These lemon buttermilk strawberry mini cakes are secretly easy

To make the Cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C).
2. Lightly coat a half sheet pan with cooking spray. Line the bottom of the pan with a piece of parchment and spray that as well.
3. Grate the lemon’s yellow outer peel (the zest) with a fine grater (preferably a Microplane).
4. Whip the eggs in a standing mixer (or with a hand mixer) fitted with the whip attachment at medium speed with the sugar until the eggs are pale and thick enough for a ribbon that falls from the beaters to sit on top of the batter for a few seconds. This will take about 10 minutes.
5. Add the lemon zest on top of the batter, then pour the buttermilk, lemon juice and vanilla down the side of the bowl and whip for a few seconds to mix.
6. Taking the mixer off the stand, sift in the flour in 2 or 3 batches, using a baking spatula to scrape around the sides of the bowl, then turning your wrist over to fold the flour in. When you’ve added in all of the flour, be sure to scrape down to the bottom of the bowl a few times to find any rogue flour that hasn’t been mixed in. It should take you no more than 20 turns to incorporate all of the flour.
7. Pour the batter into your prepared pan and smooth in one even layer.
8. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the cake is set and the middle springs back when you poke it with your finger in the middle.
9. While the cake is baking, clean and dry your mixer bowl and whip attachment. Place the bowl and the attachment in the freezer.
10. Let the cake cool for 5 minutes, then pull on the parchment to slide off the cake to a wire rack to finish cooling. Because this is a thin cake, it’ll cool in 10-15 minutes.

Assembling the mini cakes:

1. Wash, dry, and cut off the tops (or cut out the stem ends with a paring knife if you don’t want to waste any strawberry bits) of all the strawberries. Slice them thinly and set them in a bowl.
2. Whip the cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla in the cold mixer bowl until the cream forms stiff peaks. It will be noticeably thicker and hold its shape when you pull it off the beaters; it will not slide around.
3. Use a 2 1/2″ round biscuit cutter to cut 27 pieces from the cake layer. Cut the pieces as close together as possible, and its okay if one or two of the pieces have to be cobbled together to make one piece.
4. Line a sheet tray with a clean piece of parchment.
5. Spread 3 rounds of cake with a little strawberry jam.
6. Set the same cutter you used before on the sheet tray, then pop in one of the layers of cake, jam side up.
7. Line the inside of the ring with strawberry slices, pointy side facing up.
8. Spoon a little whipped cream inside the ring, covering the first cake layer, then smooth it out. The same spoon should work here.
9. Squash another cake layer to cover the first one, jam side up.
10. Add more cream to cover, and smooth it out.
11. Finish the mini cake by topping it with the last layer, jam side down.
12. As neatly as you can, spoon a last little bit of cream on the top layer and smooth it.
13. Place one strawberry slice in the center of the finished cake.
14. Press gently on the center strawberry to release the biscuit cutter and unmold the cake.
15. Repeat building your cakes with the remaining cake pieces, cream, and strawberries.
16. Eat immediately, or chill until serving.
17. Cakes are best eaten the same day they’re made, but they will keep for a day, loosely wrapped with plastic wrap in the fridge.