Vanilla Cake with Strawberry filling

Recently my friend requested vanilla cake for her birthday, here is the result:

Cake ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for the pans
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups milk
Recipe adapted from: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/basic-vanilla-cake-recipe/index.html

Filling: 1 can Strawberry pie filling

Whipped Cream frosting ingredients:

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

And Vanilla wafers for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Use baking spray (Pam) or butter to grease two 9-inch-round cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper; grease the parchment and dust the pans with flour, tapping out the excess.  Mix 3 cups flour, the baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Beat the butter and the sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl as needed. Next beat in the vanilla.  Alternate the flour mixture with the milk, beginning and ending with flour, beat until just smooth.  Divide the batter evenly between pans.  Bake for about 35 min, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then use a knife to loosen the edge of the cake.  Carefully turn cakes onto plates and let cool completely before frosting.

  If needed level bottom layer of cake before filling.  Next place filling on bottom layer of cake and place top layer of cake on top of filling.

For frosting combine all ingredients, except for the vanilla wafers, in a medium bowl; beat on high speed until soft peaks form.

Use a frosting knife to spread whipped cream over entire cake.  Next I added crushed vanilla wafers to the side of the cake.