Be My Valentine: Strawberry Cake With Fresh Strawberries

This Strawberry Cake with fresh strawberries is such a delicious way to enjoy strawberries and cream and make the most of juicy, seasonal strawberries. This cake is perfect for Valentines Day coming up or just as a spectacular birthday cake. There is also an option to do a no bake version so that it takes only 20 minutes to put together! This is a pushy recipe Dear Reader!

This Strawberries and Cream cake is the cake of my dreams. I had something similar in a Japanese cafe and after trying it I knew that I had to make my own version at home. Although this doesn't look easy, this strawberry cake truly is!

Tips For Making This Strawberry Cake

1 - This cake comprises 3 parts: sponge cake, whole strawberries and a stabilized whipped cream. That's it! Stabilised whipped cream is important here because you want this cake to keep its structural integrity. I stabilise it with cream cheese as I find it easier than using gelatine which can sometimes seize up in cream.

2 - I mentioned a no-bake option for this strawberry cake. You can use a pre-baked unfilled double sponge cake instead of baking your sponge. I tried it both ways and honestly it's just up to you. I decided to try it with a bought sponge because at the moment there's an egg shortage and I thought some of us just don't have the eggs to devote to making a sponge cake (or even have time to bake it).

3 - You will need fresh berries and not frozen ones for this cake. Sorry but frozen berries will not give you the same look as fresh.

4 - Go for the biggest strawberries (around 25g or just under 1oz per berry) you can find for the outside and smaller ones for the filling. I ended up buying 3 x 250g/8.8oz punnets of strawberries and picking through them for the best ones because they always put the big ones on top and smaller ones on the bottom.

5 - You can also make this a mixed berry cake using fresh blueberries, strawberries and raspberries for the inside and outside.

6 - I used a 13cm/5inch diameter, 8cms/3.1inch high with 700ml/25oz capacity bowl for this cake recipe. If your bowl has a wider diameter slice the sponge in half horizontally and cut it as two half moons so that you have enough cake to cover the area. Also the cake does become bigger once you add the cream layer on the outside and strawberries so by the end it looked like quite a large cake.

7 - When you wash the strawberries for cake decoration make sure to pat them dry gently so that they are not wet when you sprinkle the icing sugar over them.

8 - If you are making this cake during the height of summer I would recommend using air conditioning in your kitchen if you have it. This cake is best kept in the fridge until serving.

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• Strawberry Cake with Buttercream Roses

The day I first made this cake using the bought sponge was one of the busiest days we have had since Christmas. Mr NQN was out in the morning having meetings and I was trying to do lots of things at once. I also wanted to finish renovating the Jacobean sideboard before the weekend because I just wanted it over and done with. I am not one of those people that likes to do a bit every day. I'm more a "let's get it over" sort of gal.

When Mr NQN came home I told him that I was going to try and finish doing the primer coat. "Ok where are the brushes?" I asked him as he had said that he had brushes already. He showed me a couple of brand new but very small brushes. "Um hello, what? No," I told him firmly. "I guess you can go to Bunnings," he suggested.

"I think you can go to Bunnings," I told him because I had messaged him from the paint store and asked him if I needed tools and he said no and I was already in a bad mood because of this damn furniture renovation. I also do not enjoy going to Bunnings in any way, shape or form. Supermarket? Yes but Bunnings? That's a hard no.

He came back with a new brush and we started the primer. Sensing danger Mr NQN helped paint the primer on while I wiped down the inside of the sideboard with sugar soap because it was dusty.

"Um what is that?" I said to him pointing at the dark corner behind where the drawers go but they had been removed. "That doesn't look good," I said, backing away. It looked like cylindrical tubes made out of mud. Mr NQN took a box and a cutter to cut away at it and said, "Whatever that is, it's dead," and showed me some insect bodies. I sent a pic to my favourite pest controller Nathaly from Pesty Girls and she confirmed that it was a mud dauber wasp nest! Some people find cash in second hand things that they buy - we find wasp nests! After that, Mr NQN took over the painting as I was muttering that the furniture was "Cursed" and I finished off decorating this cake.

I gave this cake to our neighbours Vic and Nicki as a way of saying thank you for letting us use their wifi when it went down last week and they sent through a message an hour later. Vic's message read, "The cake was phenomenal. After a couple of bites Nicki was like 'This is the type of taste you hope for when you walk past a cake shop and see a delicious cake you want,'. Like so often cake shops fall short of what they appear to be. But Lorraine's stuff always knocks it out of the park taste wise. I mean I think for us it's all about the cream and how fresh and rich and flavoursome it is and she always fricken smashes it. Thanks for making our already nice day even nicer!!!".

The next day I made this with a fresh sponge it was much more relaxed but nobody is going to judge if you want to go with the bought sponge, especially if you're short on eggs or in the middle of a busy day especially once they taste it!

So tell me Dear Reader, do you enjoy going to the supermarket? How about Bunnings? Have you ever found trash or treasure in second hand items?

Strawberry Cake With Fresh Strawberries

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 20 minutes plus freezing time of 1 hour

Cooking time: 0 minutes

Serves: 6-8 people

For Filling

• 450g/1lb double unfilled sponge cake* or use hot milk sponge recipe below
• 160g/5.6ozs cream cheese, cold, cubed
• 150g/5ozs pure icing or powdered sugar, sifted
• 320ml/11.3flozs pure or thickened cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
• 8 small strawberries, washed
• 1 tablespoon icing or powdered sugar (plus extra to sieve over cake)
• 12x large strawberries (around 25g/0.9oz each), washed and pat dry

Step 1 - First place the bowl open side down on the sponge cake and cut out a circle of sponge cake (this will be the base of the cake once upturned). Then slice the sponge cake until around 1cm/0.4inch in thickness. Line a small bowl (I used a 13cm/5inch diameter, 8cms/3.1inch high bowl with a 700ml capacity/25floz) with cling film with some overhang to cover the cake. First cut out a circle of sponge for the base and set aside. If your bowl is wider you may need to cut your sponge in half horizontally and cut out two half moons. Then cut sponge to fit around the bowl as shown below.

Step 2 - Freeze your mixer bowl, beater and whisk for 5 minutes before using. Toss strawberries in icing sugar to sweeten them.

Step 3 - In the chilled mixer bowl beat the cream cheese and icing or powdered sugar together using a beater attachment for 1 minute until the mixture is smooth. Then switch to the whisk attachment and add the cream and vanilla and whisk until it starts to come together and you get soft peaks. Then using a spatula go around the edges and incorporate the cream cheese clinging onto the edge of the bowl into the cream and whisk again until you get stiff peaks. Your cream is ready when you can slice a butter knife through the cream and the cut holds.

Step 4 - Spread some cream on top of the sponge in a thin layer. Then add 3 of the strawberries. Layer with a couple of tablespoons of cream and then add the remaining 5 strawberries. Cover with some cream and smooth over. Place the disc of sponge cake on top and then wrap up with the overhanging cling film. Freeze for 1 hour. Keep the stabilised whipped cream in the fridge.

Step 5 - While it is freezing, slice the green ends off the large strawberries and slice in half.

Step 6 - When ready, upturn onto a cake board or serving plate and gently remove the bowl and cling film. Spread cream over the dome first in a thin crumb coat and then in a thicker coat, reserving around 3/4 cup to pipe swirls over the cake. Place strawberries onto the cake in an alternating pattern. Place the remaining cream in a piping bag fitted with a #867 tip or similar. Pipe swirls on the cake and then sieve icing sugar over before serving.

Sponge Cake

• 165ml/5.8floz whole milk
• 55g/2ozs butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 200g/7ozs caster or superfine sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
• 1 cup/150g/5ozs cake flour*
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Step 1 - Line a 30x20x5cm/13x9x2inch brownie or slice rectangular pan on the base and sides with parchment. Preheat oven to 160C/320F. In a saucepan heat the milk and butter until the butter has melted and stir in the salt (do not boil, just scald the milk). Set aside. Sift the flour and baking powder together into a bowl.

Step 2 - In the bowl of a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment whisk the sugar, eggs and vanilla for 5 minutes until syrupy thick and very pale yellow (almost white). Add the hot milk mixture and whisk for 15 seconds or until incorporated. Then fold in the flour mixture on low speed in two lots until smooth (do not overmix). It will be a very liquidy batter. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 25-28 minutes or until the centre springs back when gently pressed. Cool on a cake rack in the tin.