The strawberry dove cake is a true spring delight, born from my imagination to use up a traditional leftover Easter dove cake. This preparation is useful both to present a classic Easter dessert in a different way and as an elegant, chic, and delicious no-waste idea. Preparing this fresh and colorful dessert is really simple, because you just need to use all the ingredients you already have at home or whatever your imagination suggests; moreover, the strawberry dove cake does not require baking.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Rest time: 1 Hour
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 6
- Cooking methods: No baking
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Easter Monday, Easter
Ingredients
- 1.1 lbs classic Easter dove cake
- 7/8 cup whipping cream
- 7 oz strawberries
- 1 orange
- 2 oz vanilla powdered sugar
- as needed grated lemon zest
- as needed strawberries and fresh mint (for decoration)
Tools
- 1 Baking pan
- 1 Spatula
- 1 Star nozzle
Steps
Let’s prepare the dove cake. Cut it into finger-thick slices; or cut the slices into finger-wide sticks or large chunks, as is most convenient for you.
Let’s also use the almond crumbs and glaze that we’ll crumble thoroughly, almost reducing them to powder with a pestle or sharp knife.
Prepare the mold, lining it completely with parchment paper or plastic wrap. Cover the entire bottom of the mold with the dove cake, filling any possible empty spaces. If desired, we can spray our dove cake base with a small amount of rum, limoncello, or other liqueur of our choice, but it should be just a spray to avoid soaking the dove cake too much and making it mushy, since it will also be moistened by the strawberry maceration liquid.
Wash the strawberries, remove the hull and cut them into very small cubes. Transfer them into a small bowl where we will add the juice of one orange. Mix, cover, and let macerate for 30 minutes.
After half an hour, take the strawberries, roughly drain them from the liquid and place them on the base of our dove cake. Also add half of the crumbled glaze.
Prepare the cream that must be well chilled from the fridge. Pour it into a bowl, add the grated zest of one lemon (already washed), part of the powdered glaze, and the powdered sugar. Whip it into stiff peaks (fresh cream takes about 3 minutes to become firm).
Cover the surface of the cake with 3/4 of the cream (both the base of the cake and the cream are finger-thick); the remaining part will be used later. Level with a spatula or the back of a spoon and transfer to the freezer for 30 minutes, well covered.
After 30 minutes, take the cake, gently remove it from the mold, carefully remove the parchment paper, and cover (with a spatula) even the outer edge with the remaining cream.
Decorate with more strawberries and fresh mint (if there’s leftover cream, also make some tufts using a small closed star tip). You can serve it immediately or store it in the fridge, in a cake container, to let it gain more flavor.
An extra idea. We can also prepare delicious single-serving portions in small glasses or bowls and decorate them with mint and strawberries.
The strawberry dove cake should be stored in the fridge, well closed in a cake container.
