Strawberry Cake Bites & Happy Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine’s Day peeps!!  I hope you are having a wonderful day with you friends and loved ones.

Today I thought I’d share with you another cake bite recipe, strawberry cake with cream cheese.  Strawberry cake is one of my favorite cakes, so I’ve been wanting to try this one out for a while now.
This is the first time I’ve made this strawberry cake recipe; it calls for strawberry preserves, but I didn’t have that in my fridge.  So I replaced the strawberry preserves with pureed strawberries.  It did not change the texture of the cake.  I will say after I made the cake and I tasted it by itself, I wasn’t that thrilled about the cake itself.  But once, I combined it with the cream cheese, the blend was perfection!

The hubs tasted these cake bites, and he was sold!!  He said they are his second favorite, right behind red velvet cake bites.  SUCCESS!!!  I never would’ve thought he’d like these this much!!  He liked the strawberry cake bites over the chocolate ones I’ve made, and he loves chocolate.  Make these, you won’t be disappointed.

• 2-1/2 cups cake flour
• 1-1/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup strawberry preserve (I used pureed strawberries)
• 4 large eggs
• 3/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• red food coloring paste

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line the bottoms of 2 (9-inch) cake pans with parchment paper.  Lightly coat each pan with baking spray; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda together; set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar at medium-high speed with an electric mixer for approximately 4 minutes, or until light and fluffy.  Add preserves (or strawberry puree) and then add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Scrape down sides of bowl and add vanilla extract and enough food coloring to achieve desired color.
4. Reduce mixer speed to low and add flour mixture, alternately with buttermilk, ending with flour mixture.  Divide batter equally between prepared pans and spread evenly.  
5. Bake on the middle rack of oven for 25-30 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center of each cake layer comes out clean.  Let cool completely on a wire rack. 

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1- 8oz cream cheese, softened
• 3-4 cups of powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Blend softened butter and cream cheese together, add vanilla and blend.  Add powdered sugar, blend well.

• Crumble Cake
• Cream Cheese Icing
• White Baking Chocolate

1. After cake has cooled, crumble cake into small pieces (crumbs).  In the large bowl, add cream cheese icing to crumbled cake.  Blend the cake and cream cheese into a smooth mixture, where the cake and icing are smooth.
2. I use a melon baller, to scoop out my cake bites.  I like the smaller sizes.  Roll the scoops into a ball shape, and place in refrigerator to cool and firm up.
3. Once, the bites are firm, melt baking chocolate in a glass microwavable bowl.  Dip individual bites into bowl of melted chocolate. 
4. Decorate anyway you want.