Blend your strawberries in a blender until smooth. Place on a small saucepan over low heat and reduce until you have ½ cup of strawberry puree, stirring occasionally. This took me about 30 minutes. Let cool completely.
500 grams strawberries
Cake
Preheat your oven to 350°F/175°C. Grease and line two 8-inch cake pans.
In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mix all of the dry ingredients on slow speed until blended. Add in your butter and mix on low until it looks like damp sand.
Slowly pour in one-third of the milk mixture into the mixing bowl. With the speed on low, mix together. Be careful as it may spill! Pour in the rest of the milk in two more additions, mixing slowly after each addition.
Beat for 2 minutes. Your batter will be liquidy.
Pour the batter into your pans, it's about 650g per cake tin.
Bake for 25-30 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the cake will come out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes. Take the cake out of the tin and let it cool completely.
Frosting
Sift your powdered sugar and set aside
480 grams powdered sugar
In a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, cream together the butter and cream cheese until smooth.
115 grams unsalted butter, 226 grams cream cheese
Add your powdered sugar a cup at a time, mixing on low after each addition, followed by the freeze-dried strawberry powder.
50 grams freeze-dried strawberry powder
Add you salt and vanilla, then beat until combined. Use immediately.
1 teaspoon vanilla extract, ½ teaspoon salt
Video
Notes
My recipes have been developed and tested in metric grams. I highly recommend using a weighing scale and measuring out your ingredients the metric way. Just click on ‘metric’ above ingredients. Cream Cheese: keep the cream cheese cold. If your cream cheese comes in tubs instead of packets, pat it dry with a paper towel before using. Strawberry Yogurt: Feel free to use plain yogurt. Freeze-Dried Strawberries: you can find these at Trader Joe's, Target, or Amazon. Note, you can't swap these out for frozen strawberries! Storage: Keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.