28/52 Strawberry Tarte with Mascarpone Cream

Do you know Sweet Paul? I'm sure you do. I hope you do.

I love his blog and magazine which I stumbled upon some time early last year. The layout of the magazine and the pictures are lovely, the recipes sound yummy, and the rest (like DIY tips and tutorials) is great, too. And the amazing thing is that it is completely free to read online.

So I when I found out that Sweet Paul is coming out in print in Germany (in German, of course), I was very excited and bought the first issue. For some reason, I just assumed that it would be in addition to the free English version, with different/more recipes. I was very disappointed to find out that while it is a bit modified to fit the German audience, all the recipes seem to be 1:1 from the original magazine, some from last year, like "Best Summer Cakes" where the cake I made this week is from.

Sorry, I did not want this post to be a magazine review or rant about the German Sweet Paul...
It still is a wonderful magazine and I do hope that a lot of Germans will buy it. I just think that if you understand English well enough, you can stick to the free English online version.

Strawberry Tarte with Mascarpone Cream

Adapted from Sweet Paul Magazine Summer 2011

Crust

160 g (1 1⁄3 cups) flour

2 tablespoons sugar

160 g (1 stick) butter, in pieces

1 egg

1 tablespoon cold water

Topping

250 g (2 cups) mascarpone

80 g (1⁄2 cup) light brown sugar

1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla extract

500 g (2 cups) strawberries

• Mix together flour, sugar and butter until crumbly. Add egg and cold water and mix until smooth. Wrap in plastic and put in the fridge for one hour.
• Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
• Put crust in pie form (about 22 cm/9 in or 6 small forms) and prick several times with a fork.
• Bake until golden and let cool completely on a wire rack.

• Mix together mascarpone, sugar and vanilla. Fill on crust and top with strawberry halves. Dust with powdered sugar if you wish.

My modifications:

This recipe is originally called "Raspberry Tarte", so obviously I changed the raspberries to strawberries.

The taste:

Strawberries are always good!

But I am not 100% convinced of the crust; the flavor and texture were not what I had imagined. And I would reduce the sugar in the mascarpone cream next time (to about half, so 40 g or 1/4 cup).

What is your favorite Summer Cake?