1. Heat oven to 350F. Grease your three 8" cake tins with cooking spray, then cut out parchment paper in rounds to cover the bottom of the pans. Slice up the lemon and strawberries and put to the side.

2. In a large bowl combine the eggs and cane sugar. I used a hand mixer to beat until it was 3x the volume. The mix should be thick!

3. As you blend, slowly pour in the olive oil and once that is combined, add the vanilla extract, lemon zest, lemon juice, and whole milk. When this is smooth, sift in the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt). Using a spatula to gently combine them into the liquid. Make sure you do not over mix, otherwise - the cake will turn out rubbery. 

4. Evenly divide the batter into the three cake pans and bake for 20-25 minutes, until cakes are lightly golden and fork comes out clean from the center. I found that my cake that was in the bottom rack did not cook as well as the top two so I would switch racks about halfway through.

5. Leave the cakes to cool into the pans for 10 minutes before transferring to a baking rack to cool entirely. 
   

Strawberry Buttercream

1. Using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment or a hand mixer, place the softened butter in first and whip until smooth, then add the icing sugar. Add the pureed strawberries, which should allow the frosting to become even smoother. If adding the puree causes the frosting to be too runny, add a bit of icing sugar back into the blend until it's at the best consistency for spreading.  Keep in mind that the ingredients used in this frosting is a double batch and there should be some frosting leftover! :) We used probably 1½ of the batch.

Putting It Together

1. Place the first cooled layer of cake onto the foil circle. Cover the top of the cake with a thick layer of frosting then place the sliced strawberries over the whole layer. Add the second layer and do the same. Add the third layer of cake and cover the whole top with frosting. If your cake is getting a little warm because of the weather (ie. it's summer), you can stick the whole cake in the freezer for 30-60 mins. 

2. Add a thin crumb coat. We wanted to make it a semi-naked cake so it's not a ton of frosting on the outside. Clean up the sides, then start piping around the base of the cake. I used a big circular piping nozzle to do mine but you can choose whichever style you prefer. 

3. Place slices of strawberry and lemon in a random way on the top to garnish. Honestly, it was kind of haphazard and my tip for you is to do things in uneven numbers. It's more appealing for the eye!