Apologies and Strawberry Cake

Hello, all! Yes, it's been a super long time. I'm sorry, ok? Seriously.
So what have I been doing? Going to school mostly, baking and cooking, hanging out with my cat, you know, the usual stuff.

I wanted to share with you all an incredible cake that I made for my little sister's birthday (which was November 2. I get it! It's been a long time!). It's a strawberry cake, because that's her favorite. I searched the internet for a while trying to find the perfect strawberry cake recipe, and ended up choosing this one, by Heather Baird of SprinkleBakes (I love SprinkleBakes)!

I modified it a bit, of course. The recipe calls for strawberry puree, but I just kind of made my own by putting strawberry preserves in the ol' food processor, and adding water a teaspoon at a time until it reached the consistency that I wanted. Since I bake at high altitude where everything is bone dry and crazy it's a little hard for me to suggest modified liquid amounts with any more clarity than just "until you reach a good consistency" or "you'll know when it's the right amount." I fear this is also a habit I've inherited from reading the handwritten Swedish and Finnish recipes translated by my grandmother that say things like "add an appropriate amount of this" or "add as much of this as you think is right" or "keep adding this until it feels like enough." I also left the white chocolate shavings out of the frosting because I really wanted to keep the cake a bit sour, not too sweet. That also explains why I chose this particular cake, the cream cheese frosting, duh!

So Happy Birthday, Mia (several months ago)!