Strawberry, Cardamom and Cream Cake — Τούρτα με Φράουλες, Κάρδαμο και Σαντιγύ
When I was younger I refrained from eating strawberries because every time I did I broke out in hives. I used to say I was allergic. Well, that depends on how you define allergic: does one or two hives count?
Never mind that now because I devoured a large piece of this cake I made when we were invited over to friends’ for a barbecue the other day … and nothing happened. Actually, I’ve eaten strawberries innumerable times since I grew out of my paranoiac pre-teen years and I haven’t seen a single hive since.
Okay, okay. I’ll stop carrying on about my possible allergies already and get back to this amazing cake. I slightly adapted a recipe on Epicurious.com when putting together this cake. Light, airy (and butterless) cake layers are brushed with a simple cardamom sugar syrup, smothered in freshly whipped heavy cream/Greek yogurt and adorned with bright red strawberries. It’s 7:44 a.m. and I wish I had a slice leftover lingering in the fridge. No worries, this cake was SO good I will be making it again soon, very soon. Quite possibly this coming weekend. Memorial Day weekend and the unofficial start of summer. S-U-M-M-E-R! And believe me, this cake screams summer.
Note:I only have two 9-inch round cake pans and although this recipe calls for three layers, I was too lazy to bake the first two, cool one cake, remove it from the pan, clean the pan, then bake the third layer. So, I piled the batter into the two cake pans. It wasn’t a disaster per se, but the layers weren’t exactly as pretty as they should have been.
And instead of lining cake pans with parchment to ensure a smooth finish, I grease my cake pans, place them in the refrigerator (greased), remove them just before I am ready to fill them, dust with flour and then fill with batter. The cold butter/margarine/shortening used to grease the cake pans prevents the cake from sticking.
Strawberry, Cardamom and Cream Cake — Τούρτα με Φράουλες, Κάρδαμο και Σαντιγύ
Adapted from a recipe on Epicurious.com
For cake:
8 large egg yolks
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup reduced fat milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large egg whites
For syrup:
1 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
5 to 6 cardamom pods
For filling:
2 cups chilled heavy cream
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 lbs. strawberries, trimmed and cut lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick slices
Make cake layers:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place oven racks in upper third and lower third of oven. Grease cake pans and place them in the fridge until ready to fill with batter.
In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks, 3/4 cup sugar, milk, vanilla and lemon zest until smooth. Add the flour and salt and stir until combined.
With an electric mixer, beat egg whites with a pinch of salt at high speed until they just hold soft peaks. Add remaining 1/4 cup sugar, a little at a time, beating at medium speed until the egg whites hold stiff glossy peaks, about 2 minutes more.
Fold the egg white mixture into the batter a little at a time to just lighten it, then fold in remaining whites gently but thoroughly.
Remove the cake pans from the refrigerator and dust each cake pan with flour. Pour batter into the cake pans and bake, switching position of pans halfway through baking, until cakes are springy to the touch and a toothpick inserted in center of each comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on a wire rack 10 minutes, then invert onto racks and cool cakes completely.
Make syrup while cakes cool:
Bring water, sugar and cardamom to a boil in a 1-quart heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved, then boil until reduced to about 1 cup, 6 to 8 minutes. Remove cardamom pods and cool completely. Syrup can be made up to 1 week ahead (cool, cover tightly and refrigerate until ready to use).
Make filling once cakes and syrup are cool:
Beat together heavy cream, Greek yogurt, sugar and vanilla in a bowl with an electric mixer until cream just holds stiff peaks.
Assemble cake:
Prick cake layers all over with a toothpick and then brush or spoon syrup, little by little, evenly over each layer.
Transfer 1 layer (flat side up) to a serving platter, then spread with cream. Arrange some sliced strawberries in 1 layer over cream. Turn the next layer over and spread cream over top, then place it–cream side down–over the layer of strawberries. If using three layers continue layering cream and strawberries as with previous cake layers. Spread top with remaining cream and fan out remaining strawberries over top. Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve (I refrigerated it just under 3 hours before serving).
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16 Responses to “Strawberry, Cardamom and Cream Cake — Τούρτα με Φράουλες, Κάρδαμο και Σαντιγύ”
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Love strawberries and use them a lot in my desserts. Although cardamom is not bad I can’t say that I am a fan and prefer other flavours such as vanilla, mastic or lemon. However, adding it only in the syrup is not bad as there is vanilla in the cake and cream.
Beautiful as well as delicious! I can just taste the cardamom which is one spice worth splurging on! Beautiful as ever, Maria!
Magnificent! I love that touch of cardamom.
Cheers,
Rosa
This looks ridiculously good. I love cardamon! Glad you have overcome your allergic reaction as well
Looks lovely but where’s the octopus pot pie that I clicked for?
Joan, where was the octopus pot pie link? Was it for the post I published over the winter?
Great Tourta! Love these photos.
What a gorgeous strawberry cake. Love the addition of cardamon
Oh Maria! The cake really invokes a summery feeling! I’m in love with all the flavours here! Thank you for sharing this amazing creation!
It is definitely possible that you just grew out of the allergy and thank god because otherwise you wouldn’t have shared this amazing cake with us! I love using cardamom in baked goods…one of my favorite spices!
Summertime on a plate…big time!!!
I love the amazing strawberry topping – beautiful and the addition of cardamom…..oh, be still my mouth. Love it
cake looks sexalicious and glad you are over the “allergy” and potential hive break out! Not fun!
This is a URL fix
Strawberry cakes are the best for this time of year. Too bad I’ve yet to make one. Yours looks gorgeous Maria!
Magda
Strawberries are so good this year. I have thought of making a layered cake like yours but feel it’s difficult and did not dare to try. Maybe I should give a go? Yours looks really good and well presentedThe strawberries are laid out so nicely.