• Before you begin: It is very important that all your cold ingredients come to room temperature before starting on this recipe. Otherwise, they won't mix well and you'll end up with a gummy, dense cake.

Strawberry Cake

• Preheat the oven to 350℉ and grease and line a 9 inch springform pan with parchment paper (a 9 inch round pan works too).
• Add the butter and sugar to a large bowl and beat together using a handheld mixer, for about 2-3 minutes until light and smooth. Add the egg whites and beat for another 2 minutes until it's all mixed in. Then add the sour cream and vanilla extract and beat for another minutes.
  6 tbsp (84 g) unsalted butter, ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar, 3 large egg whites, ¼ cup (65 g) sour cream, 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and freeze dried strawberries, and mix for 30 seconds. Before it's fully combined, pour in the milk and mix for about 30 seconds. If you see streaks of flour, just fold the batter a couple times with a spatula. You don't want to over mix this batter.
  1⅓ cup (157 g) cake flour, 1 tsp baking powder, ¼ tsp baking soda, ½ tsp salt, 25 grams ground freeze dried strawberries, ⅓ cup (80 g) milk
• Pour the cake into the prepared pan and bake for 23-28 minutes. Depending on your oven and the type of pan you use, it could go up to 30 minutes.

  Once baked, let cool before frosting.

Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

• In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (you could use a hand mixer), beat cream cheese until smooth, about a couple minutes. Add the salt, vanilla extract, and powdered sugar and beat until completely combined and smooth, with no visible lumps.
  4 oz. full fat, block of cream cheese, ½ tsp vanilla extract, ¼ tsp salt, 1 cup (120 g) powdered sugar
• Pour in the cold heavy whipping cream and beat until the frosting has thickened up, about a minute. When removing the whisk or beaters, the frosting should keep its form and not be runny at all! Stop once you reach this firm stage.
  1 cup (238 g) heavy whipping cream
• Top the cake with frosting and fresh strawberries. Keep cake refrigerated.
  fresh strawberries