Berry Cake with no Jell-O!

It's been a few days since I (Kathryn) have posted anything. Saturday I was busy busy with cleaning the house for my parents' arrival and the kids' party. Sunday I was busy cooking for the party. I did make sure to take a picture of the food I served and will do a post on it in a bit.

The main attraction was, of course, the cake. I made one for each of my two kids, a blueberry cake with chocolate buttercream for my son and a strawberry cake with blueberry buttercream for my daughter.

It's been a long time since I've made a strawberry cake because most recipes call for strawberry jell-o (gelatin is not vegetarian) or artificial strawberry extract or "open one box of strawberry cake mix." I decided to try searching for a vegan strawberry cake and found this one (http://veganthyme.blogspot.com/2010/06/vegan-strawberry-cake-with-yummy-pink.html?m=1). The woman who posted it mentioned that it was not vegan to begin with, so I decided to switch back to some non-vegan ingredients (real eggs and sour cream). I was very pleased that this recipe used real berries and nothing artificial. Incidentally, berries are a great natural food coloring!

As I said, I made a strawberry cake and a blueberry one, and both turned out beautifully! This recipe will make enough for one 8 or 9 inch 2-layer cake. The pans I used were 9" and they seemed to work just fine.

To make this cake, you will need:

2-1/2 c cake flour (or a slightly-less amount of all-purpose flour)
1-1/2 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 c vegan butter, softened (or can use real butter)
1-1/3 c organic sugar (I used the full amount but will probably cut it to 1 cup next time.)
2 eggs
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
4 oz sour cream
1-1/2 c berry puree (Any berry ought to work for this)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).

Cream together the butter and sugar till fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla.

In a small bowl, mix together the flour, salt, and baking powder. In another small bowl, mix the puree and sour cream.

Mix the dry and wet ingredients into the butter mixture, alternating between the two (start with some of the berries, then add some flour, then berries, etc).

Pour into 2 greased and floured cake pans. An 8 or 9 inch pan will work fine. Bake 30-35 minutes in preheated oven or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let cool in the pans for several minutes and then turn out onto racks to cool completely.

I will post the frosting recipes later (I have to find them again!) and put a link here.

Overall I was very happy how the cakes turned out! All the party guests seemed to like them, and I felt very good about serving cakes with no artificial ingredients :)