Strawberries and Cream Cake

This Strawberries and Cream cake starts with a buttery vanilla sponge, topped with whipped mascarpone cream, and sweet macerated strawberries.

This is the epitome of a summer cake. Strawberry season entwined with Wimbledon calls for a Strawberries and Cream Cake. But this would indeed be great any time of the year.

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Strawberries and Cream Cake

We’re pairing sweet strawberries with all the dairy richness here. If you’ve ever tried the quintessential Wimbledon delicacy of strawberries doused in cream, you’ll already be familiar with the vibe around this cake.

It starts with a buttery cake that has a pronounced dairy flavour, topped with a lightly sweet whipped mascarpone cream. The cream then gets topped with plenty of sweet and juicy macerated strawberries. And don’t forget to serve every slice with a spoon of the leftover strawberry syrup.

This is a simple but elegant bake

It’s a single layer bake, but I promise that’s all you need. It’s a cake that’s fairly quick and simple to rustle up but doesn’t hold back in flavour.

You don’t need to worry about trimming, levelling, decorating, or layers. It’s a one tin bake that’s delicious served as is, and you’ll get the flavour of strawberries and cream in every bite.

There are 3 key layers in this Strawberries and Cream Cake

1. Rich Vanilla Sponge – a thick 8″ layer vanilla sponge that has a butter flavour as well as a pronounced dairy richness from the milk powder. It’s moist and light, and makes for the perfect base for this cake
2. Whipped Mascarpone Cream – a combination of rich mascarpone cream and whipped cream. The mascarpone provides a more pronounced dairy flavour, as well as an added bonus of stabilising the whipped cream. This is handy if serving this on a warm summer’s day
3. Macerated Strawberries – a fancy word for mixing strawberries and sugar and allowing them to sit. The sugar will soften the berries whilst drawing out liquid, in turn creating a strawberry syrup. We’re also adding orange zest for extra freshness and flavour

Let’s talk about some of the ingredients

I’ll cover the main ones below but the full recipe can be found at the end

• Plain flour/all purpose flour – your standard plain flour/AP flour is perfect here. Cake flour isn’t readily available in the UK so I haven’t tested this recipe with it
• Baking powder – this is not baking soda/bicarbonate of soda so please triple check that you’re using baking powder
• Unsalted butter – I prefer to use unsalted butter over salted butter when baking as I’d prefer to be in control over the salt quantity. Salted butters all vary in their salt %
• Milk powder – I’ve used full fat milk powder here, which is readily available in all large supermarkets. Skimmed milk powder will work however you will lose out on some richness and flavour
• 5% fat yogurt – I use the Fage 5% natural yogurt here, and it has provided the best results by far. It will provide richness and flavour whilst the higher protein content will also help to add structure
• Neutral flavoured oil – anything like sunflower/vegetable/rapeseed/avocado oil will be perfect. A light olive oil will also work but will add a mild flavour
• Mascarpone – this is an Italian cream cheese with a higher fat %, however if you struggle to find this, any full fat cream cheese will also work in lieu

The KEY tips for making this Strawberries and Cream Cake

1. Using room temperature ingredients – this creates a smoother and more homogenous batter. I’ve also noticed it creates a more even rise too
2. Use good quality vanilla – using vanilla pods or vanilla bean paste would be my recommendation. It really does make a huge difference in flavour
3. Use full fat milk powder for better flavour – this will provide more flavour and richness, which the skimmed counterpart lacks. You’ll also get better browning due to the milk solids
4. Wrap the cakes in clingwrap and refrigerate whilst slightly warm – this step will prevent the loss of moisture as the cake cools. It’ll trap it within the sponge, making it a little extra moist
5. Whip the mascarpone cream to soft peaks – we want a light and creamy finish to the whipped mascarpone. Whisking it to stiff peaks would create a more dense texture
6. Adjust the sugar quantity for the strawberries if needed – if your strawberries are on the sour side, add more sugar when macerating

How to make this Strawberries and Cream Cake

I’ll cover the steps below but the full recipe can be found at the end

1+2) Add orange zest and sugar to the strawberries. Mix well, cover, and refrigerate for at least an hour to macerate. This will flavour and soften the berries, whilst also creating a lovely strawberry syrup

3+4) Whisk the oil, melted butter, sugar, and vanilla together. Then, add the yogurt

5) Whisk the mixture well. It will initially look as if it has split, but will slowly emulsify into a smooth creamy mixture

6) Then, add in the milk powder and milk

7) Continue to whisk well until slightly thickened and smooth

8) Sift in the flour, baking powder, and salt

9) Next, whisk the cake batter just until the flour is incorporated – avoid overmixing here as that can lead to a tough cake by developing gluten

10) Pour into a greased and lined 8 inch cake tin and bake (times and temperature included the full recipe below)

11) For the mascarpone whipped cream, start by whisking the mascarpone, vanilla, sugar, and salt

12) Then, pour in the double cream/heavy cream

13 +14) Whisk until medium peaks, the cream should be thick enough to hold its shape

15+16) Spread the cream over the cooled cake and top with the macerated strawberries. I like to serve each slice with a drizzle of the leftover strawberry syrup from the macerating process

Frequently asked questions

Can this Strawberries and Cream Cake be made vegan?

It can, and I did carry out a test batch of the sponge to make sure. It’s worth mentioning that the flavour isn’t quite the same nor as rich. The cake also does not brown as much due to the lack of dairy solids.

In order to do this, substitute the whole milk for soy milk (best alternative to bake with due to the protein content). Substitute the yogurt for a plant based style Greek yogurt (I used Alpro Greek style plain). The melted butter can be substituted for melted plant based butter. And finally, the milk powder can be substituted with coconut milk powder, I used this one, as the supermarket ones all oddly contained dairy. This does impart a subtle coconut flavour.

The whipped mascarpone cream can be made with a plant based double cream/heavy cream along with a plant based cream cheese.

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Until then, happy baking!