What a delight the cream and strawberry cake is, with a good sponge cake base that’s easy and quick without baking powder using only 3 ingredients, soaked in alchermes syrup, and filled with lots of good Italian-style diplomatic or chantilly cream with a good vanilla aroma, cream, and fresh strawberries. Preparing this delicious filled cake is really simple and you can divide the work into several stages since the bases need to cool, making it more convenient and quick to prepare. I recommend preparing it at least the day before enjoying it, so you can start preparing the bases even 2 days before, as they keep perfectly for several days, only the cream is best made on the same day. The cream and strawberry filled cake is a simple yet effective cake, also perfect as a dessert to celebrate special occasions; I prepared it for a family lunch, the nieces and nephews came to visit us, and I wanted to make a good dessert that they would also like, and indeed it was a great success. Since I had to transport it for a fairly long trip, I preferred to assemble it at my parents’ house, and with the kids running around, I had to rush the decorations a bit, so it didn’t come out perfectly, but what matters is the love we put into the things we do. The cake is for at least 12-16 people, with nice generous portions, if there are more or fewer of you, adjust the quantities accordingly.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Rest time: 6 Hours
- Preparation time: 40 Minutes
- Portions: 15
- Cooking methods: Oven, Stove
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Spring, All seasons
Ingredients for cream and strawberry cake
- 6 medium eggs (10.6 oz)
- 10.6 oz sugar
- 10.6 oz all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons water
- 10.6 oz water
- 0.7 oz sugar
- 1.8 oz alchermes
- 17.6 oz milk
- 2 eggs
- 2.5 oz sugar
- 1.4 oz cornstarch
- to taste vanilla
- 17.6 oz heavy cream
- 24.7 oz strawberries
- 2 tablespoons sugar
Tools for preparing cream and strawberry cake
- 2 Bowls
- 1 Baking pan
- 1 Electric beater
- 1 Spatula
- 1 Sieve
- 1 Saucepan
- 1 Cooking spatula
- 1 Piping bag
- 1 Knife
Steps for preparing cream and strawberry cake
Butter and flour a 10-inch pan. It’s important to do it right away so as not to let the beaten base of the sponge cake rest. Right after, preheat the static oven to 350°F.
In a bowl, beat the room temperature eggs with an electric beater for a few seconds.
Add the sugar to the eggs and beat for a few minutes at maximum speed to obtain a light, fluffy, and creamy mixture. At that point, add 2 tablespoons of water, beat again with the beater, then set aside.
Sift the flour with a sieve little by little directly into the bowl with the eggs and sugar, incorporating it gently with a spatula in upward motions, and proceed until all the flour is used.
Immediately pour the mixture into the pan. Bake in a preheated static oven at 350°F for about 30 minutes, remove from the oven and let cool on a rack after removing it from the pan.
In a saucepan, put water, sugar, and alchermes, bring to a boil to eliminate the alcohol, then turn off the heat and let it cool.
In a saucepan, mix cornstarch, sugar, and vanilla, add the eggs and mix again to obtain a smooth cream, then gradually add the milk.
Bring the cream to a boil, stirring constantly, until it thickens and is ready. Pour it into a bowl and let it cool completely covered with cling film in contact.
Wash the strawberries, ideally with water and baking soda, dry them well and dice about 14-18 oz. Mix them with a little sugar; leave the rest whole for decoration.
Whip 17.6 oz of cold heavy cream from the fridge, use about half of it added to the pastry cream to obtain an excellent diplomatic cream to fill the sponge cake.
First, divide the sponge cake into two discs, soak both discs with the syrup, until it is all used, then fill with almost all the cream, leaving a little for decoration.
Cover the entire cake with whipped cream. Then decorate the top with the cream, using a piping bag, and garnish with the strawberries that were left whole, simply halving them. Also use some diced strawberries on the surface, or decorate according to personal taste.
Refrigerate for 5-6 hours, or preferably overnight, before enjoying.
