- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Grease and flour 3 8″ round cake pans. You may want to use 4 pans total if your cake pans are not very tall to make sure the batter does not overflow when baked.
- In a large bowl, whisk to combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
- Add the vegetable oil, strawberry puree, vanilla, and lemon juice to the dry ingredients and whisk until combined.
- Add the eggs and food color, if using, to the batter and whisk until smooth. Once the batter is smooth, do not continue mixing so the gluten doesn’t over-develop.
- Divide the batter evenly between the cake pans.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the tops are firm to the touch and cake is cooked through.
- Let cool for 5 minutes and remove cake from pans, scraping the edges with a knife to loosen the cake, if necessary, and cool on wire racks.
- Level the tops of the cooled cakes and place on layer on a dish or cake stand.
- Whip the heavy cream, along with the ¼ C. sugar, to very stiff peaks. You want it so thick that it is almost to the point that it is curdled. But not quite. It will hold up to the heavy cake layers and last longer if you do this.
- Add a spoonful of cream to the first layer of cake and spread out evenly to the edges.
- Add the second layer of cake to the smoothed cream.
- Add a spoonful of cream to the second cake layer, smoothing to the edges.
- Top with the third layer of cake. If using a forth layer, top with cream , spread and smooth and top with that fourth layer.
- Place the rest of the whipped cream in a piping bag fitted with a large star tip. Pipe large swirls of cream around the outer edge of the top
