18 | 52 Strawberry Hazelnut Layer Cake

More strawberries?

Yes, please!

That's exactly why I changed this week's featured recipe to strawberries.

From blackberries. Even though blackberries are pretty awesome, too.

Strawberry Hazelnut Layer Cake

Adapted from Artful Desperado

For the cake:

100 g (3/4 cup) roasted hazelnuts, finely ground after roasting (skins removed)

270 g (2 1/4 cups) flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

210 g (15 tablespoons) soft butter

4 large eggs

40 g (1/3 cup) sugar

80 ml (1/3 cup) maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

zest of 1 lemon

For the mascarpone cream:

225g (1 cup) mascarpone cheese, soft

240 ml (1 cup) heavy cream

1 tablespoon powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

And of course:

about 500g (1 pound) fresh strawberries (or other berries of your choice)

• Preheat the oven to 175ºC (350ºF).
• For the cake, beat together butter, sugar, and eggs (don't worry if it looks a bit separated). Add remaining cake ingredients and mix until just combined.
• Pour batter into one (or two) small, greased springform pans (20cm / 8in diameter) and bake for about 25-35 minutes. (If you devided the batter into two pans, it will be baked through quicker than if you just use one. But I think you knew that.) Let cool.
• For the mascarpone cream, mix all ingredients together until thick with nice peaks. 
• Before layering the cake, make sure that you even out any curved cake tops (by cutting the curve off). If you used only one springform pan, cut the cake in the middle horizontally to get two cakes for layering.
• Now, layer as following: cake, mascarpone cream, berries, mascarpone cream, cake, mascarpone cream, berries.

My modifications:

Strawberries instead of blackberries. Regular flour instead of spelt flour. Regular sugar instead of superfine sugar (in the cake).

I also didn't mash some of the berries to put inbetween mascarpone and whole berries.

The taste:

Well. How should I say this.

The cake didn't go well together with the mascarpone cream and the berries. I know, hard to imagine but true.

Also, the cake was waaaaaay too dense. And I neither overmixed it nor overbaked it.

So, all in all it was edible (of course) but I would not make it again. Shame, isn't it?

Have you ever baked something that didn't really work combination-wise?

17 | 52 Strawberry-Blueberry Crumb Bars

Fresh strawberries!

You just gotta do as much as you can using strawberries, while you can.

(Maybe in your part of the world you have fresh strawberries all year round but that's unfortunately not the case in Switzerland...)

And blueberries!

You just can't go wrong with blueberries.

Crumbs!

Yes! Always!

Sorry for the very boring pictures - I can't seem to shoot any good pictures before everything's eaten up lately...

Strawberry-Blueberry Crumb Bars

Adapted from the baker upstairs

200 g (1 cup) sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

375 g (3 cups) flour

227 g (1 cup) cold butter, cut into pieces

1 egg, beaten

400 g (2 cups) fresh strawberries

200 g (2 cups) fresh blueberries

100 g (1/2 cup) sugar

4 teaspoons corn starch

• Preheat oven to 190ºC (375ºF).
• Whisk together sugar, baking powder, salt, and flour. Add cold butter and mix in with your hands. Add the egg and make a crumbly dough. 
• Press half of the dough onto the bottom of the prepared pan (23cm x 33xm / 9in x 13in). 
• Wash your strawberries, chop off the green part and cut into quarters. Mix all berries with the 1/2 cup sugar and corn starch, then spread them on top of the dough in the pan. Crumble the remaining dough evenly over the berry layer. 
• Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until lightly browned. Let cool.

My modifications:

None. Except for mixing strawberries and blueberries. The original recipe is for either one but not combined.

The taste:

Very good! Moist from the berries and very summery!

I stored it in the fridge and it actually tasted better the day after baking...

What's your favorite summer bake (with or without fruit)?

9*52 Strawberry-Lemon-Bars

Remember, right after Valentine's Day I told you that I had planned to bake something pink and heart-shaped but then was too sick?

I couldn't get the recipe for that pink and heart-shaped something out of my head so I made it now.
Just not heart-shaped. But pink. And full of summer flavors. Lemon and strawberry.
What could be better? Not much, I think.

Strawberry-Lemon-Bars

Adapted from Backbube

300 g (0.7 lb) strawberries, frozen

300 g (1 1/2 cups) sugar

300 ml (1 1/4 cups) lemon juice (about 6 lemons)

150 g (1 1/8 cups) flour

50 g (1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon) powdered sugar

2 x 75 g (2 x 1/3 cup) butter

pinch of salt

6 egg yolks

75 g (1/2 cup) corn starch

• Defrost strawberries.
• For the crust, combine flour, powdered sugar, salt, 2 tablespoons cold water and half the cold butter (in pieces) and knead until combined to a nice shortcrust dough.
• Distribute dough evenly on the bottom of a prepared square spring form. Let cool in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F). Using a fork, poke some holes into the crust and bake for 20 minutes.
• Blend together strawberries and lemon juice until smooth and without fruit pieces. Add sugar and remaining butter and bring to a boil in a saucepan. 
• Mix starch with 7 tablespoons water and stir well to avoid clumps. Add to the strawberry mix, let boil for 1 minute, stir constantly. 
• Take pan off the heat. In a small bowl, mix egg yolks with 2 tablespoons of the strawberry 'jam', then put back into the saucepan to combine with all the strawberry 'jam'. Pour on top of the crust and bake for 20 minutes.
• Let cool. Cut into squares or bars.

My modifications:

None.

Except for not cutting out hearts. Just plain old squares/bars.

Oh, and I changed the name. Backbube called them 'Pink Lemon Hearts' but I think 'Strawberry-Lemon-Bars' is more fitting (especially since I didn't make hearts).

The taste:

You usually have me at 'strawberry'. And this is no exception. These bars are so so so so good! I could really bathe in them. 

The strawberry puree/jam/topping was a bit wobbly and gooey and I am not really sure if it is supposed to be like that. But it was so very tasty nonetheless. I might try a little less starch next time, that might do the trick.

What fruit do you love, especially in or on cake?

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?

20/52 Strawberry Cake

Asparagus and strawberries are really the highlight of the season, I could eat both pretty much every day. (Having said that, I think I should find a baking recipe with asparagus to make next week or the week after that...)

Even better than plain strawberries is strawberry cake. Any kind. Don't you agree?

So without further ado:

Strawberry Cake
Adapted from here

Cake bottom:
75 g  (1/3 cup) butter, room temperature
75 g (1/3 cup + 1 teaspoon) sugar
1 package vanilla sugar (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)
2 eggs
salt
125 g (1 cup) flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
30 g (1/3 cup) almonds, sliced
2 tablespoons dark chocolate, grated

Cream:
75 g (2.6 oz) crème fraîche (or sour cream)
150 g (5.3 oz) yoghurt
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
grated lemon zest from 1/2 lemon
1 package "Sahnesteif" (cream stiffener; see comment below)

Strawberry topping:
500 g (1 pound) fresh strawberries
1 package red "Tortenguss" (glaze; see comment below)

• Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F).
• Mix all cake bottom ingredients, fill into prepared springform pan and bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool.

• Mix all ingredients for the cream and spread evenly onto cooled cake bottom.

• Cut prepared strawberries into half, arrange them (cut side down) on the cream.

• Cook "Tortenguss"/glaze according to package instructions and pour evenly over strawberries.

My modifications:
The original recipe doesn't ask for any grated chocolate. I only had about 30 g of sliced almonds at home, so I added about 2 tablespoons of grated chocolate to the cake batter.
Sahnesteif and Tortenguss:
I googled "Sahnesteif" and was not really able to find an alternative for those of you not being able to buy these little sachets of cream stiffener. Please leave a comment if you know a good alternative!
Also for those of you who cannot buy the other little sachets of "Tortenguss"/cake glaze or for those of you who would like to make it themselves from scratch, I found a recipe that sounds good but that I haven't tested. I will put it in a separate post soon and link to it here.

The taste:
You can't go wrong with strawberry cake.
I really liked this one because the amount of cream topping is very moderate (if not little, but in a good way) and not heavy at all.
The cake bottom was a little on the dry side but still very good. Maybe I would add a bit more butter next time.
And I definitely thought that the small amount of grated chocolate I put into the batter made it a lot more interesting. Don't leave it out!

Any strawberry (or other berry) recipe suggestions from your side?