New recipe!! Strawberry birthday cake with Greek yogurt cream gluten-free.
This is the cake I gifted myself this year for my birthday, with the combinations I love most, the freshness of Greek yogurt, strawberries, and white chocolate.
Lemon and vanilla are a must, strictly fresh lemons (from dad’s tree) and mind-blowing vanilla!! Yes, I have to tell you about this! You should know that a friend of mine, who visited Madagascar on vacation, gifted me a bag of the freshest vanilla beans directly from there. You can’t imagine the scent and texture, nothing like what you buy. I’ll just say I keep it in a vacuum-sealed bag, inside an airtight container in a cabinet in my kitchen. Well, everything in the cabinet smells like vanilla, and when I open it, it’s an explosion of fragrance. Amazing! But let’s continue…
Wanting to make a lactose-free dessert, the only limit is the white chocolate, but you can omit it both in the filling, which will still be excellent, and in the decoration. Instead of the pink drips, you can simply decorate with dollops of cream and fresh strawberries. Fortunately, I have a slight lactose intolerance, and since I love white chocolate, especially paired with strawberries and red fruits, I use lactose-free ingredients for the cream and make an exception for the chocolate (I know I shouldn’t, but some may understand me).
Now, enough chatting, shall we move on to the recipe?
- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Economical
- Portions: 12
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 5 eggs (at room temperature)
- 5.3 oz sugar
- 3.9 oz gluten-free cake flour
- 1.8 oz gluten-free potato starch
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- to taste lemon (grated zest)
- 1 cup water
- 1 tbsp sugar
- to taste lemon (zest)
- 1 tbsp limoncello
- 9 oz strawberries (weight after cleaning)
- 1/2 lemon (juice)
- 0.7 oz sugar
- 0.7 oz gluten-free corn starch
- 8.8 oz mascarpone (also lactose-free)
- 8.8 oz Greek yogurt (also lactose-free)
- 10.6 oz sweetened vegetable whipping cream (if using fresh cream, increase powdered sugar by 1 oz)
- 1.4 oz powdered sugar
- 0.07 oz gelatin sheets
- to taste lemon (grated zest or aroma)
- 1/2 pod vanilla (or vanilla extract)
- 2.8 oz white chocolate
- to taste strawberries
- A few macarons (I bought them ready-made)
- 3.5 oz white chocolate
- 1.8 oz sweetened vegetable whipping cream (can substitute with fresh cream)
- to taste food coloring (pink)
Tools
- Bowls
- Stand Mixer
- Cake Pan
Steps
Prepare the sponge cake following my recipe at this link: GLUTEN-FREE SPONGE CAKE
While the sponge cake is baking, prepare the syrup that needs to cool. In a small pot, heat a cup of water with 1 tablespoon of sugar and a couple of lemon zest pieces. Make sure to cut only the surface part without the white (which is bitter). When the sugar dissolves, turn off the heat and add the limoncello. If you prefer a non-alcoholic syrup, skip this step. Set aside to cool.
Wash the strawberries well, remove the leaves, and cut them into small pieces.
Mix the strawberries with the corn starch, sugar, and juice of half a lemon, puree with an immersion blender, pour into a small pot, and bring to a boil. Cook for 10-15 minutes; when it starts to thicken, you can turn off the heat and let it cool. It will thicken a bit more.
Soak the gelatin in a little water.
In a large bowl, add the mascarpone and soften it with an electric whisk, add the sugar, then start adding the cream slowly (reserve 2 tablespoons), and whip everything until well combined and firm. Add the flavors too.
Melt the gelatin in a pot with the reserved cream, pour it slowly into the Greek yogurt, and mix quickly (if lumps form, strain the yogurt through a sieve). Now combine the yogurt with the cream, mixing with a spatula.
Chop the white chocolate and set aside.
First, cut the sponge cake into three layers, trying to cut them at the same height.
Place the first layer on the serving plate or a cake platter if you prefer, evenly soak with the syrup (be careful, not too much), spread half of the strawberry sauce, a handful of chopped white chocolate, and about 1/3 of the cream. For the cream, I recommend using a piping bag.
Place the second layer and repeat all the steps. Finish with the last layer and soak a bit of it too.
Now, with the remaining cream, cover the cake using a spatula to make a smooth cover. The cream should also be enough to make some dollops. Decorate as desired with strawberries, macarons, white chocolate chips, or maybe some mint leaves.
Now that the cake is ready, it’s crucial to let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.
The slice…
