If you’re thinking strawberry purée is just about throwing a bunch of strawberries in a blender and letting it run until there are no strawberry solids left… well, you’re pretty much right. But don’t let the simplicity fool you — a strawberry purée makes a great topping for pancakes or ice cream, the base for a summer sweet cake filling, or add it to cake batter and you have a fabulous strawberry cake.
Strawberry Purée can be made with fresh or frozen strawberries and once made, it last for 3-4 weeks in the freezer.
Strawberry Purée Supplies
16 ounces of strawberries
1 tablespoon water
Sugar (optional)
Cheesecloth (optional)
Wash strawberries.
If you’re using fresh strawberries, wash them thoroughly. If using frozen strawberries, thaw thoroughly (keep the liquid that gathers in the bowl).
Removing leaves and stems from strawberries.
If using fresh strawberries, a quick pinch removes the leaves, but not the stem. Use a small sharp knife to remove the stem (this called “hulling” the strawberry).
Strawberries in blender.
Strawberry purée can be made in a food processor or a blender. If using fresh strawberries, add one tablespoon of water. If using frozen strawberries, use the liquid collected when thawing.
If you’re using purée as a sauce or topping, add 2-4 tablespoons of sugar. If you’re using purée as an ingredient in a mixture that is already sweet (such as cake batter), no added sugar is needed.
If making purée in a blender, you’ll inevitably run into a point like the one pictured — where part of the strawberries are puréed, but the blender blade is just spinning in the liquid. If this happens, turn off the blender, lift the carafe and give it a good shake. Replace the carafe on the blender base and re-start. Repeat as needed.
At this stage, you have a perfectly usable strawberry purée. But I like to make the purée a bit smoother by removing some of the seeds.
Pouring processed strawberries into strainer.
If you don’t happen to own a chinoise (a very expensive strainer), you can still remove a lot of the seeds from your purée by lining a standard metal strainer with several layers of cheesecloth and pouring the purée onto the cheesecloth.
Straining strawberry mash.
Gather the corners of the cheesecloth in one hand and use the other hand to gently squeeze the purée through the cheesecloth. This will leave the majority of the seeds in the cheesecloth and the metal strainer will catch more.
Strawberry puree.
This recipe yields approximately one cup of Strawberry Purée.
Pumpkin shaped cake with buttercream frosting and fondant accents.
Pumpkin shaped cake with buttercream frosting and fondant accents.
I’m primarily a buttercream broad, but when I was designing the Dr. Horrible Party Cakes, I knew I was going to be using a lot of fondant.
I decided a pumpkin-shaped cake would be an excellent place to experiment with shaping fondant — it’s easy enough to make a lovely pumpkin cake with just buttercream frosting, but fondant is a great way to add some pumpkin leaves and curly vine details.
If I had it all to do over again, I would have rolled the fondant quite a bit thinner and I would have added some painted details to the leaves with liquid food coloring (a process I used a lot on the goggles cake).
But for a primarily buttercream broad, I was pretty satisfied with the pumpkin’s fondant accents.
Pumpkin Shaped Cake Supplies
Enough batter for three cakes (3 standard box mixes)
Buttercream Frosting (enough for approximately 3 cakes)
Fondant
Wilton’s Gel Food Coloring: Green, Orange, Yellow, Royal Blue (the Yellow and Royal Blue are optional colors)
Pumpkin Leaf Pattern
Toothpicks
Specialty Pans: Bundt Pan
Using the bundt pan in ways it was not intended.
The foundation of the pumpkin-shaped cake is almost always the bundt pan. The contemporary bundt pan was originally designed for baking “bundkuchen”, a type of German coffee cake. Today the bundt pan is used for baking just about any type of cake — even pumpkin.
For the pumpkin cake, bake two bundt cakes. The size of your bundt pan will determine just how much batter is needed, but for the average pan, one box mix will do. Bake time will be considerably longer than when baking two layers from one box — close to twice as long, but start checking the cake early and make sure not to over-bake.
When I started this cake, I thought two bundt cakes were the answer for the perfect pumpkin shape.
I was wrong.
In order to keep the cake from collapsing, I knew I was going to use this stacking method and when I put the cake together, well… just look at the pics:
Looking for the perfect pumpkin cake shape.
The first picture is of two bundt cakes stacked on top of each other. I like the curved edges on the top and on the bottom, but the curves in the middle are not making me happy.
So I leveled off what would traditionally be the “bottom” of each bundt cake and put the cake back together — and that’s the second image.
I now had a more traditional pumpkin-shaped cake — a very short, kind of flat, pumpkin-shaped cake.
And this is when the third box mix comes into play. I baked two 9″ layers (the size should match the size of your bundt pan). One would be used for the stem of the pumpkin and one would be the middle layer of the pumpkin cake — and that’s the third picture.
Now that I had a shape I was happy with, it was time for the frosting.
Tip: I use disposable chopsticks as my primary source of “dowels” for stacking cakes — not your good chopsticks, but those cheapo break apart ones that always accompany takeout and splinter your lips.
Smooth buttercream frosting.
If you squeeze one batch of buttercream frosting, you can frost this entire cake, but if you apply frosting with a pastry bag and frosting tip (which tends to put the frosting on thicker), you might need 1.5 batches.
Before you add the orange coloring, set aside 1/2 cup of frosting (this will be the frosting for the stem).
I colored the frosting with Wilton’s Orange gel coloring, but because I wanted a more natural orange (and not cartoon orange), I added a tiny amount of Royal Blue. This just dulls down the orange and is a completely optional step. Once the cake is frosted, use the paper towel method to smooth the frosting.
Making grooved on side of the pumpkin cake.
Allow the smoothed frosting to “rest” for 10-15 minutes.
Place a paper towel on the frosting and gently drag the back of your finger along the cake to make the grooves of the pumpkin.
Stem made from cut out cakes circles.
Using a cookie/fondant cutter, cut circles of cake from the second 9″ layer of cake. Stack those layers (you’ll likely need to use toothpicks to stabilize the stack) and carve to your satisfaction. Make sure you don’t carve the stack so skinny that it will fall through the hole in the center of the top bundt cake.
Get the frosting you set aside earlier and color with Wilton Gel coloring (I used Kelly green). Frost the stem and then place the stem in the center of the cake — use toothpicks to hold the stem in place. Drag the tines of a standard dinner fork through the frosting to make it rough.
Pumpkin shaped cake with all buttercream frosting.
For you buttercream freaks, your work here is done! If you want some fondant extras, continue reading.
Download the pumpkin leaf pattern PDF
If you’re new to fondant, you can either purchase “rolled fondant” (ready-to-use) or make Pix’s Marshmallow fondant. They’re similar to work with, but Pix’s is reportedly yummy. Most ready-to-use fondant is… an acquired taste.
I say Pix’s is “reportedly yummy” because I’m a fondant weenie and I bought ready-to-use.
Once you have the fondant of your choice, color it green with Wilton’s Gel Coloring (check Pix’s tutorial on Coloring Fondant).
Use the downloaded leaf patterns to create the green fondant leaves.
Fondant leaves draped over plastic containers.
To give the fondant leaves some interest, drape them over small plastic containers or bowls or whatever else you have in the kitchen that seems suitable. I used a mixture of plastic containers and chopsticks.
Fondant snakes wrapped around chopsticks.
For the pumpkin vines, roll out some snakes of fondant. I wanted some variety, so I added some Golden Yellow in varying amounts to little bits of the already green fondant. Once you have the snakes, wrap them around chopsticks, lolly sticks, or the round handle of a wooden spoon. Allow the fondant to dry for approximately 30 minutes.
Vine curls removed from chopsticks and shaped.
Once the vines have dried (but aren’t completely hardened), slide them off the chopsticks and stretch them out. You can also “bend” them so that they will fall more gracefully along the sides of the pumpkin. Allow the fondant to harden fully. If you try to drape the curls on the pumpkin too soon, the weight of the dangling fondant will stretch out the curls completely and/or cause the curls to break.
Pumpkin shaped cake with buttercream frosting and fondant accents.
Once all of your fondant pieces have dried, attach them to the cake. For the curls, I just stuck one end in the buttercream. For the leaves, I just placed them on the pumpkin and allowed them to rest naturally against the stem and sides of the pumpkin.
I didn’t intend to create a microwave cake recipe. But I was looking for a way to “bake a cake” in a plastic container (more on that at another time) and naturally, I started experimenting with some of the microwave cake recipes I found online.
I quickly discovered that many microwave cakes have a rubbery texture and/or more than a hint of “poached egg” flavor. Another big difficulty with microwaved cake is how quickly they dry out — which is quickly. Very, very quickly.
So I started experimenting. Approximately sixty microwave cake recipe experiments later, I had this cake.
Gathering microwaved cake supplies.
Microwave Cake Ingredients
1 box cake mix
I strongly recommend using one of the Betty Crocker “SuperMoist” mixes. I tried several different brands/flavors and the Betty Crocker “SuperMoist” was the standout every time.
IMPORTANT: Avoid dense cakes like “fudge cake” or “pound cake”. Those are just hockey pucks waiting to be nuked.
1 box (3.4 size) instant pudding in a similar or complementary flavor
3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon meringue powder
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1-1/3 cup milk
Additional Supplies
Non-stick cooking spray
2 – 9″ glass (or other microwave-safe material) pans
Your favorite easy-to-spread frosting
The Not-So-Secret ingredients: meringue powder
The Secret Ingredient
Eggs are a vital ingredient in most cake recipes… but when you microwave a cake with eggs in the recipe, you can easily end up with cake that has a hint of “poached egg” taste and the texture of a rubber chicken. I tried a variety of alternate recipes including: eliminating egg (good for making cake crumbles), substituting egg with applesauce (not bad if you like applesauce cake), substituting egg with prepared pudding (good for a burnt candy flavor), and a host of experiments not worthy of mention.
I know that Meringue Powder isn’t a standard ingredient in a lot of kitchens, but it’s the secret to making a moist “non-eggy” microwaved cake. Meringue Powder can be found in most cake supply stores or craft stores with a cake decorating section. I buy it at the local Michael’s Arts & Crafts store.
Batter will be lumpy -- it's okay.
Microwave Cake Instructions
Combine box of cake mix (dry), pudding mix (dry), and meringue powder in a large mixing bowl. Thoroughly mix ingredients. Break up any large clumps.
Add oil and milk. Mix by hand for approximately one minute.
Don’t worry about small lumps in the batter.
Batter spread in pan
Spray two 9″ x 9″ microwave-safe containers with cooking spray.
Spread 1/2 of the batter in each pan. Spread evenly. Or as evenly as humanly possible. Don’t worry about those few little bits of dry mix — it’s part of the microwave’s magic to make those disappear.
Watching cake in microwave.
Place one batter-filled pan in microwave. Now here’s the dicey part: Cooking Time. As you likely know, microwave ovens vary greatly in “power and efficiency” and that means there are no absolutes when it comes to “just how long” you should microwave your cake.
My microwave is ten years old and lists “wattage output” at 1100W. The perfect microwaving time/power setting with my microwave is 3 minutes and 45 seconds at Full Power. If your microwave has a lower wattage, you might need a longer bake time. If your microwave has a higher wattage, you might need a shorter time (or less than full power).
When the first layer is finished “baking”, cover tightly and then microwave second layer. When finished, cover second layer. Allow both layers to cool before frosting (but keep tightly covered). Covering the cakes helps keep them moist — as mentioned earlier, one of the biggest difficulties with microwaved cakes is how quickly they dry out.
Finished microwaved cake.
Finished Microwaved Cake
And here’s the unfrosted cake — in just over seven minutes of “bake” time, you have moist, delicious cake!
“Lumpy?” Yes, it does look a bit lumpy, but it doesn’t taste lumpy at all. And I’ve not found a solution to the visual problem that doesn’t sacrifice taste… so always remember: frosting is our Cakey Cosmetic friend.
Frosted microwaved cake -- good enough to eat.
Frosting the Microwaved Cake
Microwaved cake is more fragile than an oven-baked cake and requires a “soft” frosting. Homemade buttercream frosting works well. If you’re selecting a “canned frosting”, select one of the whipped varieties as the standard canned frostings will be nearly impossible to spread on microwaved cake without shredding the cake.
Suitable for Company?
The taste of this cake is certainly suitable for company, but because you can’t make this cake too far in advance and then the cake has to cool before frosting, it’s a difficult dessert to prepare without abandoning your guests.
But it’s the perfect quick and easy treat for casual gatherings and lazy family weekends.
