Strawberry shortcake - Trifle style

I follow a list of food blogs. At least once a week, after a full day of sorting through data, rearranging them to make it more understandable, going through meetings or burning off stress with friends on weekends, I like to retreat, sit back, laptop on my lap, and escape to the world of food and culinary journeys.

Time hasn't been on my side for the past month since my last post. There were Fridays and Saturdays I had to be out of town. There were a couple of days I caught the dysentery bug so common of visiting or returning overseas students. There were days where...well, let's just say I have to keep a social life. On those times, the blogs were the next best thing to baking itself. For the other bloggers out there, your passion, recipes and warmth continue to inspire me and I want to thank you for that. Keep doing what you're doing.

I can't believe I'm at a point of time where I have to choose between what I have to do and what I love doing and sometimes I can't always have both. When I was a student, there was so much time that I can bake on impulse. Now, I have to plan when to bake.

But you know what. I still love it. And I promise you, I will come up with more creations soon :) I love cakes, I love making something out of the simple ingredients, mixing and matching recipe parts and I love the joy of sharing the food I make. And the smile on everyone's faces after they taste what's been made. That's what I call accomplishment.

So here's to baking...First visit back - strawberry trifle :) Enjoy~

Strawberry Trifle

adapted from Sky-High's Sky-High Strawberry Shortcake

Makes 6x250ml glasses

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups cake flour

2 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

70g butter, room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs, room temperature

2/3 cup whole milk (or buttermilk)

500g strawberries

2 tbsp rum

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup heavy cream

2 tbsp sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C and butter 2x20cm pans (you probably can substitute them with a rectangular baking tray/swiss roll pan).
2. Whisk flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl until thoroughly mixed. Set aside. 
3. Clean and hull strawberries. Cut them into nickel-thick slices.
4. Combine strawberries with rum, extract and sugar. Coat well and leave for at least 1 hour.
5. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, cream butter, sugar and extract on medium speed until pale and fluffy.
6. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
7. Pour in the dry ingredients in two or three additions, alternating with the milk.
8. Divide batter evenly among the two prepared pans.
9. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden and a cake tester skewer comes out clean.
10. Leave a while before inverting to cool on a wire rack to room temperature.
11. In another bowl, beat the cream and sugar on medium speed until soft peaks form.
12. Cut the cake into slices that will fit the width of your glass.
13. Layer the cake first, next add the strawberries with some of the juices (but you don't want the cake to be soggy), and then spoon in the whipped cream evenly.
14. Repeat the sequence of the layers until you fill the glass, making sure the whipped cream ends up on top.
15. Decorate with leftover strawberries slices and serve :)