New recipe!! Strawberry birthday cake with Greek yogurt cream gluten-free.
This is the cake I made for myself this year for my birthday, with the combinations I love the most, the freshness of Greek yogurt, strawberries, and white chocolate.
Lemon and vanilla cannot be missing, strictly fresh lemons (from dad’s tree) and an amazing vanilla!! Oh yes, I have to tell you about this! You must know that I was gifted a bag of vanilla beans, freshly picked directly from Madagascar, by a friend who was on vacation there. You can’t imagine the aroma and texture, nothing like what you buy. I’ll just tell you that I keep it in an airtight bag, inside an airtight container in a cupboard in my kitchen. Well, everything in the cupboard smells of 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 limitation is white chocolate, but you can omit it in both the filling, which will still be delicious, and the decoration. Instead of the pink drizzles, you can simply decorate with whipped cream tufts and fresh strawberries. Fortunately, I have a mild lactose intolerance, and since I love white chocolate especially combined 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 someone will understand me).
Enough chatting, let’s 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)
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup gluten-free cake flour
- 1/3 cup 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
- 8.8 oz strawberries (weight after cleaning)
- 1/2 lemon (juice)
- 1.4 tbsp sugar
- 2.5 tbsp gluten-free cornstarch
- 8.8 oz mascarpone (also lactose-free)
- 8.8 oz Greek yogurt (also lactose-free)
- 10.6 oz sweetened whipping cream (if using fresh cream, increase powdered sugar by 30 grams)
- 1/3 cup 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 (pre-made)
- 3.5 oz white chocolate
- 1.8 oz sweetened whipping cream (can be substituted with fresh cream)
- to taste food coloring (pink)
Tools
- Bowls
- Stand mixer
- Cake pan
Steps
Prepare the sponge cake following my recipe found at this link: GLUTEN-FREE SPONGE CAKE
While the sponge cake bakes, prepare the syrup that needs to cool, in a saucepan heat a cup of water with 1 tablespoon of sugar and a couple of pieces of lemon zest, make sure to cut the surface part without the white (which is bitter). When the sugar is dissolved, 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 cornstarch, sugar, and juice of half a lemon, blend into a puree with an immersion blender, pour into a saucepan, and bring to the heat. Cook for 10/15 minutes, when it begins to thicken you can turn it off and let it cool, it will thicken a bit more.
Soak the gelatin in a little water.
In a large bowl, pour the mascarpone, soften it with electric beaters, add the sugar, and then start adding the cream (keep 2 tablespoons aside) slowly while beating, until you have a well-whipped and stiff mixture. Add the aromas as well.
Melt the gelatin in a saucepan with the cream set aside, pour slowly into the Greek yogurt and mix quickly (if lumps form, strain the yogurt with a sieve). Now combine the yogurt with the cream, mixing with a spatula.
Chop the white chocolate and set it aside.
First, the sponge cake needs to be cut into three layers, trying to cut them at the same height.
Place the first layer on a serving plate or a cake tray if you prefer, moisten evenly with the syrup (be careful not too much), spread half 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. Close with the last layer and moisten this one a bit too.
Now with the leftover cream, coat the cake, using a spatula to make a smooth covering, the cream should be enough to make some tufts as well. Decorate as desired with strawberries, macarons, chunks of white chocolate, or perhaps some mint leaves.
Now that the cake is ready, it is essential to let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.
The slice…
