Strawberry Layer Cake

Strawberry Layer Cake ? – our recipe is the perfect combination of fresh strawberries and sweet and delicate cream. It’s moist, fluffy and ‘strawberrylicious’, perfect for strawberry lovers which let’s face it includes most of us! ?
This delicious cake is infused with strawberries in two delicious ways. First of all the filling, which consists of a lovely strawberry cream made out of fresh strawberries, and then strawberries once again are used to decorate the cake which as you can see from the accompanying pictures makes the cake look not only beautiful but also very professional!
It’s a feast for the eyes and the palate.
Step by step recipe + photos, below.

Sponge

6 eggs
120 g. of wheat flour
6 spoons of potato flour
200 g. sugar
1 teaspoon of baking powder
pinch of salt

Strawberry Cream

250 g. strawberries
1 strawberry jelly
2 spoons of icing sugar
400 ml. double cream

Whipped Cream Filling

250 g. mascarpone cheese
250 ml. double cream
half a cup of icing sugar

To Decorate:

250 g. fresh strawberries

To moisten the sponge

Tea with no milk and one teaspoon of sugar. Leave to cool down to room temperature.
Just remember that moistened sponge should be moist but NOT WET!

Steps

Sponge

Line the base of the round cake tin (max 24 cm).
Separate egg yolks from egg whites.
Whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff.
In a large bowl cream egg yolks and sugar together until pale and fluffy.
Sift the flour and baking powder over the mixture, then add 5 spoons of whipped egg whites (to soften the mixture) and mix it all with an electric whisk.
Keep going until no dry lumps of flour remain.
Then add the rest of whipped egg whites and fold it lightly with a rubber spatula. DO NOT USE the whisk this time (It helps to air the mixture and make your sponge light and fluffy!).
Pour the mixture into the round tin.
Bake in a preheated oven to 170° C, for 45-55 min until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Straight away, as soon as the sponge is out of the oven, you need to drop the cake tin from a height of about 30 cm so the bottom of the cake tin makes contact with a hard surface. This is a proven bakers trick that prevents the cake from collapsing! Sounds crazy but there is science behind it trust me! So be bold give it a try and drop that cake with confidence!
Leave in the tin until completely cool, then use the knife around the edge of the sponge to release the cake from the tin.

Strawberry Cream:

Dissolve the jelly in 200ml of water - leave to cool down to room temperature.
When the jelly is cooler and starting to thicken add finely chopped strawberries.
In a medium/large bowl whip the cream.
Add jelly with strawberries to the whipped cream and mix it GENTLY using a flat spatula and the cream is ready!
Place the cream, if needed, for 10-15 mins in the fridge if you feel it needs to be a little thicker for sandwiching the cake. This will make it easier to use.

Whipped Cream Filling

Place all ingredients into one bowl and mix with an electric whisk until thick and creamy.

Assembling the Cake

Cut the sponge into 3 same size layers.
Place the first layer onto your cake stand or plate.
Gently wet the sponge with a little amount of tea.
Spread the sponge with half of the strawberry cream and cover with another sponge layer.
Wet the sponge and top with the rest of strawberry cream.
Place the last sponge layer on top and wet as before.
Now for the whipped cream...
...using 3/4 of the whipped cream use to cover the whole cake using a palette knife to smooth.

Decoration:

Slice the strawberries into large pieces (as per photo).
Place the strawberries around the sides of the cake.
Cut the rest of the strawberries into smaller pieces (as per photo) and use them to decorate the top of the cake.
Put the remaining whipping cream into a piping bag with a star-shaped nozzle and make little cream decorations around the top of the cake.
And there you have it! A perfect Strawberry Layer Cake :-)
Put the cake in the fridge for at least 4 hours before serving!
Store the cake in the fridge!