Strawberry Daiquiri Cake

Good afternoon everyone!  As promised, today is part 2 of my series “Boozie Cakes”.  These are cakes that I have created that are awfully similar to their cocktail cousin……except my recipes are safe for the kiddies.  Today I will be showing you how to make my Strawberry Daiquiri Cake.  Yum.

A strawberry daiquiri, for those not in the know, is a yummy frozen blended cocktail.  It is basically strawberries, rum and ice.  It might get a simple syrup to sweeten it up, or even some lime juice.  Little known fact:  The daiquiri was the favorite cocktail of JFK.  And Ernest Hemingway.  I do picture Hemingway sipping one while sitting on the beach in Key West.  I picture JFK as more of a Scotch man though.

I can remember being in high school, and discussing what the very first drink I would order would be when I turned 21.  Because I obviously waited till I was 21 to have cocktails.  And yes, my mom is an avid reader of this blog.  I always thought that the first “real” drink I would order in a bar would be a strawberry daiquiri or a Pina Colada.  Yep, I was that cool.  Apparently I thought it would be awesome to be a 50 year old woman…in 1985.  Isn’t that who you picture drinking a daiquiri?  Needless to say, my first legal bar drink was not a daiquiri.  I think if I had ordered that in Chico, they would have laughed at me.  I probably had a beer.

The point to that story was that I always dreamed about drinking daiquiris.  Now, I can just eat it in a cake.  I make this cake as a layer cake.  It is a strawberry cake made with rum, a strawberry filling and a strawberry rum cream cheese frosting.   I will show you how I make it.

Let’s start with the cake.  I use a boxed mix, strawberry flavor.  I also use eggs and oil, just like the box tells me to.  However, instead of water, I used spiced rum.  I also add diced strawberries that have been tossed in a little bit of flour. 

So you see my brown eggs?  My kids made me buy those.  They were convinced the insides would be a different color.  Since I am a mom who believes that kids need some disappointment in their lives, I bought them.

I mix the batter according to the package directions.  I told you above that I tossed the diced strawberries in some flour.  I do this to keep the strawberries from falling to the bottom of the cake.  Don’t ask me why this works.  I am not a scientist.  I got a D in Chemistry.  It just works.

This is what the batter looks like when it is ready.  It is beautiful shade of pink.  Love it.

I baked my cakes in two nine inch cake pans.  I lined the bottom of the cakes pans with parchment paper and sprayed the paper with cooking spray.  I wanted to do whatever I could to ensure these babies were coming out the way they were supposed to.

I baked the cakes like the box told me too.  I let them cool for a good 2 hours before I touched them.

Ok, quick tip before you put your cakes on a plate or a cake stand.  Line the plate with 4 pieces of waxed paper.  This way, when you frost the cake, you won’t make the world’s biggest mess.  You pull the sheets out when you are done frosting and the waxed paper takes the mess with it.

Another quick tip is to slice the round part off the top of your bottom cake.  This will help it sit flat.

What is that pictured above, you ask?  It is plain strawberry preserves.  I used about a 1/2 cup of this as the layer between my 2 cakes.  I stirred it up a bit to “loosen” it before I spread it on.  I wouldn’t use jelly for this, only jam or preserves.

I spread the preserves onto the cake, and then I sprinkled some more diced strawberries onto the cake.  I ended up using a whole container of strawberries for this recipe.

I left about a half inch border around the cake.  When you put the second cake layer on top, it will cause the preserves and strawberries to squish towards the edges.  If you have a left a border, you won’t get anything squishing all the way out.

If you aren’t serving this cake to children, I would totally drizzle a bit of spiced rum over the filling.  My kids tend to just stick with beer ;)

To make the frosting for this cake, I used more strawberry preserves, softened cream cheese, softened butter, rum extract and powdered sugar.  This is a basic cream cheese frosting recipe, just embellished a bit.

I started by beating the butter, cream cheese and rum extract together.  Once that was fluffy, I added the preserves and powdered sugar.

Don’t wear black when you make frosting.  Wear white.  Then you won’t feel nearly as stupid when you are covered in powdered sugar.  I don’t care how low I start my beaters.  I always end up wearing half of the powdered sugar.  I look like Pablo Escobar when I am done. 

That was a joke if you couldn’t tell. 

Don’t forget to tip your waitress.

I made double the recipe because I am on a diet that is heavy on the frosting.

This is the finished cake.  Isn’t it pretty?  Layer cakes always feel so fancy to me.  And celebratory.  We love this cake.   So much so that we had it for breakfast today too.  You will love it also.  The rum makes it special and different.  It really does taste like a daiquiri! 

Next Thursday I will show you how to make a Pina Colada Bundt Cake.  Yummers!!

Strawberry Daiquiri Cake

1 box strawberry cake mix

3 eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 cup spiced rum

2 cups strawberries, diced

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup strawberry preserves

Strawberry rum cream cheese frosting (recipe to follow)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Toss 1 cup diced strawberries in flour.

In a large bowl, beat together cake mix, oil, eggs and rum with a hand mixer.  Beat for about 2 minutes, scraping the sides as needed.  Once batter is mixed, stir in strawberries and flour.  Stir gently.

Pour batter into 2 greased nine inch cake pans.

Bake according to box directions.

Once cake has cooled, remove cakes from pans.  With a knife, slice rounded top off of one cake to make cake flat.  Place that cake on a plate with cut side up. 

Spread top of cake with strawberry preserves and sprinkle ½ cup diced strawberries over the preserves, leaving a ½ inch border all the way around.  Place 2^nd cake directly on top of the first cake.

Frost entire cake and sprinkle with remaining diced strawberries.

Strawberry Rum Cream Cheese Frosting

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

½ cup butter (1 stick), softened

½ cup strawberry preserves

1 tablespoon rum extract

16 ounces powdered sugar

Beat together cream cheese, butter and extract until light and fluffy.  Add preserves and continue beating.  Slowly beat in powdered sugar until desired consistency is reached.