Strawberry And Cream Cake With Cardamom Syrup Food

STRAWBERRY AND CREAM CAKE WITH CARDAMOM SYRUP

Steps:

• Make cake layers:
• Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 350°F. Butter cake pans. Line bottom of each with a round of parchment paper, then butter parchment and dust cake pans with flour, knocking out excess.
• Whisk together yolks, 1 cup sugar, milk, vanilla, and zest in a large bowl until smooth. Whisk in flour and salt until combined (batter will be thick).
• Beat whites with a pinch of salt in a bowl using an electric mixer at medium-high speed until they just hold soft peaks. Add remaining 1/2 cup sugar, a little at a time, beating at medium speed, and continue to beat until whites hold stiff glossy peaks, about 2 minutes more.
• Fold about one third of whites into batter to lighten, then fold in remaining whites gently but thoroughly.
• Divide batter among cake pans and bake, switching position of cake pans halfway through baking, until cakes are springy to the touch and a wooden pick or skewer inserted in center of each comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on racks 10 minutes, then invert onto racks. Carefully peel off parchment, then cool cakes completely.
• Make syrup while cakes cool:
• Bring wine, sugar, and cardamom to a boil in a 1-quart heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved, then boil until reduced to about 1 cup, 6 to 8 minutes. Strain syrup through a fine-mesh sieve and cool completely.
• Make filling once cakes and syrup are cool:
• Beat together heavy cream, sour cream, sugar, and vanilla in a bowl with cleaned beaters until cream just holds stiff peaks.
• Assemble cake:
• Prick cake layers all over with wooden pick or skewer, then brush or pour syrup, little by little, evenly over each layer, letting syrup be absorbed before adding more.
• Transfer 1 layer (flat side up) to a cake stand or plate, then spread with a rounded cup of cream. Arrange some sliced strawberries in 1 layer over cream. Turn second layer over and spread a thin layer of cream over top, then place it, with the aid of a spatula, cream side down, over layer of strawberries. Continue making layers with cream, strawberries, and cake in same manner. Spread top with remaining cream and decorate with remaining strawberries.

STRAWBERRY CREAM CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter bottom of an 8-inch round cake pan, and line with parchment paper. Butter and flour paper and sides. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
• Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat butter and 1/2 cup sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs and yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. With mixer on low, alternately add flour mixture in 3 parts and milk in 2, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix just until combined. Spread batter in prepared pan.
• Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes; invert onto a wire rack to cool completely. Using a serrated knife, split cake in half horizontally; place bottom half, cut side up, on a serving plate.
• Make topping: In a large bowl, combine strawberries and 1/4 cup sugar; set aside. Place 2 tablespoons cold water in a small saucepan, and sprinkle with gelatin; let soften 5 minutes. Place saucepan over very low heat, and stir until gelatin is dissolved. Remove from heat; let cool.
• Using an electric mixer, beat cream and remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a large bowl until very soft peaks form. Continue to beat, and gradually add gelatin mixture; beat until soft peaks form.
• Arrange half of strawberries over bottom cake layer; top with half of whipped cream, leaving a 1-inch border. Cover with top half of cake, cut side down. Top cake with remaining whipped cream, leaving a 1-inch border. Refrigerate cake and remaining strawberries separately, at least 1 hour (or up to 1 day). Just before serving, spoon strawberries over cake.

STRAWBERRY AND CREAM LAYER CAKE

Steps:

• Fill a small saucepan with about 1 inch of water and set over medium heat until the water steams.
• Meanwhile, coarsely chop about a quarter of the strawberries and combine in a medium heatproof bowl with the sugar. Cover the bowl tightly and set it over the saucepan. Reduce the heat if necessary to keep the water just below a simmer and allow the berries to sit, swirling the bowl once or twice to dissolve any stubborn sugar clumps, until they've released all their juices, are mushy, and swim in a translucent red liquid, 35 to 45 minutes. Remove the bowl from the heat, uncover and strain through a fine-mesh strainer. (You should have 1/2 to 3/4 cup of strawberry syrup.) The mushy berries will have given off their color and flavor, and even though you won't use them in the cake, they're still tasty. Reserve the berries for spooning over pancakes or yogurt.
• In a separate medium bowl, combine the heavy cream, crème fraîche and salt. Whisk the mixture vigorously by hand, or beat with a hand mixer on medium-high, until thick, light and holding a medium peak. Chill the bowl of whipped cream. Thinly slice the remaining raw strawberries lengthwise.
• Invert the sponge cake on a flat serving plate or cake stand. Holding a long serrated knife horizontally and parallel to the work surface, use it to lightly score all around the side of the cake at the midway point. Then, using long, even strokes and still holding the knife parallel to the surface, slice clean through the cake, using the score marks as a guide, to cut it into two even layers. Set the top layer aside.
• Use a pastry brush to dab several tablespoons of the strawberry syrup across the bottom layer, lightly soaking the entire surface. Pull the bowl of cream from the refrigerator and dollop about half of it across the soaked layer, then spread in an even layer all the way to the edges. Arrange half of the sliced strawberries on top of the cream, then place the second cake layer on top of the first, cut side up. Lightly soak the top layer of cake with the strawberry syrup, reserving any remaining syrup for serving. Spread the remaining cream on top of the cake, then pile the remaining sliced strawberries over top. (If not serving immediately, cover loosely and refrigerate until ready to serve.)
• Slice the cake with a serrated knife and serve. Drizzle the slices with any remaining strawberry syrup. The cake is best served the day it's made, but will keep, covered and chilled, for up to 3 days.

STRAWBERRY CREAM CAKE

Steps:

• FOR THE CAKE:.
• Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees.
• Grease and flour round 9 by 2-inch cake pan (pan must be at least 2" high!) or 9-inch springform pan and line with parchment paper.
• Whisk flour, baking powder, salt, and all but 3 tablespoons sugar in mixing bowl.
• Whisk in 2 whole eggs and 3 yolks (reserving whites), butter, water, and vanilla; whisk until smooth.
• In clean bowl of standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat remaining 3 egg whites at medium-low speed until frothy, 1 to 2 minutes.
• With machine running, gradually add remaining 3 tablespoons sugar, increase speed to medium-high, and beat until soft peaks form, 60 to 90 seconds.
• Stir one-third of whites into batter to lighten; add remaining whites and gently fold into batter until no white streaks remain.
• Pour batter into prepared pan and bake until toothpick or wooden skewer inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 30 to 40 minutes.
• Cool in pan 10 minutes, then invert cake onto greased wire rack; peel off and discard parchment.
• Invert cake again; cool completely, about 2 hours.
• FOR THE STRAWBERRY FILLING:
• Halve 24 of best-looking berries and reserve.
• Quarter remaining berries; toss with 4 to 6 tablespoons sugar (depending on sweetness of berries) in medium bowl and let sit 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
• Strain juices from berries and reserve (you should have about 1/2 cup).
• In workbowl of food processor fitted with metal blade, give macerated berries five 1-second pulses (you should have about 1 1/2 cups).
• In small saucepan over medium-high heat, simmer reserved juices and Kirsch until syrupy and reduced to about 3 tablespoons, 3 to 5 minutes.
• Pour reduced syrup over macerated berries, add pinch of salt, and toss to combine.
• Set aside until cake is cooled.
• FOR THE WHIPPED CREAM:.
• When cake has cooled, place cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and salt in bowl of standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment.
• Whisk at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes, scraping down bowl with rubber spatula as needed.
• Reduce speed to low and add heavy cream in slow, steady stream; when almost fully combined, increase speed to medium-high and beat until mixture holds stiff peaks, 2 to 2 1/2 minutes more, scraping bowl as needed (you should have about 4 1/2 cups).
• TO ASSEMBLE THE CAKE:
• Using large serrated knife, slice cake into three even layers.
• Place bottom layer on cardboard round or cake plate and arrange ring of 20 strawberry halves, cut sides down and stem ends facing out, around perimeter of cake layer.
• Pour 1/2 of pureed berry mixture (about 3/4 cup) in center, then spread to cover any exposed cake.
• Gently spread about one-third of whipped cream (about 1 1/2 cups) over berry layer, leaving 1/2-inch border from edge.
• Place middle cake layer on top and press down gently (whipped cream layer should become flush with cake edge).
• Repeat with 20 additional strawberry halves, remaining berry mixture, and half of remaining whipped cream; gently press last cake layer on top.
• Spread remaining whipped cream over top; decorate with remaining cut strawberries.
• Serve, or chill for up to 4 hours.

CARDAMOM CREAM CAKE

Steps:

• Drain the ricotta in a fine mesh sieve placed in a large bowl for 1 to 2 hours until very thick. If you've bought very thick, very freshly made ricotta from a specialty shop (not the kind from the supermarket), you can skip this step.
• Meanwhile, make the milk syrup: In a small saucepan, combine the milk and cardamom pods. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer the milk until it reduces by half, 30 to 45 minutes. Stir in the sugar until it dissolves, then continue to simmer until the mixture thickens to the texture of half and half, about 10 minutes longer. Let cool, strain the mixture to get rid of the cardamom and any coagulated milk, then stir in the rose water. (Syrup can be prepared up to 3 days ahead and refrigerated.)
• Make the cake: Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9-inch cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment paper, then grease the parchment. Flour the entire pan and parchment, tapping out any excess.
• In a medium bowl, lightly whisk together the egg whites, milk, vanilla and rose water.
• Using an electric mixer, combine the cake flour, sugar, baking powder, cardamom and salt, and mix on low speed for 30 seconds to blend. Add the butter and about a third of the milk-egg white mixture. Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Increase to medium speed and beat for a minute or so until everything is very smooth. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
• Add the remaining milk mixture in 3 batches, beating well between additions. Scrape down the sides.
• Transfer the batter to the prepared pans and smooth the surface with a spatula. Bake until a tester inserted near the center comes out clean and the cake springs back when pressed lightly in the center, 25 to 35 minutes. The cakes should start to shrink from the sides of the pans only after removal from the oven. Let the cakes cool in the pans on racks for 20 minutes, then unmold and cool completely.
• Make the ricotta filling: Using an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the ricotta, cream and confectioners' sugar until quite smooth, about 30 seconds. Beat in rose water to taste. Beat on medium-high speed for about 30 seconds to 1 minute. The mixture will thicken.
• Make the mascarpone frosting: Using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, confectioners' sugar, rose water and cardamom until fluffy, about 2 minutes. On low speed, beat in mascarpone and yogurt until the mixture is just combined and looks smooth. Do not overbeat or the mixture may curdle.
• When the cakes have cooled, use a long serrated knife to trim the tops of the cakes, so the tops are flat and even. Then cut each cake in half into 2 layers, to make a 4-layer cake. Brush cake layers on all sides with milk syrup. Place one cake round on a cake stand or serving platter, then top with one third of the ricotta filling, leaving a small border around the edge of the cake. Repeat with the remaining cake layers and ricotta filling.
• Frost top and sides of the cake with the mascarpone frosting. Top with chopped pistachios and candied rose petals, if using; chill until ready to serve.