what to do with around 8 strawberries from a 2 kilo box

Strawberries are in season in Spain, and therefore everywhere here. Yesterday at the Saturday morning market my roommate and I bought 2 kilos of strawberries. We weren't exactly sure what to do with them, until my roommate came across this recipe. It didn't really use that many strawberries, but it was sooo yummy that it made our outlook on life positive enough that wasted strawberries did not seem like much of a problem. We came across several issues when making it-no mixer (really hard to make a cake and buttercream frosting with no mixer or even a good whisk), butter comes in blocks weighed in grams not conveniently measured half cup sticks, we did not learn until we were getting ready to add the powdered sugar to the frosting that "sucre en poudre" is not powdered sugar, it is regular sugar, which we used anyway. Despite these setbacks, these were so good and tasted like summer! Not awesome for the diet I am supposed to be on though...

Vanilla cake with strawberry frosting
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, softened
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
3 cups cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350.

Beat sugar and butter at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer until creamy and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until yellow disappears after each addition. Beat in vanilla and almond extracts.

Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl; add to sugar mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat a medium-low speed just until blended after each addition. (batter will be thick)


For two 9 inch pans, cook for 32-36 minutes.

Cupcakes bake for about 20 minutes.


Strawberry Vanilla Buttercream

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1 (16 oz) package powdered sugar
1/2 cup of fresh strawberries, chopped

Beat first 3 ingredients at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.

Gradually add powdered sugar alternately with strawberries, beating at low speed until blended and smooth after each addition.