Chef Rosie's June Submission for 'Natasha' Strawberry Romanoff Cake

     Hello there and welcome to June...welcome to Bake It or Fake It. Where Michelle and Chef Rosie take on a baked good each month and see  which of this dastardly duo can bake it and which one will fake it. I'm not going to lie....for Chef Rosie, the month of June is hopping. I had double-markets last weekend, and this weekend I have double markets again. In the grand scheme of things, I probably shouldn't have opted to have my dessert squad over tonight to take the 'Natasha' Strawberry Romanoff cake for a test drive tonight. Because even though my dessert squad is gone for the night....I have a flurkin that simply needs (not wants) to cuddle, Vegan Lemon-berry Loaf Cake to make for this weekends events, and packages of two different kinds of Cuppers to frost too. Oh yeah, pricing and labels. Yeah, a bakers job is never done...when she's trying to take over the world one baked treat at a time. 
     Wait. What's a dessert squad you're asking? Well since Michelle and I decided to create this blog...I needed people who would be taste-testers each month of said dessert.  Because who can eat a whole cake (my husband....sssshhhhh), but more importantly who would want to eat a whole cake (ssshhhh again, that would be my husband.) So I have recruited some local friends who would be willing to be part of my test kitchen, my guinea pigs if you will. But enough about them and what my weekend is like. You all want to get to the dessert, right?
     Without further ado, I bring to you 'Natasha' Strawberry Romanoff Cake: a spin on the classic strawberry and whipped cream dessert. 

Top view of 'Natasha' Strawberry Romanoff Cake

     So the recipe that we are following this month called for a box mix. However I opted to make my cake from scratch, to keep it on a challenging level. I baked my cake the night before and opted to (Avengers) assemble it today. I won't lie, since graduating from college, I haven't had the need to make stabilized whipped cream (which was the frosting for the cake), and reading the instructions....I was a bit nervous. Especially since it was our first challenge! But DUDE!!! It was so easy!

• OK, some tips and secrets from the pro to you all. You can cream your butter, sugar, and incorporate eggs and let your mixer run without worrying about compromising the texture of your cake. However once you add your flour and other dry ingredients...you do not want to over mix your batter as you will develop the gluten, and wind up with a tough, rubbery cake. And who wants that? Keep your batter light and fluffy!

Getting your gelatin to the right consistency. Make sure it's gooey but 'gooey before you put it in the whipping cream and powder sugar mixture.

Oh beautiful stabilized whipped cream. I can just eat you up with a spoon!

Action photo of the batter being beat! Look ma....no lumps!

• Next came the 'daunting task' of prepping the gelatin. When making a stabilized whipped frosting, you need something to hold your frosting together, that won't melt or lose structure over time. Enter GELATIN. Your gelatin is going to make your whipped cream frosting sturdy but not hard. Mind you, this cake also can't be sitting out in hundred degree Texas weather all day, otherwise it will melt like an ice cube in hell. The recipe does call for it to sit chilling in the refrigerator for several hours once it is assembled. So while your cake chills in the fridge, you can chill with a glass of wine or a good old gin and tonic. Now when you're working with the gelatin, you want to 'melt' it down to a liquid, pliable consistency...but you do not want to incorporate it in to your whipping cream/sugar mixture while it is hot, otherwise it will curdle the cream. You also don't want it to get cold and solid otherwise you'll have a lumpy whipped cream frosting. So timing is key! I also added cognac to my  whipped cream, to keep in tradition of a true Strawberry Romanoff (which uses cognac or orange liquor. )

Like I mentioned earlier, I had made my cake from scratch, just because that's how I roll.  My stabilized whipped cream was  created, and the complicated part was to keep my husband from eating it before I could put the cake together.  When you make a cake with a gooey filling, you always want to do your border wall of frosting around the perimeter of the cake, to act as a wall. Make it high, and make it think. Because when you put that second layer of cake on top of your base or middle layer, it is going to spread. And trust me, you don't want it seeping out the sides of the cake as that makes the  final project look messy, not sit right, and can even mess with crumb and final coating of frosting.  I held my breath hoping this was the general rule when working with whipped cream frosting and fillings. Plus, being that Michelle and I were taking a leap of making a cake like this, wasn't sure if I would be the one 'faking it', and how would that look as the pro making a mess on her first blog?

• With my stabilized whipped cream wall up, I spread my brown sugar/sour cream mixture on the cake and then topped that with strawberries, and sprinkled brown sugar on top. (Low and behold the sour cream/strawberry filling didn't bleed through my walls!)
• Next came layer two with a repeat of walls, sour cream, strawberries, and a sprinkle of brown sugar. (Success! Again, no reason for crying with uneven layers, or filling bleeding through the sides!) I then topped off the second layer with with my third cake layer and gently pressed to make sure everything set flush and no issues. BEAUTIFUL!!!
• The recipe that we chose did not call for a crumb coat of frosting, but I did one anyway, and let the cake set in the fridge for about 15 minutes. I then proceeded to apply my stabilized whipped cream frosting around the sides of my cake, and the top, and then proceeded to smooth the sides and top with my trusty bench scraper. I used a large star tip to make 5 swirls on top of the cake and placed strawberries in each swirl. I decided it needed a little 'extra' and sprinkled some red sanding sugar on top and called it a day. Placed it in the fridge to chill.

My only creative criticism for myself was when I moved the cake from my turn table on to the cake stand, I broke off some of the border. I also made two small smushes towards the top on the sides. Yes....I am my own worst critic. There were eight of us last night that made up the dessert squad...including my husband and myself. I told them that they had to be brutally honest over what they thought of this dessert, and what they thought of it. They all 'ooohhed' and 'aaahhhed' over the final presentation.They each got a big piece as I got carried away, and made a 9-inch cake instead of an 8-inch cake. There was plenty of leftovers. The only person who did not love the cake was unbelievably my husband Jimmy. He said he loved the flavors, but he wasn't loving this in cake form. Our friend Charles said that it was almost like eating a strawberry shortcake. Chris ate some last night and the rest for breakfast today. He loved it. Nancy couldn't stop raving about it with each bite she took. Paula took ate hers and took some home for her husband and they both enjoyed it. And Archie and Debbie devoured theirs....and Archie isn't that much of a cake person. As for me. I enjoyed it. It wasn't my favorite, but then again I'm not a dessert or sweets eater. I just like making all this delicious stuff. If I want Strawberry Romanoff, I'll have the traditional. But in my professional opinion, I found this cake easy enough to make, even for a novice. Go ahead, and give it a try. I can't wait for Michelle to give it a try. Stay tuned....and Happy Baking! xoxo Chef Rosie