“Birthdays are nature’s way of telling us to eat more cake.”
Author Unknown
I made this cake a long while ago for my SILs birthday. While the cake itself tasted fabulous in every way (if I may say so myself), I didn’t like the finish I gave it, and therefore didn’t post it. It was the light pink icing I drizzled along the sides that left me dismayed and I later was pretty sore at myself that I didn’t just scrape it off. I could have you know, but I just got so hassled that I didn’t even think of it.
I loved the stenciling I did on top with melted piped chocolate on the lines of the lace border I did here. I took great care with the sliced strawberries too. The colour pink is not one of my favourite colours and I don’t know what possessed me to add it to the frosting on the sides. It was fine in combination with the white, but the minute the red strawberries entered the scene… ack, I was distraught and quickly took photographs and put it away to chill!
Found the pictures the other day while doing a picture collage of strawberry things I’ve done this season on this Strawberry Vanilla Bean Conserve post. One of my dear readers left a comment mentioning the cake in the centre, which was this forgotten one. Time to post the cake I thought , because it was wonderful, delectable and light, and now looked quite nice to me!!
It was sandwiched with a filling made with my favourite form of curd cheese, home made quark, which is another reason I’m posting this cake. It follows a lengthy twitter discussion about quark which I had with good friend Alessio, who I met in London at the Food Blogger Connect ’09. Also part of the quark talk on twitter was fellow tweep Jason from Food Geekery who shares my love for quark.
The cake was light and fruity, and the quark and mascarpone filling blending beautifully with the chopped strawberries within. The mascarpone and cream in the frosting tied up everything to add a certain luxury to this delightful cake. If you wish to learn how to make the lace border, you can see how I did it on this Strawberry Bavarian Cream Cake. The stenciling for the top was done in a similar manner but on a flat piece of parchment cut to size of the design. Once the chocolate set after being chilled, I quickly yet gently placed the parchment, chocolate side down, on the top of the cake, and genlty peeled the parchment off.
Strawberry Cake with Quark & Mascarpone
My recipe
Serves 12-15
Sponge cake
6 eggs
1 cup plain flour
1 cup vanilla sugar (or granulated)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp strawberry essence
Method:
Preheat the oven to 190C. Line a round 9″ springform baking tin with parchement paper.
Beat the eggs with vanilla sugar over a bowl of simmering water till tripled in volume, about 7-8 minutes. Take off water, add the essence, and continue to beat for another 5-7 minutes.
Sift in the flour and fold through in figure 8 movements, turning the bowl a 1/4 from time to time, gently but thoroughly tuntil the flour is well incorporated, taking care not to release beaten in air.
Turn into a 9″ round springform tin and baked in a preheated oven at 190C for 20-25 minutes, until the tester comes out clear. Cover the top loosely with foil if the top browns too fast after 20 minutes.
Once done, immediately release from tin, peel off lining paper, and cool completely on rack. (You can make the sponge 1-2 days in advance.)
Once cool, slice it nto 2 horizonally.
Once cool, slice it nto 2 horizonally.
Filling:
300 gms quark; made from 1 litre full cream milk and 3/4 cup cultured buttermilk (homemade recipe here)
100 gms mascarpone (homemade recipe here)
150gms strawberries, chopped
3-4 tbsps powdered sugar (adjust to taste)
Beat the quark, mascarpone and sugar till smooth and thick. I had dissolved a teaspoon of gelatin, but didn’t requite it as the cream cheese beat up very thick. I will definitely need the gelatin in summer when the weather is warm.
Fold in the chopped strawberries, and sandwich the cake with this filling.
Topping
200gms mascarpone
100gms cream
3-4tbsps powdered sugar
1/2 tsp strawberry essence
50gms strawberries, sliced
Dark and white chocolate shavings etc for garnishing
Method:
Beat all of the above together until thick and spreadable.
Frost cake with it, garnish with sliced fresh strawberries and chocolate shavings etc.
Note: If you intend to keep the cake for a while, give the strawberries a glaze of melted strawberry/apricot/mixed fruit jam.
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