Instructions

Cake:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour 2 9″ cake pans.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
Add the oil, strawberry puree, vanilla, and lemon juice to the dry ingredients and stir until combined.
Add the eggs and food color (if using), and stir until smooth. {do not over mix!}
Divide the batter evenly between the cake pans.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Allow the cakes to cool for a few minutes before removing and placing on cooling racks.
The cakes need to be completely cooled before frosting.

Strawberry Buttercream:

In a large bowl, beat your butter until it’s fluffy. Add the salt, powdered sugar, vanilla; beat until combine. Add the strawberry puree and beat until light and fluffy. You may need to add more powdered sugar or a teaspoon of milk until you get the perfect consistency.

Recipe Notes
*In a food processor or blender, blend fresh strawberries until you have 1 1/2 cups of strawberry puree. Run this through a strainer to get all the seeds out. In order to have enough for the cake and frosting, I pureed a little bit more than 1 1/2 cups, and took out the 3 tablespoons for the frosting