Roasted Strawberry Filling

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Toss berries, lemon juice, sugar, and salt in a bowl before spreading them out into an aluminum or metal pan to bake for about 20 minutes, flipping berries halfway through.  
3. Once they’re softened and have a syrupy consistency, remove from oven and transfer to a heatproof bowl. Let cool in refrigerator. 

Cake Layers

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Butter and flour two 8” round cake pans or coat them with baking release spray. I use damp cake strips on my pans for more evenly baked layers.
2. To a large bowl, add and whisk together all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and kosher salt. Set aside.  
3. Using the paddle attachment and the bowl of a stand mixer, beat your sugar, butter, and vanilla extract together on medium speed for 4 minutes. Stop mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
4. Add your eggs, canola oil, and Greek yogurt to the bowl of your stand mixer. Mix on low for about 3 minutes.
5. Add half of your buttermilk and half of your dry ingredients. Mix gently and then repeat until ingredients are combined.
6. Pour and evenly spread the batter into your prepared cake pans. Bake for 35 – 40 minutes or until layers appear buttery and dense but bounce back at the touch of your finger.
7. Let cakes cool in pans 10-15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting. 

Frosting & Cake Assembly

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl using a handheld mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the butter and mix for another 1 minute until well combined and smooth.
2. Mix in the powdered sugar, almond, and vanilla extract. Continue mixing until fully combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
3. Remove half of the frosting and set aside in another bowl.
4. Add ground freeze dried strawberries to mixing bowl and mix until well-combined.
5. Put white frosting in one piping bag and pink in another.
6. Pipe or spread a dollop of cream cheese frosting onto a cake circle to act as glue to hold the layer in place. Set first cake layer on top of that.
7. Pipe about a third of your frosting (you can use a mix of pink and white. If you want more white frosting on the outside with small pink sections, use more pink inside or vice versa.) on top of the bottom layer and spread evenly with a cake spatula or large metal spoon. Create thick piping border to hold in filling and spread ½ of your roasted strawberry filling inside the border. The border should be the height of the strawberries so that they don’t leak out!
8. Place second cake layer on top of the first. Then, starting from the base of the cake and moving to the top, pipe a thick layer of frosting all around your cake’s sides and top.
9. Place a cake scraper against the side of the cake and gently pull the cake around to smooth out bubbles in the frosting.
10. Pipe lines of the pink frosting around and on top of the cake, using the cake scraper to even it out and create a marbled effect.
11. Top with remaining roasted strawberries.