Strawberry Stack Cake

I like that this cake kinda looks like a super huge stack of pancakes. I like that there’s strawberry jam keeping it real between six layers of sugar cookie-esque goodness. I like that at the end I get to dust it with powdered sugar.

I really like the dusting with powdered sugar part.

It maybe doesn’t look like it here, but those guys are the same size. I weighed them all on my tiny scale to make sure none were getting more dough than their siblings.

This is a make-ahead kinda thing. After sitting in the fridge overnight or a couple days it slices like cake, and tastes like a cookie. Rumor has it that back in the day ladies would make this cake a day or two before wash-day, because on that day they didn’t have time to make a dessert. Dessert’s always been important.

Strawberry Stack Cake
Recipe adapted from Cook’s Country

Ingredients:

• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 t baking powder
• 1 t baking soda
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/4 cup buttermilk*
• 2 t vanilla extract
• 8 T (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups strawberry jam, approximately
• 2 T confectioners’ sugar

* Substitute: pour 3/4 t of lemon juice in the bottom of a 1/4 cup measuring cup and top with milk. Set aside for a couple minutes, then use!

Directions:

1. Make dough. Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Combine buttermilk and vanilla in a small bowl or measuring cup. With electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter, cream cheese and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, until combined, then buttermilk mixture. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture gradually until combined.
2. Shape rounds. Divide dough into 6 equal pieces. Pat each into a 5-inch disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350º and cut six 9-inch parchment rounds. Line 8 inch cake pan or pot with parchment paper and press chilled dough disk into bottom of lined pan (like below), in an attempt to get uniform 8 inch circles. (Mine weren’t so perfect.) Transfer round to rimmed baking sheet. Repeat, placing second round 1/2 inch apart. Repeat with 2 additional disks on second rimmed baking sheet. Bake until just golden round edges, 16-20 minutes, switching and rotating sheets halfway through baking. Cool 10 minutes on sheets, then transfer to counter to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.
   
3. Assemble.* Place 1 cooled cake round on serving platter. Spread 3-4 tablespoons of strawberry jam over cake, leaving a 1/2 inch border uncovered, then top with another round. Repeat with remaining strawberry jam and cake rounds, finishing with cake. Cover with plastic and refrigerate until cake has softened, at least 8 hours or up to 3 days. Dust with confectioners’ sugar and serve. *(If your cakes aren’t perfect circles feel free to trim the edges, like I did. I even trimmed the cake after it sat in the fridge for a couple days.)
   

Cookie-ish cake scraps.