This was Mom’s birthday cake last year. I asked her what she’d like and she said ‘strawberry shortcake.’ At 89 years old, you don’t argue about fruit being in season. Since it was December, I didn’t have much hope for the cake, but it was spectacular. I can’t wait to do it again with summer berries. It would also be good with some blueberries mixed in for color – maybe for 4th of July?

Print Recipe

Strawberry Cream Cake

Prep Time1 30

Cook Time40

Cooling time2

Course: Dessert

Servings: 16

Ingredients

Cake

1¼ cups cake flour
1½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp table salt
1 cup sugar separate out 3 tbsp
5 large eggs room temperature, 2 whole, 3 separated
6 tbsp unsalted butter melted and slightly cooled
2 tbsp water
2 tsp vanilla

Strawberry Filling

2 lbs fresh strawberries washed, dried and stemmed
¼ cup sugar
2 tbsp kirsch
pinch table salt

Whipped cream

8 oz cream cheese room temperature
½ cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
pinch table salt
2 cups heavy cream

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325° and move rack to lower-middle position. Grease and flour 9×2" cake pan or 9" springform pan and line with parchment paper.

Cake

Whisk flour, baking powder, salt, and all but 3 tbsp sugar in mixing bowl. Whisk in 2 whole eggs and 3 yolks, butter, water and vanilla; whisk until smooth.
In the bowl of a stand mixer with whisk attachment, beat remaining 3 egg whites at medium low speed until frothy, 1-2 minutes. With machine running, gradually add remaining 3 tbsp sugar, increase speed to medium high and whisk until soft peaks form 1-2 minutes.
Stir ⅓ of whites into batter; add remaining whites and fold until no white streaks remain. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Cool cake in pan 10 minutes, then invert on rack, peel off and discard parchment; invert again and allow to cool completely, approx 2 hours.

Strawberry Filling

Halve 24 of the strawberries and reserve.
Quarter the remaining berries, toss with sugar and let sit 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Strain juices from berries and reserve (should have about ½ cup).
In a food processor, pulse berries to chop.
In a small saucepan, simmer reserved juices and kirsch until syrupy and reduced to about 3 tbsp, 3-5 minutes. Pour reduced syrup over macerated, chopped berries add pinch of salt and toss to combine. Set aside.

Whipped Cream

When cake is cooled, place cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and salt in bowl of the stand mixers with whisk attachment. Whisk at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes, scraping down bowl as needed. Reduce speed to low and add heavy cream in a slow stream; when almost fully combined, increase speed to medium-high and beat until it holds stiff peaks, 2-3 minutes more, scraping down bowl as needed. Should have 4½ cups of whipped cream.

Assembly

Slice the cake into 3 layers. Place bottom layer on cake plate and arrange a ring of 20 strawberry halves around the edge with wide (stem) edge facing out. Pour ½ of the strawberry puree in center, and then spread to cover exposed cake. Gently spread with ⅓ of the whipped topping, leaving a ½" border from edge. Place middle layer on top and press gently. Repeat process with halved berries, puree and ½ remaining whipped cream. Top with top layer and spread remaining whipped cream over top and decorate with remaining strawberry halves. Chill up to 4 hours or serve immediately.