• *For the strawberry puree, clean and remove the stems on about 1 quart of strawberries. Cut them in half and place them in a food processor to blend them into a puree. You should end up with about 3 cups of strawberry puree.
• Place the strawberry puree in a small saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring often to prevent burning, until the strawberries have reduced to 1 1/2 cups of puree.  I've found this to take about 30-45 minutes.
• Allow the reduced strawberry puree to cool completely. (I often make this a day in advance so it has plenty of time to cool.)

For the Cake:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, soda and salt into a medium size bowl. Set aside.
• In the bowl of stand mixer, cream together the softened butter and sugar. 
  
• Add the milk, oil and extracts. Beat on medium speed for 2minutes. 
• Add the reduced strawberry puree and egg whites.  Beat for an additional 2 minutes.
• Add the flour mixture and stir until well combined, but be careful not to overmix. Scrape the sides of the bowl as needed. 
• Grease and flour two 9" round cake pans. Divide the batter between the cake pans.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes, or until the cake springs back when you touch the center of it. Allow the cakes to sit for 5 minutes, then remove them from the pans to a wire rack to cool completely.
  

For the Buttercream:

• In a stand mixer bowl, with the mixer on medium speed, whip the butter for 2-3 minutes until it is almost white in color. Add in the salt, powdered sugar, vanilla extract. Mix on low speed until blended. Add in the reduced strawberry puree, 1/4 a cup until the frosting is the consistency you'd like. Add a drop or two of red food coloring if you'd like the cake to be a little pinker. Beat on low speed again for 1-2 minutes.

Assemble the Cake:

• Frost the top of one of the round cakes, then place the second cake on top of that.
• Frost the entire outside of the cake with the strawberry frosting, making it as smooth as possible. 
• Decorate the top with cut or whole strawberries, if desired.
• Cover and refrigerate until serving.