Cream cheese frosting, hands down, is the best frosting that exist in the confectionery world today. It’s the granddaddy of all cake sidekicks. Move over, whipped cream, your airy texture has nothing on the luscious, tangy goodness of this cream cheese delight. Although I’m not a big fan of its artery-clotting cousins (buttercream in particular), I’m convinced that I eat cupcakes just for the heavenly Philly spread that sits pretty on top 🙂

I was particularly craving the lovely, fro-yo like tanginess of cream cheese frosting one weekend. I almost ran out the door to drive 20-plus miles to my favorite cupcake place (aka my dealer) but I headed over to a local grocery store instead to pick up couple blocks of cream cheese (reduced fat kind, I mind you) so I can make some at home. It was my mother’s birthday celebration weekend so I decided to bake strawberry shortcake with the refreshing frosting for the special occasion.

I knew that the regular chiffon cake used in the Japanese version of strawberry shortcakes wouldn’t stand up to the thick, powerful flavor of cream cheese icing, so I decided to bake a more dense cake for the base. I knew that the finished product will taste more like a giant cupcake than strawberry shortcake but I was excited to give it a try.

Cake Recipe (Makes 2 x 9-inch cakes)
(The recipe is a variation of the Green Tea Cupcakes recipe from the Cupcake Bakeshop. I have baked the green tea cake several times with great results so I decided to stick with this recipe (sans matcha green tea powder) because of the dense consistency. I added a tablespoon of vanilla extract which was not included in the recipe).

2 sticks of unsalted butter
2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 cup milk

Cream Cheese Icing (this is my own recipe but loosely inspired by More from Magnolia cookbook, enough for 2 layer 9-inch cake)

1 pound (2 x 8 oz package) of reduced fat cream cheese
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 cups powdered sugar
5 tablespoon butter

More strawberries the better!

Do you think we got enough frosting on the cake?

The cake was certainly not the traditional “strawberry shortcake” but it was still delicious. I put the cake in the fridge for about 6 hours after decorating to set the cream cheese icing and although the corner of the cake had dried out a bit when we were ready to eat it, the interior was still surprisingly moist and sponge-y. Even after a day or two, the cake remained delicious.