Finally, Michelle has entered the race...

Whew!!

I don't know about you, but I was starting to sweat bullets about making this month's creation in time.  I was without a sink for two weeks.  If that wasn't a huge annoyance!! But as the Avengers said - Whatever it takes.  I assembled and am ready to roll out with my take on this months Bake - Natasha "Strawberry" Romanoff cake.

I followed a recipe for this one and did fake it with a store bought mix because I'm not that skilled yet with making a cake from scratch.  (Okay, to be honest, I don't have the patience to make a cake from scratch unless I am in the mood for concentrated baking time.) 

The cakes were from a simple box of Betty Crocker super moist white cake mix.  While the cakes cooled, I got the stabilizer cream going, which wasn't anywhere near as horrible as I thought it would be. The assembly of the cake was easy enough and was quickly done. I was baking from my mom's kitchen today and the main reason was because I didn't want to have that cake in my house, tempting me.  Sorry, Mom, it gets to be your temptation until it is gone.

 

My one complaint with the recipe that I used today is that it only called for a pint of heavy cream for the stabilizer cream.  It wasn't enough so you can see bare spots in my cake as I was putting it together.  Definitely plan to double it up if I try it again and will find a use for any that is leftover elsewhere.

 My parents, sister, and myself were the taste testers for this baking experiment today.  All four gave a thumbs up.  My fifth taste tester hasn't had any cake as of the writing of this blog post so his vote is still outstanding. I also haven't told him what the ingredients are. I have a feeling he would say no when he heard the sour cream part. 

I didn't let the strawberries dry thoroughly before dipping the ones on top in sour cream and brown sugar.  The sour cream started to slide off and the brown sugar lumped up.  Lesson learned for next time around - dry your fruit!!! 

I have to admit when Rose said this is what she chose as her pick for our bake of this month I was more than skeptical about it.  I mean, strawberries, sour cream, and brown sugar???  Sounds kinda gross to me.  I was pleasantly surprised.  Who knew just eating a strawberry dipped in sour cream and brown sugar, by itself, would taste like strawberry shortcake?  It was really a surprise and I would definitely add this to a rotation of desserts to make.  Might be more apt to just do this minus the cake. 

Overall, this was a fun bake.  I did a slight fake on it and have absolutely no regrets! I can't wait to see what the month of July is going to bring for Bake It or Fake It!  We're just getting started and guarantee you are going to be in for a great time with us.  

Til next time, Happy Baking! 

- xox -

Michelle