As winter slowly starts to leave Sydney, blossoms begin appearing and strawberry prices go down. And that means I want to put strawberries in anything and everything!
These strawberries were so fresh and delicious I knew they didn’t need much done with them to let their flavours take centre stage. A layer cake sprung to mind, with the bright red fruits poking their heads out between layers and layers of cream. But not just any cream, lightly whipped mascarpone cheese and cream!
The mascarpone cheese adds an extra layer of richness and depth in flavour, and only needs to be sweetened ever so slightly with a bit of sugar.
The layers of sponge cake are light, fluffy and pillowy soft. Sponge cake is always my preferred method to transfer fruit and cream to mouth!
I considered piling more whipped mascarpone on top and decorating with a mountain of strawberries, until I practiced a surprising amount of restraint and went for the minimalist look instead.
Ingredients
Sponge Cake
- 225 g butter at room temperature
- 225 g caster sugar
- 4 eggs
- 225 g self-raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
Mascarpone Cream filling
- 200 ml thickened cream
- 200 ml mascarpone cheese
- 3 tbsp caster sugar
To decorate
- 1 large punnet of strawberries
- Icing sugar
- Edible flowers optional
Instructions
Sponge Cake
- Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease 2 x deep, 20cm round cake tins.
- Beat butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until pale.
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Add in the flour and baking powder and beat until just combined.
- Divide the mixture between prepared tins and bake for 15-20 mins until lightly golden brown.
- Cool on a wire rack before assembling.
Mascarpone Cream Filling
- Whip the thickened cream, mascarpone cheese and sugar until light and fluffy using electric beaters.
To assemble
- Using a serrated knife, carefully slice each cake horizontally so you have 4 layers.
- Place the first layer of cake on your cake stand and spoon a 1/3 of the mascarpone cream into the middle. Spread it out evenly using an offset spatula, being careful to take it right out to the edges (for presentation purposes!)
- Add a layer of sliced strawberries on top of the cream, as neatly or messily as you wish.
- Put the next layer of cake on, and continue spreading the mascarpone cream followed by the chopped strawberries between each layers.
- When the top layer has been placed, dust over some icing sugar and top with whole strawberries and some edible flowers if you wish.
- Enjoy!
I honestly think all this gorgeous cake needs is a generous dusting of icing sugar, some whole strawberries and a few edible flowers to decorate! Hello spring!
I’m not going to lie, it was really hard to stop at just one piece with this cake. The sponge cake is light and fluffy and the abundance of fresh strawberries cuts through the richness of the mascarpone cheese and cream. It’s basically a health food, right?!
This cake is the ultimate way to welcome spring to Australia, along with a cup of tea. Bring on the warm weather.
Are strawberries on sale where you live too? What are you going to bake with them?
19 Comments
I think this could easily be considered a health food! What a stunning cake, I can think of no better way to celebrate the start of spring!
Thanks Lauren! And as officially spring starts tomorrow, maybe I need to make this cake again ;)
Wow! This cake is seriously magical Swah! The layers are absolute perfection and those gorgeous berries. I am very tempted to face plant!
It’s the perfect face planting cake Jess! xxx
Yum!!!! Your blog is seriously bad for my waistline!
Haha my blog is bad for my waistline too! :D
This cake is really pretty, rich and creamy. Perfect for my afternoon tea :)
Julie
Gourmet Getaways xx
It’s the ultimate afternoon tea dessert I think! xx
This is almost too pretty to eat. Almost. Thank goodness strawberries are on sale, now I need an excuse to bake this. Dropping by from #FFF
Almost! But I can confirm, it is worth destroying as it’s very very tasty ;)
And strawberries are so cheap at the moment!!! This is quite possibly the most gorgeous cake ever – you’ve totally outdone yourself! Thanks so much for linking up with our Fabulous Foodie Fridays party xx
Awww thanks so much Lucy, glad you liked it! And yes they are so crazy cheap I just keep buying more and more strawberries hehe
This looks great. I love layer cakes, but I’m a bit too scared to make my own! It’s a fear I do need to conquer though.
Strawberries are very cheap at the moment, but they’re coming to the end of their season in the UK sadly. I’ll have to stock up and make some jam before it gets too late.
Layer cakes can definitely be a bit intimidating, but they are actually pretty easy to make! And you can get away with being messy and it still looks good :)
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I made this using a purchased angel food cake. My question is about holding the cake together. The cake falls apart I think because the cream isn’t holding the layers together well enough. Do you find this as the case also? Your suggestions? Thank you.
oh and I had great flavor success using powered sugar in place of caster sugar.
Hi Jos, love the idea of using powdered sugar instead of caster! As for the layers staying together, I didn’t have a problem but it might be cause by the strawberries (as the top cake layer would stick to the fruit more than the cream). If this is the case, I would add a bit more cream cheese above the strawberries to ensure everything sticks together!