When we came up with our name all of our friends kept asking us, “Are you going to bake with basil?” Actually we have, we love incorporating herbs into our baking. A while back we made a buttercream with rosemary infused butter and the buttercream was absolutely divine. Ever since, we have been wanting to make a buttercream with basil infused butter. It seems only fitting that Basil and Buttercream feature an actual basil buttercream. As for the cake, we knew strawberry would be the perfect pairing. This strawberry basil cake features strawberry cake filled with basil buttercream and a strawberry basil compote.
There are a lot of different ingredients you can use to create a strawberry cake, from strawberry jam to Jell-O to strawberry extract but you can never go wrong with fresh strawberries and that is what we chose to use. In order to get a strawberry flavored cake with fresh strawberries you need to first puree the strawberries, however, by doing this it can tend to add too much liquid into the batter. To resolve this we reduced the puree by cooking it over medium-low heat until it is reduced by almost half. We recommend making the strawberry puree the day before as it needs to cool down before adding into the batter.
This cake incorporated a lot of different techniques we have been wanting to try and striped buttercream was one of those We decided to do the stripes in a dark pink, green and white to tie in with the strawberry basil flavor.
To create the stripes we used the Wilton icing comb. After the crumb coat is complete and chilled, create a thick layer of frosting around the cake and smooth it out with an icing scrapper. Take the icing comb and place it straight up and down and at a slight angle towards the cake, then slowly turn the cake dragging the icing comb around the cake to create the ridges. This will take some time as you need to continuously scrape off the frosting as you go around. Continue going around the cake making sure you regularly clean the scrapper. If you don’t do this the icing that builds up on the scrapper can start to pull off the white stripes you are creating. Fill any bare spots as needed and keep smoothing until you create continuous deep ridges.
Once you’ve created solid ridges around the cake you will then need to chill the cake in the frig or freezer. If you’re like us, there is never any room in either of our freezers for a whole cake, so frig it is. This will need to chill longer than the crumb coat as the frosting needs be very firm for the next step. We recommend chilling it in the frig for a least a hour or freezer for 30 minutes. This is a good time to color your buttercream and fill the piping bags.
After the cake has chilled and is very firm you can now fill in the ridges with your colored buttercream. This doesn’t have to be neat. Repeat filling in the stripes in your chosen color and pattern until all the ridges are full.
Use a flat icing scrapped to go around the cake to scape off the excess colored frosting. It will smear all over the cake but contiue scrapping and cleaning off your scrapped with each go around. Since the base frosting is chilled it will not smear and as you gradually remove the excess frosting it will reveal your clean beautiful stripes.
Strawberry Cake
Ingredients
- 1 pound fresh strawberries hulled
- 3-3/4 cups sifted cake flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1-1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup butter
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 3oz package strawberry Jell-O
- 7 egg whites
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 3/4 cup milk
Instructions
- First make the reduced strawberry puree and let cool completely. We recommend making this the day before.To make the reduced strawberry puree, puree 1 pound of strawberries in a food processor. Transfer to a sauce pan and cook over medium-low heat until its reduced by almost half. This will take 30 min or so. Puree will thicken up more once cooled. Store in an air tight container in the frig.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease three 8-inch cake pans.
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside.
- In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar and Jell-O on high until smooth.
- Scrape down the bowl then add the egg whites and mix on high until combined.
- Add the sour cream and vanilla and mix until combined.
- With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and the milk, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Scrape down the bowl as needed and mix until just combined.
- Fold in 3/4 cups of the strawberry puree until combined.
- Divide the batter evenly into the pans and bake for approximately 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean with a few crumbs.
Strawberry Basil Compote
Ingredients
- 1 lbs strawberries quartered
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tbsp lemon zest
- 1 tsp chopped basil
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
Instructions
- In a medium sauce pan combine the strawberries, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and basil.
- Cook over medium heat stirring occasionally until the strawberries are soft and the juices start to boil.
- Remove from heat and puree in a food processor or blender.
- Return to the sauce pan and add the cornstarch. Cook on low until thickened. Let cool completely before adding to the cake.
Notes
Basil Buttercream
Ingredients
- 3 cups (6 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 handful basil
- 6 cups confectioners sugar sifted
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 3 tbsp heavy whipping cream
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
- First you need to make the basil infused butter. Place the butter in a saucepan and cook over medium-high heat until completely melted. Add the basil and continue cooking over low heat for appox. 8 minutes, making sure the butter does not brown or burn on the bottom of the plan. Remove from heat and let cool. Strain out the basil and place the butter in a container and refrigerate until it's back to a solid consistency. This will take about an hour. For this reason we recommend making the infused butter the day before.
- In a stand mixer fitter with a paddle attachment, cream the butter starting at low and increasing the speed. The butter will lighted in color and be smooth.
- With the mixer on low add the sugar one cup at a time letting it fully incorporate before adding the next. Scrape the bowl then add the vanilla, cream and salt. Slowly increase the speed to high and beat for 5 minutes, stopping once or twice to scrape the bowl.
Notes
I made this cake yesterday and it was delicious-rave reviews all around! I only did half the recipe of basil buttercream, and that was plenty to fill and crumb coat the cake. I might double the compote next time, it is so good served with the cake! Instructions for assembly would have been helpful, but it was easy enough to figure out something that worked 😁
We are so glad you loved the cake!!! Thank you for the feedback about wanting tips for how to assemble. We can definitely add this info.
Happy baking!