Yesterday me and my family came back home from a small vacation in Italy. We spent a couple of days at Gardone, at the Gardalake and I was inspired by the seasonal lemons which grow there at the moment. I also bought a package of my favorite italian cookies- amaretti. I could eat tons of them and would´t get enough! Since it was my cousin´s birthday yesterday I made this deliciously italian tasting cake using lemon zest in the mascarpone cream. Mascarpone by the way is a thick italian cream cheese which goes perfect with sweet strwaberrys and lemon. The sponge is made out of an easy sponge cake dough, sliced into halves and spread with the mascarpone cream mixture. Topped with sliced strawberrys and amaretti crumbs this cake is so delicious and refreshing- perfect for summer!
You will need
For the dough:
- 4 eggs
- 130g sugar
- 4 Tbs. milk
- 100g flour
- 50g cornstarch
- 1 package of baking powder
- a pinch of salt
Combine flour, cornstarch and baking powder in a bowl. Separate eggs. Whisk egg whites and a pinch of salt until stiff. Mix egg yolks and sugar until creamy, add flour mixture and add milk. Keep mixing until well combined. Fill batter in a parchment paper covered cake pan and bake in oven for 25 minutes until golden brown (oven temperature: 175° C). After baking, let cake cool out, half the cake and let it cool out completely. Meanwhile prepare filling…
For the filling:
- 500g mascarpone
- 350g heavy cream
- 130g sugar
- 1 tbs. vanilla sugar
- zest of one lemon
- 500g straberries, sliced
- amaratti cookies, crushes into crumbs
Combine mascarpone, sugar, vanilla sugar, zest of one lemon and heavy cream in a bowl using a spoon. Elapse half of the cream on bottom sponge. Drizzle top of the cream with half of the strawberries. Lay upper sponge on top of the cream and spread rest of the cream on top. Let cake chill in fridge for about an hour. Drizzle the rest of the strawberries on top of the cream and in the middle of the cake (like in picture). Spread amaretto crumbs around the strawberries and enjoy this wonderful cake as it is right away or whenever you prefer.
Enjoy!!
xx
Nadja
