I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’ve rarely made dishes that require multiple steps. The main reason is simply that I hate washing dishes. For this cake, however, I’d wash all the dishes and scrub the kitchen floor, because it’s worth it.
A simple sponge cake is prepared in advance, split in half, then gets reassembled with a mixture of mascapone cheese and cream. Fresh strawberries are used here, because they’re in season, but you can use any fresh firm-flesh fruit (say that five times fast).
The cream filling is soft, fluffy, and delicate. It does not firm up to the consistency of cheesecake. Keeping the cake chilled until serving time helps prevent the filling from being too runny.
The instructions explain to you how to make the cake the simple way. The result is a low-rise sponge cake that’s a tad on the dense side which I prefer. But if you like your sponge cake lighter and more airy, you want to separate the eggs first then mix all the cake ingredients, except the egg whites and sugar, together in one bowl. Then in a separate bowl, beat the egg whites and sugar together until stiff peaks form. The egg white mixture is then to be folded into the yolk mixture. The rest of the procedure is the same.
Added 8-26-10: A couple of you have had a problem with shrunken cake. This means the finished cake won’t fit inside the spring-form pan in which it was baked, which also means the filling will go over, instead of be flush with, the edge of the cake. There are many reasons for this. If you grease the side of the pan, this could happen. If the cake is baked too long, this could happen too. (The baking time is the best estimate, but all ovens are calibrated differently, so use the suggested time as a guide. Check the cake about 5-8 minutes before the estimated time and see if the top springs back when lightly pressed with your finger. If so, the cake is done.)
Yet, even when the cake has shrunk, it can still be salvaged. Find a cake ring or a deep cake pan which the same diameter as the finished cake or a bit smaller. Trim the edge of the cake just so it can fit snugly inside the cake ring or pan. Before placing the bottom layer of the cake on the bottom of the cake pan, line it with a piece of plastic wrap, pressed as flat against the inside of the cake pan wall as possible. Make sure the plastic wrap is big enough so that its corners hang over the top of the pan after the cake has been assembled. Then proceed as instructed and chill the cake. At serving time, grabbing on to the corners of the plastic wrap, pull the cake out of the pan and carefully remove the wrap before placing the cake on a serving platter. You may have to clean up a bit of cream smudge on the surface of the halved strawberries before serving. But that’s just for aesthetic reason.]
Added 11-8-10: For those who are not used to working with gelatin-stabilized whipped cream filling and fearful that your filling may not set properly, turn this into an ice cream cake! Forget the mascarpone-cream filling. Fold chopped strawberries into about 2 quarts (half a gallon) of softened vanilla ice cream. Then fill the cake cavity with it as instructed below. Freeze the assembled cake instead of chilling it in the refrigerator. Let the ice cream cake soften up just a tad before you cut it into pieces. You won’t get the flavor and texture of fresh strawberries, but this is a good variation which some people have tried and liked.
Strawberry Mascarpone Cream Cake (or Ice Cream Cake) Recipe
(Makes one 8-inch cake)
Printable Version
For the cake:
[This quick method makes a cake with a bit denser texture. If you like your cake fluffier and lighter, follow the instructions above]
3 large eggs, room temperature
Zest and juice of one medium lime
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup all-purpose or cake flour
3 tablespoons melted butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
For the strawberry-mascarpone cream:
One pound fresh strawberries, hulled and cut into 1/4-inch dice, keeping 6-7 whole (more if your strawberries are tiny and try to choose strawberries of the same height for they serve as your “pillars”)
4 ounces of mascarpone or cream cheese, softened
1 envelope (7 grams) of unflavored gelatin powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 fl. oz. heavy whipping cream, well chilled
1/2 cup sugar
Or for the strawberry-ice cream filling:
One pound fresh strawberries, hulled and cut into 1/4-inch dice, keeping 6-7 whole (more if your strawberries are tiny and try to choose strawberries of the same height for they serve as your “pillars”)
2 pints vanilla ice cream, or any pale-colored ice cream the flavor of which goes well with strawberries
Assembly:
Very pretty cake. I love strawberries and cream in anything.
I bet that many of us hate washing dishes but for – this creamy gorgeous cake – I can wash for dozens
)
Cheers,
Gera
Leela,
Cake looks awesome. I love strawberries, filling is delicious.
Kewl cake Leela!!!!
LeeYong rolfmester@yahoo.com
After your twitpic tease, I could hardly wait to see this post! Simply wow.
Leela,looks great, simple yet elegant
I love the cake, Leela, maximizing as it does the best part, the filling.
However, I hate to say it to a language maven such as yourself, but the sentence in the third paragraph should read “… gets reassembled with a fresh ..”, not “… get resembled with fresh ..”. I think something ate your text, or you blinked at the wrong moment
I hope I geta chance to make the cake, soon, though.
- IanG.
leela, absolutely gorgeous. and i have social gathering to attend in a few weeks, *this* is what i’ll be making. thanks for sharing!
Ian – Ha. Saw that last night and said to myself I would fix it in the morning. You beat me to it.
Thanks.
AA – Be sure to keep the cake chilled until serving time and use the width of the halved strawberries as a guide when cutting the cake into slices.
yum! this cake is gorgeous! i’ve been looking for something very similar to this and this will work perfect!!
Hi, I have a question. How firm is the filling after 5-6 hours of refrigeration? Does it get messy when you cut the cake into pieces? Thanks.
Joy
Joy – Not very firm. The filling is soft and fluffy, but the gelatin helps it hold its shape somewhat as you can see in the picture showing a single slice. The key, as I’ve mentioned to Angry Asian, is to keep the cake chilled up to the moment when you want to serve it and use the width of the halved strawberries as a guide. It’s easier and less messy to make two cuts down the sides of the halved strawberries than to cut right through them.
Use a moistened serrated knife to cut through the top cake layer with the see-saw motion. Once you saw through the top layer, the rest is easy.
If all else fails, garnish *heavily* with lots and lots of mint sprigs.
I saw this picture on Foodgawker and was blown away by the simple beauty…I’m making it!
I’m off to enjoy at the rest of your blog
It’s gorgeous and looks absolutely delicious!
that is like a photo that belongs in a gallery–just so decadent. i am so making this.
This cake looks so delicious!
So pretty!
That’s such a pretty cake! I like the sound of the marscapone and cream mixture too.
Leela, beautiful cake, love the way you assembled it, really very elegant and pretty. Great photos as well
You had me at Strawberry…
Perrrrrfection, I say!
oooh, this looks ad sounds absolutely delicious!! It reminds me of cheesecake, which makes me positive that my family would really enjoy this
This looks just incredible!! I would loooove to make this. Beautiful!! I do have a question though: I never use gelatin, can I use agar-agar instead? And if so, should I subtitute equal amounts of agar-agar powder? I sooo hope I can. I never bake cakes, but this one I’ll sure try! (if I can, that is)
I just made this cake this morning, and for some reason my gelatin got all clumpy, and did not dissolve once I added it to the mixture. I beat it forever, and it never seemed to get stiff. It has been in the fridge all morning and afternoon and is still runny..Any suggestions as to why?
Anon – The gelatin powder needs to be sprinkled onto the surface of the cream so that it is hydrated and softened while you’re beating the cheese. The reason it clumps up could be because the powder is not evenly distributed in a thin layer on the surface of the cream. Once clumped up, the gelatin will not be interspersed throughout the cream-cheese mixture and help it firm up.
At this point, your best bet is to put the cake in the freezer, let the cake frozen, and serve it as an ice cream cake.
Missy – Sorry, I addressed my answer to you to anonymous. It’s been a long day.
Anonymous – I don’t think the agar agar will work in this recipe. Agar needs to be heated up at boiling point in order for it to be completely dissolved and ready to work; gelatin does not need to be heated up at that high temp.
Ahh, too bad!
Does this mean that vegetarians can’t bake this beautiful cake?
Anon – The only way I can think of is to take some of the cream, maybe 1/3 of it, and boil it with about 1 tablespoon of agar until the agar dissolves. Then beat that cream-agar mixture along with cheese and cream. That *could* work, but I have never done it that way and the amount of agar is only an estimate based on another recipe. Might be worth a shot, though.
Hmm, I think I’m going to give it a try. Maybe I should try the agar with the cream first without making this recipe and see if it gets stiff when refrigerated. Then, if it works, I’ll make the actual recipe. Thanks for the idea Leela!
Anon – Sounds like a plan. I do know for a fact that agar works beautifully in gelling up milk and coconut milk. But with the higher fat content of cream, an experiment would be wise indeed. Would you come back and tell us how it goes? Thanks.
I sure will. I think I’ll try it this weekend.
O M G – that looks so incredibly amazing! What a beautiful cake!
Whoa, am totally doing this the next time I need to impress someone. Love the presentation!
A cake worth scrubbing the floor for is one heck of a cake! (I hate cleaning floors.) It looks amazing, and strawberries with mascarpone sounds like perfection.
Just baked this, The problem with mine is that the cake shrinks, so the cake is smaller than the original mold(pan), hence the fillings were slightly protruding outward following the size of the cake pan… Does it happen to anyone?
Wow, al I can say is that this is a work of art. The perfect end it a great meal, or heck just because.
Wow, this cake is just beautiful. Very nicely done!!
Strawberries and mascapone – I don’t think you can get a better combination.
Anonymous of 8-21, thanks for letting me know. Please see the note I’ve added the post regarding shrunken cake.
thanks for those notes. i made this yesterday for a dinner party and had the same problem with the cake shrinking. Also there was not enough cream filling to cover the tips of the strawberries so I had to cut them down to about 1 inch in height.
The overall result was delicious, but will need to try your tips to make it more aesthetically pleasing!
wow what a great cake looks so delicouse. probably gonna try and do this for my brothers birthday coming up
thanks.
Love it!!!
Can go anywhere for Cakes, and for this one, its looking yummy!
Found this on Stumbleupon – this cake is unbelieveably gorgeous! I’m printing out the recipe as I type.
I sooo have to make this
That’s a great recipe!
It looks delicious with the strawberries along the edge cut in half…
Just something I remember my sisters doing as I was growing up when they wanted to slice a cake horizontally (to make smaller layer cakes, etc) – they used strong thread (but dental floss would work too) and encircle the cake around the middle, where they wanted to cut the cake. They then pulled the thread back and forth a bit and then pulled it tight, to cut right through – perfect cut each time…
BTW – this looks like a GREAT cake for me to try next strawberry season!!!
Paul – Great tip! Thanks a lot.
just would like to warn whoever makes this that you should double the cream mixture as there wasn’t enough in the end and my cake is now concave and looks bad. also, 6-7 whole strawberries? try 13-14. this recipe started out fine but then realized too late that the measurements were off.
Hmm … This recipe has been tested at least 10 times this past summer. Also, there are some things in your comment that don’t make sense to me.
1. The only factor I can think of that would have caused the problem of not enough cream is that the strawberries are so tall that the cream isn’t enough to come up to the same level as their tips. I used large strawberries during their peak when the post went up, so they were larger. And I can’t imagine strawberries being any larger or taller than what I used for this post.
2. But then you said that 6-7 strawberries weren’t enough and it should have been more like 13-14. This tells me that the strawberries you used couldn’t have been very big which conflicts the previous point. An 8-inch pan measures 24 inches in circumference. If it takes 14 x 2 pieces of strawberries to fill a 24-inch ring, the base of your strawberries would have averaged less than an inch wide. Strawberries with such small bases shouldn’t have been so tall that the cream mixture was not enough to bury their tips. (I always have leftover cream, by the way.)
Assuming you used an 8-inch pan and chilled the assembled cake long enough, the only problem I can think of is either the cream wasn’t beaten enough or the refrigerator was too warm that the gelatin-stabilized aerated cream didn’t get a chance to firm up. I think this must have been the case as when you placed the top half of the cake on the cream, the level if the cream must have been higher than or at least flush with the tips of the strawberries; otherwise, you would have realized right away that the cream wasn’t enough before you topped the whole thing with the final cake layer. The fact that top cake layer was concave later on is a sure sign of under-aeration, under-refrigeration, or possibly too warm a refrigerator.
Doubling the cream recipe would haven’t have solved the problem in this scenario as your top cake layer is supposed to rest on the strawberry “pillars” anyway. You can’t stuff the cavity of the cake with any more cream than what it takes to barely bury the strawberry tips.
Hi, I just wanted to say thanks for going to the effort of posting this. I used the filling tonight in a cake I had already made, and omg it is divine. I’m looking forward to sharing it tomorrow
)
Gorgeously, visually deelish! Oh well done.
hi
Great post. i have a question though. I had not made sponge cake before so maybe these questions are obvious, but my cake would not rise ! I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. I made no less than three the first time I made a go at it (today’s post – yes Thanksgiving!
The first time I made it keeping the egg whites separate. The second two times, I beat the heck out of the eggs and sugar, having read that it’s key to having the light, fluffy an dthicker cake. They all three fell to a very thin cake ! Luckily that meant I could jsut use the two layers anyway, but I’d really really like to know how to help my sponge cake rise. thank you
Anon – Hmm … assuming your egg whites form soft to stiff peaks (it’s very important that your bowl and beater are grease-free which is very important in getting the egg whites stiff), my only guess is that the batter is overmixed. The flour needs to be gently, but thoroughly, folded in by hand (this may help). If you mix the flour in too vigorously, the whites will be deflated and lose their lifting power.
If you want to be on the safe side, mix a couple of teaspoons of baking powder into the flour. To be extra sure your cake is soft and fluffy, use cake flour instead of all-purpose and increase the amount by a couple of tablespoons.
Oh wow! That looks absolutely delicious, I love how you took an old favorite and added your own twist. You also did an amazing job with the pictures, I will definitely try this recipe over the weekend.
That is absolutely stunning.
Looks sooo yummy! Will give it a shot soon! Thanks for posting!
Very informative and makes you think outside the box.
Great idea, thanks
Hi Leela,
Can’t wait to take a bite! Made the cake today for my husbands birthday, and even though I read all the reviews and tips I still managed to mess up the sponge cake. As I was incorporating the flour alternating butter combo, air bubbles/holes appeared. I panicked and re-mixed it in the kitchen aid, which made it deflate instantly. I will try this again, I think my first mistake might have been not beating the egg, sugar, lime, salt mixture long enough. I have whipped cream many times and know when to pull the plug, but not with the eggs. So I baked it off anyway and to my surprise I did make a sponge cake, just a a very very dense one. Any tips on when to pull the plug on the egg mixture would be greatly appreciated. Also, just curious why the bottom of the pan is greased? I feel embarrassed admitting this, I actually greased the parchment paper which felt odd, then I realized its the pan, so I greased that too. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe, Lenka
Hi Lenka – When the eggs have been whipped enough, they should form a “ribbon.” That is, when you lift the beater and drizzle the whipped eggs on their own surface into the shape of a ribbon, the ribbon should hold it’s shape on the surface for a few seconds before disappearing. Under-whipped eggs can’t do this; once you drizzle a ribbon on the surface, it disappears right away.
Thanks for the report.
hi,
i’m planning on making this cake for my friend’s birthday this weekend. when you say vanilla, do you mean vanilla extract? also, where can i find gelatin at the grocery store?
thanks!
- mindy
Mindymkoo – Yes, vanilla extract. The unflavored gelatin powder is usually found in the same area as Jell-O. The most common brand name is Knox.
Don’t hate me for saying this. But if you have never before worked with gelatin, let alone gelatin-stabilized whipped cream, you may not want to make this cake for the first time for a special occasion — at least not on the day of. It’s ability to hold the shape relies so heavily on the cream being sufficiently stabilized.
I’d do a practice run or two before the big day. Just for some peace of mind.
I’m just wondering if you think its possible to add more layers to this cake to make it a bit taller?
And I’m definitely going to take your advice and make a few test cakes before making it for my cousin’s engagement party.
Nicole – I don’t recommend it, because the filling is so delicate and it’s tricky as it is to cut the cake into presentable individual slices (notice how it needs to be cut along the sides of the strawberries which act as the supporting pillars?). Stacking up another layer on top would make for a great presentation, but a total mess when it comes to cutting.
Another option is to go for a multi-tiered presentation like this. This means 1. you need to make multiple cakes of graduating sizes, 2. place each one on a round cardboard, and 3. stack the cakes on top of one another with wooden dowels the way they do wedding cakes.
You can’t stack the cakes on top of one another without the wooden dowels and the cardboard rounds supporting each one.
Hope this makes sense.
Makes sense!
Thanks! I think I’m getting a little ahead of myself. I’ll try to make the cake before any stacking is involved.
The recipe sounds great and I’m really excited to try it, but for the ice cream version, is it 2 pints, or half a gallon? I’m pretty sure there’s four pints in a half gallon, and I’d rather not be short or have twice as much filling!
JackieD – GAH! Thank you so much for pointing that out. That was supposed to say “quarts.” It’s fixed now.
Gorgeous cake -
It’s very gorgeous cake. I want to have this kind of cake.. I love strawberries. Keep it up. Thanks for sharing.
New follower. Found you on stumble. This is a beautiful cake. Absolutely love it.
What a stunning dessert! Definitely a show stopper!
K.Leela, can I use gelatin sheet instead of gelatine powder? Or agar powder ( ผงวุ้น) instead ? I couldn’t fine gelatine power here in Bangkok.
mook – Sure you can. For one envelope of gelatin powder, I’d use 4-5 gelatin sheets. You just have to soften them up in water, then melt them before adding them to the recipe.
K. Leela …thank you for your respond. I’ve read comment above And really curious about using agar agar instead of gelatin. Did that anonymous person tell you how it work out? Agar is much cheaper than imported gelatin here in BKK ka. Also, another question about greasing the pan then top with ungreased paper. Isn’t it redundant of work? Can I only greas the bottom of pan?
K. Leela, I have a problem when I added lime juice to the egg mixture, it made every thing deflated. So my egg mixture became watery and could not be beat up anymore. Any recommend ka?
mook – No, no report on how agar agar works so far. I personally doubt that it works the same way as gelatin. But I could be wrong.
Greasing both the pan and the paper is my way of making absolutely sure that when you peel the paper off the cake, nothing sticks to it. The cake isn’t frosted, so any flaw will be very visible. It’s just an extra safety measure. You don’t have to.
Acidity actually enhances the volume of the egg whites when they’re beaten. I doubt that the addition of lime juice is what causes the egg whites to deflate. I think it’s more likely that either the bowl or the beater (or both) has some residual grease on it. Even just trace amount of grease or fat keeps the egg whites from fluffing up and turning stiff. A beater that has been used to beat butter that isn’t washed absolutely clean or a bowl that has fat on the surface will cause that. A plastic bowl which is porous is known for absorbing fat from previous uses and being difficult to clean.
K.Leela, you are right, I put lime juice at the wrong sequence. I just realized after I’ve already mixed the butter in.
worse cake batter recipe ever.. this cake looks good but if you plan on making it.. find another recipe for the cake batter.. tried separating the eggs and the egg yolk mixture is sooo thick there is no way you will be able to fold the egg whites into the yolk mixture.. so save your time
lily – Feel free to use any cake recipe that you can handle. I wouldn’t recommend a cake recipe that results in a soft, fluffy, wimpy cake as after having been split and filled with such a high-moisture filling liks this, it will most definitely fall apart when you try to cut it.
A tip that experienced bakers use when folding beaten egg whites into a sticky batter is not to fold them in all at once but to lighten the battter with 1/3 of the egg whites first just to lessen the disparity in density between the batter and the egg whites. After this, the remaining 2/3 can be folded in with ease.
Looks gorgeous, not sure I’ll be able to make it look so good, but will definitely give it a try.
How delicious! That looks absolutely incredible!
Wow! It looks amazing! Thanks for sharing!
Hey, do you still refrigerate the cake if I opted for an ice cream filling ?Wouldn’t it melt in the fridge ? Hope to hear from you soon.
Genevieve – In this case, you need to freeze it until the ice cream is firm.
Hi Leela, I’ve been reading and loving your blog for about a month now and finally looked at this recipe. I am laughing at how similar it is to a dessert I threw together last summer at the peak of strawberry season in upstate New York. I would love to try yours as soon as it cools off enough to turn on my oven! Some of your readers (and hopefully you) may enjoy some “shortcuts” that I use because I have two small small children and, well, I apparently cut corners now. I made a huge version of it for my daughter’s birthday and it was a hit…full deep chafing pan with enough cake for 100, consumed to the last scrape of mush at the end, by a mere 15 children and 30 or so adults.
It’s not even close to the refined beauty you display in your photo, but it tastes delicious, and can be made relatively attractive…
I used lady fingers for the cake, which is my least favorite part, but saves a tremendous amount of time and clean-up, and it’s still delicious. Layered as follows: lady fingers, chopped strawberries/lime juice/lime rind/simple syrup, enough to soak ladyfingers, then marscapone/heavy cream/confectioner’s sugar filling, and repeat. After making it a few different ways last year, I found that the best texture for the cheese/cream was to simply whip them together versus whipping the cream first.
The end result is more like a tiramisu (the inspiration) or a fool. It does have to be kept cool, and it’s good to wait at least an hour before serving, so the ladyfingers soak up all the juice. There are even fewer dishes to wash and you don’t even have to turn on the oven….I was worried there wasn’t enough liquid to fully soak the cake for the party, so my last minute add-in was sweetened condensed milk mixed with heavy cream (yum).
I hope this doesn’t step on your toes…I have never commented on a blog. Is it bad form to put up a variation like this? I very much enjoy your writing and have loved the recipes I’ve tried so far. I admire the methodical way you develop recipes and even the precision with which you troubleshoot your readers’ kitchen bloopers. And of course, the dedication to your mother made me cry. I hope someday my daughters have a legacy of my cookbooks…
HirokoT – Thank you very much!
One word… you are a genius
) AM SO DOING THAT the next weekend.
Hi Leela,
. Also for the filling I have dissolved the gelatin in 2 tablespoons of hot water and them mix it with the the semi-whipped cream – continued to mix until fully whipped .
Endless possibilities !!
I have made this cake yesterday and it turned out perfect. Made the sponge by beating the egg whites separately and used 3 tablespoons of oil instead of the butter
I have kept half a cup of the whipped cream to cover the top of the cake and decorated it with sliced strawberries, but the most spectacular part was the strawberry border ! Was a total hit , everyone loved it .
Thank you so much for the recipe, I will be making it again , I believe it could work with pineapple as well or even mix 1/2 cup or so of vanilla custard into the filling
Just made this, turned out perfectly!
Although I did tweak a few things.
Filling: I used 8oz mascarpone instead of the suggested 4, turned out super creamy and delightful
Cake: Rather than lime, I used the zest and juice of one orange. So fragrant and tasty.
Thanks for a great recipe!
I made a short cut version. No lime juice or zest bc I didn’t want that flavor. Also skipped the gelatin. Chopped strawberries and then beat them into the mascarpone. Beat cream separately and then folded the cheese/strawberry mixture together. Chilled it and then spread in the middle of the layers and the top. It held just fine for my purposes and it tasted delicious!
I just made the cake part & my total cake is only like a 1/2 inch tall. I made sure that the sides weren’t greased & I didn’t cook it too long. I’m making a second cake and so far it’s not raising any at all either. It still has great flavor but no height whatsoever. What went wrong?
I made this beautiful cake yesterday and it came out perfectly. The key is to use strawberries that are equal in height. Cutting the cake into individual pieces was a challenge, though. I messed up the first couple of pieces, but soon got the hang of it. Love this recipe.