High Altitude Strawberry Almond Layer Cake
Soft and fluffy almond cake, frosted with strawberry buttercream and macarons.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Whisk Attachment
- 8-inch cake pans (x3)
Ingredients
Cake
- 3 ¼ cups cake flour, spooned and leveled
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 ½ cups whole buttermilk, lukewarm
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- 2 large egg whites
- 2-3 tsp almond extract
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Buttercream
- 2 cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3 tbsp strawberry jam
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp meringue powder
- 1 tbsp freeze-dried strawberry powder
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350F, and grease the bottoms of three 8-inch cake pans with non-stick spray.
- In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
- Separately, whisk together the buttermilk, melted butter, oil, eggs, egg whites, almond extract and vanilla extract.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and whisk until combined and smooth, about 10-15 seconds. Divide the batter evenly between the greased pans.
- Bake the cakes on the center oven rack until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, and the tops spring back when lightly touched, about 25-30 minutes.
- Set the pans on a cooling rack, cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel, and cool completely before frosting.
Buttercream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the butter and jam for 1 minute until smooth. Add the extracts.
- Separately, whisk together the powdered sugar, meringue powder, strawberry powder and salt. With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients by spoonfuls.
- Turn the speed up to medium (#6 on a Kitchen Aid), and whip for 4-5 minutes, scraping the bowl several times, until light and fluffy. If needed for desired consistency, beat in 2-4 tablespoons of milk, but this usually isn't needed in warm weather. Turn the speed down to low and mix for 1 minute to pop any large air bubbles.
Assembly
- Remove the cooled cakes from the pans. Place one cake layer on a cake board or cake pedestal. Frost with a layer of the buttercream. Continue stacking and filling the cake layers, then frost all over with a thin "crumb coat" of buttercream. Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Frost the cake with a final pretty coat of buttercream. If you like, top the cake with macarons and pipe swirls of buttercream between each.
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