A treat for mom

Looking for the perfect Mother’s Day gift? Show mom how much you love her with a pretty pink cake made from the freshest strawberries the season has to offer.

Most strawberry cake recipes use strawberryflavored gelatin to give the cake its fruit flavor, but this cake has fresh strawberries baked right in.

You’ll simmer the fresh berries with salt and sugar to make a ruby-red sauce, mashing the berries as they cook until they’re thick and jammy. A splash of balsamic vinegar intensifies the fruit’s sweet and floral flavors.

The rosy hue of this cake is created naturally thanks to freeze-dried strawberries. Once a specialty item, freeze-dried fruits are now widely available at most grocery stores.

You’ll use a food processor to grind the freezedried strawberries into a very fine powder that incorporates seamlessly into the dry ingredients.

Most cake batters are made by creaming together butter and sugar until lightened in color and fluffy — a mixing method called the “creaming method.”

This strawberry cake is assembled with the reverse creaming method, in which the sugar is mixed with the dry ingredients first, then creamed with the butter. This coats the flour in fat, resulting in less gluten formation when the wet ingredients are added — and giving you a tender cake with a fine, velvety texture.

Classic American buttercream — a simple mix of whipped butter and powdered sugar — is the perfect finishing touch. For extra strawberry flavor and a pretty pink color, mix in some of the same fresh strawberry sauce used in the cake.

Buttercream, no matter the style, can be cloyingly sweet, so you’ll also add freshly squeezed lemon juice and salt to balance the sugar and amplify the strawberry flavor.

Make strawberry sauce:

1. Place the strawberries, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring often and mashing the berries with a spoon until the strawberries break down, the foam subsides, and the sauce is reduced to 1 cup, about 30 minutes.

2. Pour into a shallow bowl or pie pan, stir in the balsamic vinegar, and refrigerate to cool completely, 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Make the cake: 1. Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven and heat to 325 degrees. Coat 2 (8-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray and line the bottom of each with a parchment paper round; set aside.

2. Process the freeze-dried strawberries to a fine powder in a food processor fitted with the blade attachment. Wait 30 seconds to let the strawberry powder settle, then pour into the bowl of a stand

mixer (Alternatively, fitted with use the an paddle electric attachment. hand mixer and large bowl.)

3. Combine flour, sugar, lemon the dry zest, ingredients. baking powder, Add the salt Mix on and low baking speed soda just to until the combined; stand mixer. set aside.

4. Whisk together the wet ingredients. Place the egg whites, buttermilk, oil, lemon juice, vanilla and 3⁄4 of the cooled strawberry sauce in a large bowl and whisk to combine; set aside.

5. Cream together the butter and dry ingredients. Add the butter to the flour mixture and beat on low speed until incorporated and the mixture looks like coarse sand, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

6. With the mixer on low speed, slowly pour in the buttermilk mixture. Once it is completely incorporated, increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the batter is light and thick, 1 to 2 minutes. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

7. Divide batter evenly among prepared pans, about 1 3⁄4 pounds batter per pan.

8. Bake until the cakes pull away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs, about 40 minutes.

9. Cool in the pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove the cakes from the pans and cool completely on the wire racks.

Make the strawberry buttercream:

1. Cream the butter and sugar. Beat the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and on medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. (Or use an electric hand mixer and large bowl.) Add sugar and beat on low speed until just incorporated, about 30 seconds. Increase the speed to medium and beat until lightened in color and texture, about 1 minute.

2. Add the lemon juice, salt and remaining cooled strawberry sauce and beat on medium speed until combined, 30 seconds. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes.

Frost the cake and decorate: 1. Scoop a tablespoon of the buttercream onto the center of a cake plate. Invert one cake layer onto the plate. Spread 1 cup of the buttercream on the cake in an even layer. Arrange the sliced strawberries in a single layer on the buttercream.

2. Invert the second layer of cake over the strawberries. Scoop the remaining frosting on the cake and spread evenly over the top of the cake and down the sides. Decorate with more fresh strawberries.

3. Refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes before serving.

JOE LINGEMAN