red love

Imagine this: you are outside. The sun is shining on your back, illuminating the colors around you. The green fields seem endless and a few soft cotton balls decorate the plain blue canvas above you. You are strolling through the field, the little bushes tickling your ankles. You bend down, pick one of those red treasures hidden underneath green leaves. The red is enriching the color panel of white and green fields. It is sweet and juicy. You close your eyes and you know: it is summer! It is perfect!

This is truly my picture perfect summer experience.. well, if there would be a pool somewhere around and somebody to serve drinks, it might be even better, but seriously.. what can be better than fresh strawberries from the field, jumping into your belly? I don’t need anything else on days like these. Strawberry picking can be my breakfast and lunch and dinner 🙂 – a little ice cream can go with it too 😉

I don’t wanna bore you guys with my strawberry love. I know I am talking about this for too long now and I keep going on and on about it in summer.. you got it: I love it! For my defense: Strawberries are very healthy! They do have a lot of vitamin C, some other B vitamins, are low in calories and just make a perfect meal! Like I said in my last post, I use them for everything these days: cakes, desserts, jam (yes, I made my own jam and it is soooooo good 🙂 ), salads (that one I wanna share with you some other time! You have to try my strawberry salad. It is really, really good!). My whole day meal plan consists of strawberries. I am boring 😉

OK, so I wanted to make a nice and refreshing cake last week. We expected guests for three days in a row and at least for the first day, we needed to have a cake. I (of course 😉 ) decided for a strawberry cake with a light yoghurt cream and strawberry puree on top. It is very light and refreshing – great for a hot day. For the decoration I made some mini-strawberries out of marzipan, which was the highlight of the cake really. Because we had to serve the cake on at least two different occasions, I decided for a square cake instead of a round one. I always feel like round cakes are not very appealing and complete after the first piece goes missing. Square cakes on the other hand leave you with the opportunity to decorate each piece individually – even differently if you like. I think this is a huge plus and I would always recommend this approach.

For the bottom of the cake I used the same recipe I used for the small strawberry cakes from my last post. I doubled all ingredients, so it would be enough for the whole pan. Once the cake was cooled down enough I made the yoghurt cream and mixed it with strawberries. I spread it onto the cool cake and waited until it was set. On top I spread the strawberry puree and again waited until it was set. I decorated and cut the pieces right before serving.

And here are the recipes for the toppings:

light yoghurt cream:

500 gr plain yoghurt

500 gr curd cheese

2-3 tbsp powdered sugar (depends on how sweet you like it. I used very little sugar, because I thought that the puree on top would add enough sweetness in the end. Just try what is best for you)

2 packages vanilla sugar

2 packages gelatin (12 leaves – I thought it might be too much, but it came out pretty good, so if you wanna cut on gelatin, don’t overdo it. It might be too runny. Maybe it would work with 10 leaves though)

1/2 tsp citric acid (I used the powdered one from Dr.Oetker, but it  works with some lemon zest as well)

1 package cream stabilizer (as far as I know there is no such thing in the US 😦 It gives the cream a really nice and fluffy texture, even without heavy cream)

1. prepare the gelatin as directed on package and set aside

2. mix the yoghurt, curd cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla sugar, citric acid or lemon zest and the cream stabilizer with an electric mixer for about five minutes or until fluffy

3. dissolve the gelatin, add some of the cream to the hot gelatin to combine. Pour the gelatin-mixture into the cream

4. let sit until it starts to thicken

5. spread onto cake

strawberry puree:

500-750 gr strawberries (you can use more or less if you want, but when you puree it, the amount should be adjusted to the gelatin you want to use)

1 package gelatin (6 leaves)

1. prepare gelatin as directed on package and set aside

2. puree the strawberries – the amount should be 500ml

3. dissolve gelatin and add one or two tbsp of puree

4. pour the gelatin mixture on top of yoghurt cream

5. refrigerate until serving

6. decorate with whatever you like – for example white chocolate and small marzipan strawberries

For the strawberries I dyed some marzipan in red and green. I made small balls out of the red marzipan and rolled it in semolina. For the leaves on top of the strawberries I used a star shaped cutter and put the star on top of the strawberry. Additionally I cut out some leaves for the sides.

I also grated some white chocolate to add some contrast color.

Make sure to decorate the cake right before serving. The moist puree will dissolve the marzipan and the chocolate – trust me: it is not very appealing 😉

I hope you like this cake. Have more than one piece.. it won’t mess up your diet 😉