Reduce the mixer speed. Stir vanilla into the buttermilk. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk. Mix just until incorporated. Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix for 15 seconds longer.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with an off-set spatula. Lift up the pan with the batter, and let it drop onto the counter top a couple of times to burst any air bubbles and allowing the batter to settle. Center the pans onto the lower third of the oven and let bake 45 to 50 minutes or until the cake is lightly brown on top and comes away from the sides of the pan and a skewer inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs attached.

Let cool completely in the pans before removing the cakes and frosting.

For the Strawberry Filling and Cream Cheese Frosting

Icing
1/2 pound cream cheese, room temperature
2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter
1 1/2 pounds powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla

1 pound strawberries
2 – 3 TBS of sugar
Stem all of the strawberries and cut them into quarters. Put them in a bowl and add the sugar. Let them sit for about 30-40 minutes and them mash them up slightly.

Once your cake is cooled, make the frosting by combining all of the ingredients together until very light and fluffy.

To Assemble:

Cut the rounded part off of each the cakes. Divide the strawberries into 2 batches. Put one batch on the bottom cake with a little of the juices with a layer of frosting. Put the top cake on and the other batch of strawberries. Frost the cake with the rest of the frosting.

You can easily store this cake in the fridge and as a matter of fact, it’s best served that way.