Birthday Cake for a Special Lady

I spent a long weekend home in New Jersey to celebrate my mom’s birthday [I tend to go home for birthdays, including mine]. Per the usual, I hit up a couple of malls and made some really important/not-so-important purchasing decisions and of course, cooked. Follow by a bout of my mom feeding me leftovers, I made tacos for everyone on Sunday and started on the birthday cake. My mom is definitely a dessert connoisseur so I had to make something that would impress…so I opted for this layered strawberry shortcake—something light for springtime [the chiffon cake really made the difference]. A few tweaks…I am a bit weary of cutting/slicing layers, so I just did two layers using two 9” cake pans. Also, I went ahead and macerated the strawberries using some sugar and lemon juice. My mom was super pleased with the finished product—and I must say—for someone who has frequent meltdowns when baking, this was a cinch! 

--T

By the way, how cute is the electric beater? My mom kept the one she got in the 80s and it still works like a charm!