There was a brief time before Valentines Day that the strawberries were actually palatable, otherwise the last good quality strawberries we had were several months back in 2012. Still, I could not let go of my strawberry craving, so I broke down and bought another pound last Sunday. Thinking that it was still not the time for strawberry shortcakes, I made a strawberry yoghurt cake from my to-do file. I had a plan. If the strawberries were not flavorful enough; I was going to add a few pinches of strawberry jello mix to define the flavor. But as it turned out this wasn’t necessary. The strawberries had an intense flavor; I felt almost guilty crushing them up.
Indeed this is a lovely gelatinous cake, the strawberry layer set within 3 hours, but nevertheless an extra night gave it a chance to become an actual cake, not simply a gelatin dessert on a cake.
STRAWBERRY YOGHURT CAKE
Cake Layer:
3 egg whites
smidgen of salt
4 Tbsp sugar
4 Tbsp flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
Strawberry Layer:
1-1/4 cups whipping cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 vanilla sugar
2 cups plain 2% yogurt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp lemon zest [optional]
1 lb fresh strawberries
2 envelopes of plain gelatine
4 Tbsp water
more strawberries for decoration [optional]
• Make the cake first.
• Preheat oven to 365 F
• Line a 9 inch spring form cake pan with parchment paper.
• Add smidgen of salt to the egg whites and beat them until fluffy.
• Add the sugar and beat few minutes more.
• Combine flour and baking powder and fold it into the egg white mixture by hand.
• Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan.
• Bake for about 10-15 minutes or until tooth pick inserted in the cake comes out clean.
• Cool completely.
• Remove the parchment paper from the bottom of the cake and return the cake to the form. I washed the cake pan first.
• While the cake cools make the strawberry layer.
• Put 4 tbsp cold water in a small cooking pot, empty contents of 2 packages of gelatin envelops into it, mix it so there is no crumbs. Set aside for about 5 minutes.
• Whip the cream until dense, add sugar and whip for one more minute. Place it in the fridge.
• Next wash the strawberries, remove stems, put into blender and blend until liquid.
• Pour the pureed strawberries into a bowl.
• Add the yogurt, lemon zest and sugar to the strawberries and mix by hand until smooth. Set it aside.
• Place the cooking pot with the gelatin on the stove and lightly heat it, only until dissolved, do not let it boil!
• Remove from heat.
• Add to it about 1/2 cup of the strawberry yogurt mixture to the melted gelatin and mix well.
• Now pour the gelatin mixture into the remaining yogurt mixture.
• Gently fold the chilled whipped cream into the strawberry mixture until it looks like a strawberry smoothie.
• Pour the strawberry mixture on top of the cake. Filling will be liquid and that is ok.
• Refrigerate for 3 hours or best overnight.
• Remove spring form ring, decorate the cake with whipped cream and strawberries.
