Strawberry Cake with Chocolate-Strawberry Vegan Frosting

I had a sudden urge to make a strawberry cake last weekend after I landed myself with a box of strawberry puree.

A result of an online search for strawberry cakes resulted in this one from the smittenkitchen.

Honestly, I wonder how people always get nice cakes with nice brown crusty sides. My cakes NEVER turn out this way, and I think it's cos of the cake pan I use + temperature of the oven. I've noticed that the oven temperature varies wildly while my cake is baking, and I don't like it one bit! :/

I really should get the book Bakewise? I think there are tips on the baking pans and stuff... Ahh! Maybe after my exams.. I can't get distracted now. hehe..

Anyway, back to my cake. I halved the recipe as the original made a 3 layer 8-inch cake. I only have two 6 inch pans and my oven ain't big enough to bake that many layers in one go. So yes. Halved the recipe.

One of the pans was light gray in colour, while the other was shiny silver. The light gray one ALWAYS take much longer to bake, and the cake is usually more "kueh-like" (see the bottom layer of the cake). I don't know why this happens. Maybe heat distribution in this cake pan is much worse. However, I have a problem finding this same shiny silver cake pan I bought when I just started to bake. I don't even remember where I got it from. I definitely can't find it at Phoon Huat anymore. :(

Anyway, because I'm allergic to dairy, I whipped up Chocolate-Strawberry Mousse Frosting {seems more like frosting than mousse} for the cake. My original intention was to try out Eric Lechasseur's Vegan Strawberry Mousse but first, the mousse wouldn't set. So I added more agar, reheated the mixture and let cool. And it BECAME like hard jelly. -_- I'll definitely try again next time because it didn't taste that bad (except mom said not sweet enough). I seem to have problems dissolving the agar flakes in the apple juice - it always coagulates!!!!! Argh!!!

Luckily, I kind of expected there would be problems, so I tried making some Chocolate Strawberry Vegan Mousse Frosting using my trusty recipe - the one that my sis kind of accepted. Just added some strawberry puree to taste, and it turned out fine!

Dad and Grace jie thinks the cake is not bad - both had two slices each. Cyn didn't say anything. And Mom, as usual, isn't good at telling me something is bad but she only had one small bite. In any case, I definitely think the cake can be lighter (Grace and Dad agrees but they like the taste), so I'll try this cake maybe in about 2 to 3 weeks time, if I don't forget.

I tried to pipe some "flowers" on the cake with the LITTLE excess mousse frosting I had (I only made half my usual recipe). The cake was more peach-coloured than pink {as advised by Min} but I love it anyway. But I guess I could add a little red food colouring if I'm making it for Min. Perhaps as cupcakes.