This weekend all roads on the island lead to the Vashon Strawberry Festival as we celebrate 102 years of bringing together friends, family, fried foods and fun. Somewhere in the mix you’ll find a strawberry or two, as islanders also honor the berry that put Vashon on the map, that is before K2 skis and Seattle’s Best Coffee.
If you waddle (yes funnel cakes and fries will be served) by the Vashon Island Pet Protectors (VIPP) booth, you may have a chance to enjoy some other fine fare at the fair, namely my sour cream pound cake layered with cream cheese whipped cream and fresh strawberries. (Yes for Tom, more is more, especially in the dairy department.) The cake in the photo is my test cake. My expert panel of taste testers and I all agree, it’s a cake worthy of a raffle to help homeless pets. Uh, let me rephrase that; it’s delicious, rich, creamy and tastes like a summer day. Now if you prefer cats to cakes or pooches to pastries, forgo the raffle and still visit the booth to learn how you can help our island’s four-legged friends.
Local strawberries bound for gateau greatness and of course a very good cause.
Now should you eat a bit too much at the festival, I hear the Zumba goddesses welcome participation in the Saturday parade and there is also the Saturday night street dance to burn off a few extra calories and inhibitions. And if you wish to make the cake yourself, the recipe follows:
RECIPE: Strawberry Festival Layer Cake
Main Ingredients:
- 2 pounds of cleaned, halved fresh strawberries, 3/4 Cup sugar
- Pound cake (or sour cream pound cake)
- Cream cheese – whipped cream
Strawberries
- toss berries in sugar, let stand
Sour Cream Pound Cake
- make or purchase your favorite pound cake
Cream Cheese – Whipped Cream
Ingredients
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 3/4 Cup sugar
- 1 t of vanilla
- pinch of salt
- 2 Cups whipping cream
Preparation:
- Whip up cream cheese in a mixer
- Slowly add sugar until well mixed
- Add vanilla and salt, mix
- Add a slow stream of cream into the cream cheese mixture, add all the cream
- Mix on a medium high speed with whipping whisk or attachment until cream doubles in volume and holds its peaks
Cake Assembly
- Slice cake in half to create two layers (three if a thick cake)
- Drain sugared strawberries
- Add berries to the top of the bottom first layer
- To that add generous layer of whipped cream mixture, covering the berries
- Add top cake layer over the top of the berry cream layer
- Add whipped cream mixture to the top, smooth out carefully
- Add individual berries to the top in an artful (or not) arrangement, using a toothpick helps
- Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving
I think this cake may be even better the next day as the flavors meld (or maybe I just ate too much the day before).
Boz and Gracie thank you for supporting VIPP (especially if you drop a crumb or two their way).
That is beautiful and looks so nummy. I wish that I was there right now sitting on your porch cramming a piece of that cake in my mouth.
Hope all is well in your world and looking forward to seeing you one of these days. Hope we are still on for pie ?One of these days those girls won’t have a full calender and I won’t be having surgeries. xoxox Love you Handsome
Thanks Tina, would love to dish you up a plate and catch up. Look forward to our pie class when time allows. I’m ready to bake with the beauties!
Very, very nice cake!!! But, dang, those dogs need a hug!!!
Um, I wonder what happened to my piece? Did you put it on my doorstep? Oh well – you’ll have to make me another I guess.
Susan, the dogs get plenty of hugs, that’s their enough-with-the-hugs-where’s-my-treat look.
And Kristin, you slice is sitting nicely in my tum tum; you know I have no willpower, but I can make for you again — promise!
Lois shared a sample with my DH and I as we were helping get the VIPP booth together this evening. Good God! I mean, seriously. Seriously, seriously!!!
Thanks Margie, I’ll be making the raffle cake tomorrow with some gorgeous fresh berries and a whole lotta of dairy love!
That cake looks so appetizing and fluffy! Zummpa classes is my next agenda item; looks like everybody is having a blast, lucky~
Delicious looking cake Tom. Anything to support the four legged creatures, and I’m in! All the better when strawberries are involved!
Sounds like a great cake for a great cause…you have got to stop these posts…you are really making me want to relocate to Vashon Island!
Tom…I am in heaven…just had your and Chris’s pickled rhubarb…to die for! Did a post with a link back to your site. Thank you, thank you!
Your cake looks beautiful, and I can only imagine how awesome a SOUR CREAM pound cake is. Short cake really isn’t extravagant enough, particularly when compared to your cake.
Your recipe sounds way too decadent, but I’m going to try it anyway. I’m sure the cake was the best contributor to the raffle. I would like to hear more about the VIPP. Do they have a contact person? Or a website?
Hi Susan, VIPP is a great organization, matching people and pets, and reuniting lost pets, and caring for ill and homeless animals on Vashon Island.
The VIPP website and contact info: http://www.vipp.org/
Beautiful cake, looks great, so tasty and fresh and summery. Love the pic of the dogs too. 🙂
Tom,
Very nice cause and delicious cake! I don’t remember eating whipped cream made with cream and cream cheese. Must be delicious I love that nice sourness that cream cheese imparts to cake toppings.
Clarence sends his hi Boz and Gracie!
Cheers,
Hegs
Hegs, it’s really a great whipped cream option, because the cream cheese also adds body and it works better as a cake frosting. I think I’ll try it with coconut cake. And as for Clarence, um um what a stud! Gracie is smitten!
Thanks so much for the raffle goodness. It drew lots of new people and money into our VIPP booth at the festival.
Which way to Vashon????
Chris head north by northwest. 😉 ,
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Just stumbled upon your site, thanks for sharing. I moved from town to country in Northern California
too hot for some of your beautiful flowers but still fun to peruse your photos and recipes. I have apricots, figs, pomegranates(sic), meyer lemon, mandarin, have been here one year and soooo happy!!!
Thanks Patricia for the visit and here’s to your new country life. Northern California is such a stunning part of the world and a place where some of my favorite fruits prefer to grow. I have a couple citrus but they become houseplants around November.
Hi Tom, I was searching for pound cake recipes when your site came up. LOVE IT! Nothing better than the sweet flavors of the NW. I was wondering if you could help me… I’ve been searching for pound cake recipes that have the air holes like yours does. 🙂 All the ones I’ve tried seem to be fine crumb and delicate and I don’t want that. I want airy dense not fine crumb cakey dense like the store bought kind. Your photo looks perfect! Any ideas what you do that might make it that way or specific recipe type to go with?
Hi Camille, I was in a hurry to make this cake for my “photo shoot” and used the recipe on the side of the box for turning a yellow cake mix into a lemon pound cake. It comes out fine but has a lot of air holes as you noticed. Much like this: http://duncanhines.com/recipes/cakes/dh/lemon-pound-cake/ or this http://allrecipes.com/recipe/lemon-bundt-cake-2/
I usually use a recipe for lemon bundt cake poured into spring form pans.
Awesome–thanks Tom!