Welcoming Spring With A Strawberry Cake!

I did it. Finally.

I baked. A heart shaped cake. Layered with delectable pink strawberry filling and decorated with glazed strawberries. A perfect Valentine's Day cake. But baked in March, more to usher in spring. Not that the  recent weather has given any indication of spring being anywhere near the British Isles! It has been grey, dull and rainy. But  the tress have started coming back to life and I take heart.

So a sumptuous cake. Cake times are happy times, aren't they? :-)

Any excuse to dig into a rich, moist cake is always welcome and if it is enjoyed with friends and family all the more better. After the excesses of the weekend, I still have a little leftover in the fridge. Lets say it will be the chief weapon to fight beginning of the work week blues.

The recipe is my mother's standard sponge cake recipe. Growing up I have helped my mother make this cake innumerable times. Over the trials I have added my touches, here and there.

Lets get started  with the cake.

Ingredients:
2 cups self rising flour
1 and half cups of granulated sugar
3/4th cup vegetable oil
1 tea spoon of baking soda and baking powder each
1 pinch of salt
1 tea spoon of vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk at room temperature
3 eggs (at room temperature or even slightly warm, you could keep it on the window sill if the sun is out)

Method:
Switch on your oven at 150 degree Celsius and in your mixer (if you have a cake mixer how I envy you!) start blending the oil and sugar for about 5 to 7 mins. You can see the colour and consistency changing. A little patience is needed at this stage, but believe me you, it is absolutely worth it. Then add the eggs one at the time, with the first egg add a table spoon of the flour. The flour stops the egg from curdling. Give it a blitz and move onto the next egg. Once all the eggs are added mix for 3 to 5 mins more. Add the vanilla extract and the buttermilk. Give it one more blitz. For now let the mixture be, once you stop the mixer, you will see air bubbles forming in the sugar mix. These bubble are the secret to a good, fluffy cake.

In a mixing bowl, sieve in the flour, the baking powder and soda and a pinch of salt. Slowly add the liquid mixture and fold in gently, moving in one direction.

Grease your cake tin, get your magic cake strips ready, if using any and pour the batter onto the pan. These cake strips stop the cake from doming in the middle and a flat top is a great help while spreading the icing. The cake takes usually 40 to 45 mins to bake. But each oven varies, so please keep checking. After 20 mins or so I place a big piece of foil over the cake tin. This stops the top from burning.

Once your cake has passed the toothpick test, bring it out of the oven and leave it to cool completely. Ideally the cake should be left more than a couple of hours before attempting to cut it in layers. If you cut into a warm cake it crumbles and that we do not want under any circumstances. This video has a good tutorial on how to how to cut a cake into layers.

The Strawberry Filling/Icing:

250 gm of mascarpone cheese
250 gm minus two table spoons of strawberry jam [I usually use Weight Watcher's Reduced Sugar Strawberry Jam, so I need to add  a couple of tea spoons of sugar]
1 tea spoon of vanilla extract

Mix this really well, it will become light pink in colour and gooey in texture. Taste it, you will be tempted to taste another spoonful, but hold on.

Once your cake has completely cooled down, cut it into two. Spread the filling, starting from the centre and leaving a little space on the edges, once you put the top layer back, the filling under pressure would automatically be pushed to the edge.

Spread the remaining filling on the top by using a spatula.

The Glazed Strawberry Decoration:

Wash 4/5 medium sized strawberries and pat dry. Cut them into halves, keeping the leaves on. Taste the strawberries, if they are really sour, you may need to add a little sugar to reduce their tartness.

Take 2 table spoons of strawberry jam, add a little water, microwave for 20 secs or so. Mix it together and dip the strawberries skin side down in the jam mixture and let them dry. Your glazed strawberries are ready.

Lightly place them on top of the cake. Keep it in the fridge for a couple of hours for the filling/icing to set. [Frankly I do not ever have the patience to do this.]

The strawberry cake is ready to dig into.

This is going to Rasi's I'm The Star Event.