Strawberry Reduction: Makie this reduction the day before youre ready to make your cake.

Place fresh or thawed, frozen strawberries into a medium saucepan. Optional: blend strawberries with an emersion blender if you prefer a smoother texture of strawberry reduction.

Heat on medium-high and add in sugar (if desired), lemon zest, lemon juice and salt. Stir occasionally to prevent burning.

Once bubbling, reduce heat to medium-low and slowly reduce until berries begin to break up and the mixture has reduced by about half. This will take about 20 minutes. If your mixture has reduced by half and is still watery, continue to cook until all of the liquid is out. Occasionally stir the mixture to prevent burning. You should end up with about 2 cups of thick strawberry reduction that looks like tomato sauce. Transfer to another container and let cool before use.

You will use some of the reduction for the cake batter, some for the frosting and the rest for filling between the cake layers for extra moisture. Leftover reduction can be stored in the fridge for up to one week or frozen for 6 months.

Cake Instructions: Make sure to take your strawberry reduction out of the refrigerator 1 hour before making your cake so that it comes to room temperature.

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease three 8 cake pans with cake goop or preferred pan release

In a medium bowl, whisk together the milk, strawberry reduction, strawberry emulsion, vanilla extract, lemon extract, lemon zest, lemon juice, and pink food coloring.

In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add room temperature butter to your stand mixer with the paddle attachment and beat at medium speed until smooth and shiny, about 30 seconds.

Gradually sprinkle in the sugar, beat until mixture is fluffy and almost white, about 3-5 minutes.

Add the egg whites one at a time, beating 15 seconds in between. Your mixture should look cohesive at this point. If it looks curdled and broken, your butter or egg whites were too cold.

Mix on low and add about a third of the dry ingredients to the batter, followed by about a third of the milk mixture, mix until ingredients are almost incorporated into the batter. Repeat the process 2 more times. When the batter appears blended, stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. If it looks like ice cream, you did it right!

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. Smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.

Bake cakes at 350ºF until they feel firm in the center and a toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs on it, about 30-35 minutes.

Place pans on top of a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes. Then flip your cakes onto the racks and cool completely. Once cooled, wrap each layer in plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze before assembling your cake.