Little Strawberry Tall Cakes - FOOD PHOTO SHOOT

gringalicious (78)in #photography • 5 years ago

I always say that when life gives you a Summer Friday you should add strawberries........oh and cream........and don't forget cake!!! Also, you might as well get a little creative and have fun with it while you're at it. At least that's what I did with these little short....I mean "tall" cakes.

I’ve always kind of felt sorry for this classic summertime sweet and I knew I wanted to approach it from a more feeling angle. I mean “short” cake, really? Come on guys, talk about a complex causing title. What happened here to all that social correctness everyone seems to be throwing around? Doesn’t strawberry shortcake deserve a little of respect for being so incredible? I think so, and that’s what inspired my tall cakes.

Okay, and I’ve never been clear on the whole shortcake thing anyway. Some people consider an actual European style, biscuit-like shortcake the only way to go, while others use basic vanilla cake or angelfood in its place and call it shortcake. I’m gonna go with saying to each their own, and really, because these aren’t short-cakes no rules can apply anyway.

But wait, there’s more! I have to gush a little over of how much you’ll adore these! So adding a little altitude requires a little more support than your typical whipped cream so I came up with a slightly thicker version with its only negative point being that it’s made it impossible for me to ever consider going back to plain whipped cream. It’s a delightfully fluffy layer that’s somewhere between a basic whipped cream and vegan cream cheese frosting so it’ll have you wanting to just grab a spoon and dive in.

For the cakes I used my absolute favorite white cake recipe that I can’t imaging being improved. In fact, it may be my favorite cake recipe period. It’s got it all, balanced sweetness, fluffy texture, and yet enough structure to support all these berries and cream. I already shared the recipe a while ago but for this version I adjusted the ratios so that it could be baked in a smaller batch. You use giant muffin pans to make these and then simply divide each muffin in half and stack four halves together per each cake.

If you’re feeling in the mood for a little more risk you could try stacking them even higher just for kicks but I found that four was the tallest they could realistically stay up without making a huge (yet incredibly delicious!) mess. However, I think four is enough to merit them being dubbed ridiculously tall and I’ll bet your friends an family will get as much fun out of these as mine did.

If I do say so myself, this is probably the only strawberry tall/short cake recipe you’ll ever need……….forever and a day!!!!

Little Strawberry Tall Cakes

You've had "short cake" many times but did you ever wish it could be a "tall cake" instead? These delicacies are here to make your dreams come true!

Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Servings 8 - 12 servings

Ingredients

Cake:
1/2 cup aquafaba liquid from 1 cans cooked chickpeas
3/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 cup organic vegetable oil
2 tablespoons coconut oil or organic vegetable shortening ,melted
1/4 cup tablespoons applesauce can sub pumpkin puree if you don't mind a little more golden color
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 cups flour
Cream:
6 ounces vegan "cream cheese" softened
1/4 cup non-dairy yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup coconut cream *see note
3 cups fresh strawberries washed, trimmed and diced

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 C) and grease 2 (6-cavity extra large muffin tins). Pour aquafaba into bowl of stand mixer and beat until its begins to look light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Slowly drizzle in sugar while beating on high and continue until it forms stiff peaks (it should take about 5 more minutes). In separate bowl, stir together the lemon juice, applesauce, melted coconut oil, oil, and extracts.
Now, while continuing to beat the aquafaba mixture, slowly pour in the liquids and beat just until evenly combined
Now in another separate bowl, sift the flour, salt, and baking powder. Remove the mixing bowl from the mixer and add the sifted dry ingredients. Use a large spatula to gently fold in the ingredients just until fairly combined. (It's actually better to leave some small lumps then to overmix and lose volume.)
Divide batter into pans as evenly as possible (about 1/3 cup batter per cup). Bake for 18 - 25 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool completely then loosen cakes from pan and place them in an airtight container in the fridge to get cold.
Cream:
Whip the cream in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment until it forms stiff peaks. Scrape cream into a separate bowl and set aside. Add the "cream cheese", yogurt, vanilla, salt, and sugar to the mixing bowl and mix until completely smooth. Beat for 2 to 3 minutes until light and fluffy then fold in whipped cream and place mixture in fridge for at least 30 minutes to chill.
Assemble:
Trim the tops off of cakes if necessary to make them level then slice them in half horizontally in the middle (like a sandwich bun). The top halves of the muffins will be slightly large than the bottoms so make 6 stacks, 2 cupcakes in each, with the 2 larger halves on the bottom and the smaller halves on top.
Starting with the bottom layers, spread a spoonful of the cream mixture on each layer and top with a layer of strawberries followed by the next layer. Repeat until you have 6 extra tall mini cakes that are perfect for sharing.....or not sharing!

Recipe Notes

These are great for making ahead but it's best to wait until serving time to assemble. If preferred, you can bake the cake batter in 2, 8-inch rounds and make one big cake instead of small ones. Also, if you would rather,you can bake the cake in a large rectangle pan and cut into squares then layer everything in a trifle dish. *If you have trouble finding coconut cream at your local grocery store it's completely fine to use full-fat coconut milk and scrape the cream off of the top. Just be sure that it's cold enough to separate.

ALL CONTENT IS MINE AND ORIGINAL! All of these food photos were taken with my Nikon D750 and my favorite Lens, the Nikon AF-S FX NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G. You can find out more in my INTRO POST.