Preparation

• Many of you are asking how long in advance it should be made, and I advise starting at least three days before serving it.

  Friday morning I made both cakes and the syrup, and in the afternoon also the cream.

  Friday evening I cut the cakes, soaked them, filled, and reassembled them. Then I placed them, in two separate cake holders, in the fridge.

  Saturday morning I sprayed them with a bit more syrup, coated both with cream on the outside; then, put them back in the fridge separately.

  Sunday morning I stacked the two cakes this way: I slid a pizza peel under the base of the smaller cake and gently moved it onto the larger one.

  I completed the decoration, corrected any imperfections from the transfer and assembly, decorated the top with cream roses, as seen in the photo, and left it at room temperature in a cool place until after lunch, ensuring it had the right consistency, softness, and moisture, just like a traditional sponge cake. Further details can be found at the end of the procedure.

  For the syrup, lemon cream, and to scent the biondina batter we will need 3-4 lemons from which only the outer yellow part will be taken.

  All the strawberries should be washed and left to drain. We’ll de-stem and dice only 500 grams, which will go into the filling; the rest, perhaps smaller or the most beautiful ones, we’ll leave whole for decoration.

  Let’s prepare the syrup, which must be cold.

  In a small pot, pour the water, zest of two lemons, cover, and bring to a boil.

  Let it boil, on a low flame, for 5 minutes, to scent the water. Then, add the sugar, stir, cover again, and let it boil for another 5 minutes; finally, turn off the heat and let it cool. It’s a non-alcoholic syrup suitable for children.

  For the biondina cake

  We’ll need two round springform pans, one 8 inches and the other 9.5 or 10 inches.

  Eggs and milk must be at room temperature

  1) Start by whisking together the eggs and sugar for 8 minutes until you get a light and frothy mixture.

  2) Meanwhile, sift the flour, potato starch, and baking powder together twice, and butter and flour the two pans.

  3) After 8 minutes, add the liquid ingredients (milk and oil) to the egg and sugar mixture, and gently combine them with a whisk from the bottom up, to avoid deflating the batter.

  Then add the dry ingredients (flour mixture), a pinch of fine salt, very finely grated zest of 1 lemon, vanilla, and continue mixing gently with a whisk, always from the bottom up.

  3) Once all the ingredients are perfectly combined, place the two pans side by side and pour the batter into each, until the batter is at the same height in both.

  Smooth the batter with the back of a spoon and bake in a preheated oven at 340°F for about 25 minutes (depending on your oven), in the middle section. To check if they’re done, insert a skewer into both cakes, it should come out dry.

  4) You’ll get two cakes, one larger and one smaller, which you’ll immediately remove from the oven and let cool for about ten minutes before gently removing them from the pans and letting them cool completely on a rack (I recommend cutting them after 5-6 hours or the next day).

  While the two cakes cool and settle, let’s prepare this very easy and quick lemon cream.

  For the lemon cream

  A) Pour the fresh cream, cold from the fridge, into a large bowl and whip for about a minute, until the beaters start to “write” in the cream.

  B) Add the ricotta (drained of any whey), sugar, finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon, and vanillin. Whip for another minute or until you get a well-puffed and firm mixture. Cover with cling film and refrigerate.

  Assembling the cake

  1) Place the larger cake on the serving plate.

  2) Cut it into 2 equal discs.

  3) Soak one disc with the cold lemon syrup.

  4) Put some lemon cream in a piping bag with a star tip and cover the surface of this disc.

  5) Also add half of the strawberry cubes, covering the cake disc.

  6) Now soak the second disc as well, flip it, and place it over the first, gently pressing on the one below.

  7) Coat the entire cake with some lemon cream (enough to cover the outside). For this, you’ll need a cake spatula, suitable for coating, defining, and decorating cakes.

  8) Now, proceed to cut the smaller cake in half as well.

  9) Also place it on a plate, soak only one disc, cover it with some lemon cream, and then add the strawberry cubes.

  10) Soak the second disc, flip it, and place it over the filled one, pressing very gently, as described above.

  11) Coat the smaller cake with some lemon cream as well.

  12) Carefully, using a long spatula or a peel (as described at the beginning of this paragraph), place the smaller cake on top of the larger one, forming a two-tiered cake.

  12) Decorate with whole strawberries in the space left between the larger and smaller cake, as seen in the photos.

  13) Put all the remaining lemon cream in the piping bag and unleash your creativity with the decorations.

  I formed some cream tufts which I placed on the lower edge of the cake.

  Then, I created cream roses, both on the sides and on the surface of the cake, making a cream spiral with the tip, starting from the center of the “hypothetical” rose and continuing in a clockwise direction. I finished by adding small strawberries on top.

  Some suggestions

  Soak the cake just like you would a sponge cake.

  At this time of year, it’s best to store the cake in the fridge in a container. Since the cake is large, if you don’t have a large cake holder, you can put the cakes in two separate cake holders and assemble and decorate it a few hours before serving.

  It’s important that the cake is well sealed, as the fridge tends to dry out the moisture (in this case, that released by the syrup) and the cake could end up being too dry.

  Bon appetit