Strawberry Cassata Cake

[keljonma]

I made this cake for my sister's 50th birthday, at her request.


Strawberry Cassata Cake

2 sponge cakes, cooled
1 chocolate bar (I used 70% cocoa bar)
16 oz. fresh ricotta cheese
1 pint of heavy cream, whipped until stiff
2-3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/4 cup strawberry preserves
Sliced/diced strawberries for filling
Several strawberries for topping


Chop 3/4 of the chocolate bar; set aside. Shave the rest of the bar, set aside.

Mix the ricotta, sugar, and vanilla into the bowl of whipped cream till smooth. Gently fold in the roughly chopped chocolate.

Place 1 layer of cake on dish. Spread 1 to 2 T of preserves on cake. Top with sliced/diced strawberries. Top with whipped cream mixture.

Place 2nd layer of cake on top. Spread 1 to 2 T of preserves on cake. Top with sliced/diced strawberries. Top with whipped cream mixture.

Frost top and sides of entire cake with whipped cream mixture. Top with whole trimmed strawberries, sprinkle shaved chocolate around berries.

Refrigerate until serving.

 

[freemotion]

 

[abifae]

Oh. That would be so easy to use a coconut meal cake for the sponge and make it low carbed.

 

[keljonma]

This is the standard sponge cake recipe I make:

Basic Sponge Cake

This cake can be made in the following pans
two 8-inch round cake pans or
two 9-inch round cake pans or
one 9-inch springform pan or
one jelly roll pan

8 eggs, separated
pinch salt
8 tablespoons vanilla sugar
1 teaspoon oil
1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
8 tablespoons sifted all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare the cake pans by buttering the insides and placing waxed or parchment paper to fit in the bottom of each pan. Butter the paper as well. Set aside.

Beat the egg whites with the salt untill stiff peaks form. With an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks, gradually adding the sugar, until the mixture is light yellow, very creamy, and volcanic bubbles rise to the surface and pop when beating stops.

Stir in the oil and lemon rind. Sift 2 tablespoons of the flour on top of the egg yolk mixture and quickly fold in with a spatula. Repeat until all the flour is incorporated.

Stir in 2 tablespoons of the beaten egg whites to lighten the batter. Then fold in 1/4th of the remaining egg whites at a time, folding with a quick, light hand. The egg white should be evely distributed but not broken up too much. There should not be any large clumps of egg whites in the batter, either.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for about 25 minutes, or until a pick in the center comes out clean. Transfer pans to cooling racks for 10 minutes. Invert the pans to remove the cakes and quickly remove the paper. Finish cooling the cakes.

 

[freemotion]

That is pretty low carb! That cake sounds more like breakfast than dessert!

ETA: I'm copying this to my files....I have lots of green strawberries coming and lots of eggs....I think I'll try saving some cream up and see if it whips, too. Oh, I can hardly wait!

Keljonma, do you think I can used dried orange zest and some orange extract I made last fall when I had a bunch of organic oranges for making mead?

 

[abifae]

That's close to my cake recipe, but I use about a quarter cup of coconut flour.

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

That could very easily be made gluten free!

 

[Neko-chan]

Looks good, but we are out of strawberry season now. Next spring, I intend to plant a whole lot more strawberry plants, so I'm hoping to get a noticeable crop. Then I'll give this a try.

 

[keljonma]

That is pretty low carb! That cake sounds more like breakfast than dessert!

ETA: I'm copying this to my files....I have lots of green strawberries coming and lots of eggs....I think I'll try saving some cream up and see if it whips, too. Oh, I can hardly wait!

Keljonma, do you think I can used dried orange zest and some orange extract I made last fall when I had a bunch of organic oranges for making mead?

Free, I use orange if I don't have lemon in the house. I have also made the cake with just the vanilla sugar but put some vanilla bean paste into the mix instead of the lemon rind.

 

[keljonma]

Looks good, but we are out of strawberry season now. Next spring, I intend to plant a whole lot more strawberry plants, so I'm hoping to get a noticeable crop. Then I'll give this a try.

You could use another fruit. Actually, the original Sicilian cassata cake recipe I have calls for maraschino cherries (drained).