Ingredients
You probably know the colorful fruit tarts from the confectioner, which are based on a combination of shortcrust pastry, jam, and sponge cake base. In my strawberry cake recipe, the thin shortcrust pastry is only briefly pre-baked under the sponge and spread with a bit of jam while still warm. The sponge mixture comes directly on top. And everything is put together for grandma's strawberry cream pie for 20 minutes in the oven. It works wonderfully and is still extremely practical. Because if you usually make a cake with sponge cake on short pastry, the latter is often so thin that it easily breaks.
How to make the Strawberry Cream Cake
First things first: For the short pastry, put flour, sugar, and cold butter in pieces in a bowl. Knead briskly, form into a ball, and place in foil in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. Now, preheat the oven to 360°F/180°C. Cover the bottom of the springform pan with baking paper. Roll out the shortcrust pastry to the size of the base and pre-bake in the pan for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the sponge dough, but it should be ready when the 15 minutes are over.
For the sponge, beat the eggs with the water for a few minutes until light and fluffy. Gradually sift in the sugar and keep stirring. Carefully sift the flour mixed with the baking powder into the light creamy egg mixture and fold in loosely. Do not overstir! When the 15 minutes pre-baking time of the short pastry is over, take the pan out of the oven, spread the short pastry with the smoothly stirred jam, and spread the sponge mixture on top. Then, bake the two bases together again for about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool. Place a cake ring around the base.
Now it's time to wash, clean, and drain the strawberries. Select relatively small, pretty strawberries for the edge decoration and cut them in half. Place close together with the cut sides facing outward on the cake ring. Cut the remaining berries into small pieces.
After this, mix the mascarpone, curd, sugar, and lemon juice in a bowl until smooth. Whip the cream with the vanilla sugar. Soak the gelatine in cold water according to package directions and heat or dissolve while stirring. Stir a few tablespoons of the cream into the dissolved gelatin. Then slowly stir this mixture into the entire mascarpone cream. Fold in the stiffly whipped cream. Finally, fold in the finely chopped strawberries.
In the end, spread the cream on the cake base; ensure that the strawberry halves remain nicely on the edge and enclosed by cream. Refrigerate the cake for about 3-4 hours or overnight. Remove the cake ring. Last step: Decorate with pistachios and enjoy.
Top Tip
For the decoration of the strawberry cream cake take small berries in any case.
Recipe Card
Strawberry Cream Cake
Equipment
- 1 springform pan (10 in / 26 cm)
Ingredients
For the short pastry
- 130 grams (1 cups) all-purpose flour
- 90 grams (⅖ cup) butter, cold and in flakes
- 50 grams (⅓ cup) sugar
- 3 tablespoons strawberry jam, to spread after pre-baking
For the sponge dough
- 2 eggs, medium
- 2 tablespoons water
- 100 grams (½ cup) sugar
- 100 grams (⅘ cup) all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon (⅓ teaspoon) baking powder
For the cream
- 700 grams (5 cups) strawberries, preferably small berries, especially for the edge
- 300 grams (1 ⅓ cups) mascarpone
- 300 grams (2 ⅔ cups) curd cheese, I used 20%.
- 50 grams (⅓ cup) sugar
- 1 piece lemon juice
- 1 small bag ground gelatine, or 6 sheets of gelatine
- 200 grams (3 ⅓ cups) whipped cream
- 2 packets vanilla sugar
- Pistachios, for decoration
Instructions
- For the short pastry, put flour, sugar, and cold butter in pieces in a bowl. Knead briskly, form into a ball, and place in foil in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 360°F/180°C. Cover the bottom of the springform pan with baking paper. Roll out the shortcrust pastry to the size of the base and pre-bake in the pan for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the sponge dough, but it should be ready when the 15 minutes are over.
- For the sponge, beat the eggs with the water for a few minutes until light and fluffy. Gradually sift in the sugar and keep stirring. Carefully sift the flour mixed with the baking powder into the light creamy egg mixture and fold in loosely. Do not overstir!
- When the 15 minutes pre-baking time of the short pastry is over, take the pan out of the oven, spread the short pastry with the smoothly stirred jam, and spread the sponge mixture on top. Bake the two bases together again for about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool. Place a cake ring around the base.
- Wash, clean, and drain the strawberries. Select relatively small, pretty strawberries for the edge decoration and cut them in half. Place close together with the cut sides facing outward on the cake ring. Cut the remaining berries into small pieces.
- Mix the mascarpone, curd, sugar, and lemon juice in a bowl until smooth. Whip the cream with the vanilla sugar. Soak the gelatin in cold water according to package directions and heat or dissolve while stirring.
- Stir a few tablespoons of the cream into the dissolved gelatin. Then slowly stir this mixture into the entire mascarpone cream. Fold in the stiffly whipped cream. Finally, fold in the finely chopped strawberries.
- Spread the cream on the cake base; ensure that the strawberry halves remain nicely on edge and enclosed by cream. Refrigerate the cake for about 3-4 hours or overnight. Remove the cake ring. Decorate with pistachios.
Ingredient substitutions
Variations
I had initially created the strawberry tart for a garden party. It was the part of the large, wonderful cake buffet that was the very first to be eaten 🙂 . After all, no one knew I had sweated while baking the cake. When I wanted to finish the strawberry cream cake, the cream wasn't enough at all… The placed berry halves of the strawberry cake with cream reached up without any cream. Panic. So, cream scraped down, stirred together with cream cheese from the fridge, hoping that the gelatine still hit the spot everywhere, and folded in more fruit pieces for "volume" just to be on the safe side. And done was the strawberry cake. Done, just like myself 😉 . But the taste then compensated for all efforts. Feel free to test this recipe and also my classic strawberry cake with pudding.
About Kathrin & Jan
It's like a little miracle to me every time. Seemingly simple ingredients are made into something that can brighten up your life. Butter, sugar, eggs, and flour melt into an airy biscuit, a fine tart, a juicy cake, or a crispy biscuit. Baking simply makes you happy. Welcome and enjoy our blog!
Kathrin & Jan
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