Easy Moist Cake for Strawberry Shortcake or any other Fruit! Egg Free Cake

 I'm not a fan of the dry, crumbly, biscuit style of shortcake. I want a moist tender cake for my berries. 20 years ago, we ordered the strawberry shortcake at a restaurant and I was in heaven. It was the perfect cake for berries. It's moist and dense and perfect with any kind of berry or just on it's own.

 I had to have the recipe and with a bit of flattery and begging, the chef shared the recipe with me. The one catch was, he had to leave one ingredient out to give it to me. Thankfully, he made it easy when he told me that it was a vanilla cake and guess what ingredient was missing?
We always have this on Easter to usher in berry season and is one of our favorite spring  and summer treats.  It's so fast and easy to mix up and bake. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

It's also EGG FREE! My granddaughter is very allergic to eggs,so this was her birthday cake this year. Pour into round pans and frost with whipped cream for a wonderful layer cake.

 Click here for a Printable Version of this recipe

Moist Vanilla Strawberry Shortcake

Makes one 9x13 pan or 12 cupcakes or one jellyroll pan or 2 8" rounds
Ingredients

• 3 cups of flour
• 2 cups of sugar
• 1 1/2 TBS baking powder
• 1 cup melted butter
• 2 cups milk
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. In a 2 cup glass measuring cup or a microwavable container- microwave 1 cup of butter for 60 seconds or until melted. I leave the sticks in the wax paper and micriwave it that way. No spatters and you just have to pull them out when it's melted. Easy and no mess. 
3. In a large bowl stir together the flour, sugar and baking powder
4. Stir in the milk and vanilla then the melted butter and mix well. There may be a few small lumps but just leave them. Don't over stir! 
5. Pour batter into a greased pan and bake in the preheated oven until golden on top and a toothpick comes out clean. 
6. Baking Times: 
1. For a 9x13 or round layers-  25 to 30 minutes  
2. For jelly roll pan or cupcakes-  20 mins  or so.

For a large half sheet pan 2”x13”x18”- Double the recipe and bake for 40 to 45 minutes. 

Fast Orange Almond Cake- Gluten Free

It's Friday evening. We've eaten dinner, kitchen's all cleaned up, the last load of laundry is in the dryer, I put on some sweats and I sit down to watch, Say Yes to the Dress, and have some Pinterest Time. I 'm looking through the pins and see a delicious looking Orange Cake and have to have some- RIGHT NOW! I look at the ingredients and have everything except the Almond meal, but I have almonds, so I'm all set. I grind up the almonds THEN read the next step- WHAT??? I have to Boil the oranges for 15 minutes, drain, refill, bring to a boil for another 15 minutes, then let them cool!!!????  (OK, I should have read the recipe instead of just looking at the pictures of each step- that was not a step in the photos- My Bad.)  No way was I doing all that! So I do some research.

You're supposed to boil the oranges to soften the skins up and make it easier to cook. But, I think to myself what a wonderful world.... Woops- I''m not supposed to be singing right now... I think to myself- if you boil the oranges and drain the water- wouldn't all the flavorful oils from the peel go down the drain? That's my conclusion.  So I came up with a new plan, played with the recipe, made it 3 times and here is a delicious alternative that only took 8 mins to get into the oven and that  time includes grinding the almonds. Plus Bonus- I used the food processor for every step. less to clean up! I could have made the original recipe faster but where would the fun be in that?!!!

Flourless Orange Almond Cake                                               

Inspired by Scandi Home's Flourless Orange Cake

Click here for a printable version on this recipe. 

Ingredients:

• 2 whole medium size oranges If you only have big ones just use 1 1/2 
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 cups of almond meal or 3 cups of whole almonds that you'll grind up
• 1 tsp Baking Powder

Instructions:

1. Grease and flour a 9" spring form pan-  You can do a regular 9 " round but it is harder to get it out of the pan in pretty slices. 
2. If you have almond meal- skip this step- Place 3 cups of whole almonds into the bowl of your food processor. Pulse until the almonds are a fine even texture. I actually left mine a little rougher because I like more texture in  the final cake. It's up to you but DON"T over process or you'll be eating almond butter sandwiches for the rest of the month! Remove the meal from the bowl and set aside. 
3. Stir 1 tsp of baking powder into the meal.
4. Zest all skin off of the 2 oranges and place in a bowl.
5. Preheat oven to 340º. 
6. Peel the oranges then slice or pull into the sections and place the pieces into the Food processor bowl. There will be some almond meal in there but so what, it's all going to be mixed together in a minute. Pulse until the oranges are a nicely pureed. Pour the puree in with the zest and set aside. Try to get as much of the orange out of the bowl as you can. 
7. Crack 3 eggs into the processor bowl and add the 1 cup of sugar. Turn on processor and process until the eggs and sugar are thick and pale yellow. About 45- 60 seconds. 
8. Add the almond meal, the orange puree and zest into the egg mixture and process for about 10-15 seconds until combined. 
9. Pour batter into prepared cake pan.
10. Bake for 50 minutes or until a toothpick can be inserted into the center and come out clean.

Serve dusted with Powdered sugar.