June 6th
2006
Sure, there may be more than a handful of proper and blissful ways to make use of fresh strawberries, but for me there are only two options I consider the real deal: It's either strawberries sprinkled with a little bit of sugar to get the juices flowing (the strawberries' !) and simply topped with freshly whipped cream or on the other hand a proper strawberry cake just like my grandma used to make it. Every well prepared dish starts with a solid foundation. As far as these two pure delights are concerned, my strawberries of choice have to be deeply red, perfectly ripe and exuding a promising aroma. A promise only met or even topped by the eating experience. I don't want to talk about the countless times I have been fooled by some overwhelming strawberry scent paired with nice looks - just to sadly find out, that the fruits themselves were practically tasteless.
This year's weather does its best to spoil my favorite part of the whole strawberry season - driving to close by fields in and around Munich and hand picking tons of them. Well, almost. The equation I learned as a kid was: Strawberries = fields. Although my grandparents had some growing in their huge orchard, these would by no means suffice my grandma's consumption level. Mostly due to her many strawberry cakes and her semi-professional jam production. Every other day she would go on quick trips to the tiny village Woppenhof nearby to visit her friends' farm and strawberry fields and as much as I loved to help her out, in reality I was only there for my own pleasure. While my grandma quickly filled one basket after another, I kept strolling through the fields like a sniffer dog, always in search for the most beautiful berries to enjoy them right then and there. To top things off, I didn't go there unprepared, I always brought a little Tupperware box filled with sugar. 'Been a sweet tooth all my life. Even the sweetest of my finds I'd swiftly dip into the box. Any rational thinking goes quickly out the window when it comes to my personal sugar consumption :)
Back home, my grandma whipped out yummy strawberry cakes and pyramids of strawberry jam, effortless as always. Her strawberry cake supply never seemed to cease - just like those trick candles you try to blow out and they magically relight again: having secretly taken the last piece from her cool pantry in the afternoon, there was always another piece waiting for me right before going to bed...
Before getting started, I had to find proper strawberries - quite a mission with the ugly spring we've had. The ones our grocery store around the corner had on display were anything but worthy. Even expanding my catchment area by a trip to the Viktualienmarkt quickly showed that it wasn't all that easy finding good strawberries, but in the end succeeded with two nearly perfect baskets!
The basic nature of this version of the cake requires even more so tasty strawberries and a delish sponge cake.
Preheat the oven to 200°C (390 °F). Thoroughly grease the cake molds (with butter) and dredge with flour to keep the cake from sticking to the molds (the ones I used measured 10 cm/4 inch in diameter).
For the dough, divide 4 eggs and beat the egg whites. When they start to become stiff, add two tablespoons of sugar and continue to beat until really stiff - ever tried holding the bowl over your head - upside down?
In a separate bowl beat the remaining sugar with the egg yolks until creamy, add a little lemon zest (for a mere hint of lemon) and slowly pour in the melted, but cooled down butter.
Sieve in the flour, then carefully fold in the flour as well as the stiff egg whites just until well combined. Fill the molds to within one-fourth of the top and bake on the middle level for about 10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool down on a rack for about 10 minutes, then flip and release. Allow to cool down completely.
Rinse the strawberries and carefully pad them dry on a paper towel. Cut away the green and either halve or quarter each, depending on their size. Now arrange them on each cake until they are evenly covered (you can go as creative as you want, but really any pattern should be o.k.)
If you make these in advance and would like to keep them fresh for one or two days, use some clear cake glaze. Just follow the instructions that come with the glaze & let cool in the fridge.
Serve with plenty of freshly whipped cream and some pistachios and be sure to have a few extra servings...
Ok, not always things work out perfectly well. This is what happens when using a cake mold that has a removable bottom and thus a great escape route for dough on the run. We're still debating whether the center piece looks like a cartoonish dog or more like a rabbit...
Mini Strawberry Cake
Recipe source: my grandma
Prep time: 30min., baking: 10min., finishing: 15min.
.
Ingredients (yields 6-7 small cake shells):
4 (large) eggs, divided
100g white sugar
30g butter, melted and slightly browned
100 g flour
fresh lemon zest to taste
300g-400g fresh strawberries
clear cake glaze, sugar and water (per package instructions)
for decoration: whipped cream and pistachios
Can I also just spell BITE correctly?
It really hard to find beautiful AND tasty strawberries, I just experienced a huge disappointment myself! Love those small individual cakes, so cute looking :)
Those look absolutely delish!! I discovered the supermarket had some wonderfully ripe strawberries in stock and so bought a punnet, I'm actually eating them for breakfast as I type this.
Thanks for sharing your wonderful recipe, your photographs are always so wonderful and your recipes so mouthwatering. I love this site :-)
THIS is gorgeous!
Bravo! bravo!
Selbst gepflückte und gleich verarbeitete Erdbeeren sind kaum zu toppen, aber dieser Sommer ist in dieser Hinsicht leider eine echte Katastrophe! Einmal Erdbeerkuchen für mich, bitte ;)
Übrigens sehr tröstlich zu sehen, dass auch bei euch nicht immer alles glatt läuft, läßt sich da eventuell eine entfernte Ähnlichkeit mit Snoopy feststellen?
Hey, these are pretty lil' things. My mom used to bake individual crusts and we'd be allowed to mash the strawberries with clotted cream and sugar inside them. Oh my, that was blissful, although they were quite messy and not nearly as good-looking as yours!
Your grandmother sounds like something straight out of a fairytale!
Your cherry header and now this beautiful strawberry shot, both trigger my summer feelings :) Pure eye-candy!
Definitely a dog, I'd say:) I'm eagerly looking for the first Scottish strawberries to appear in a shop - and going wild strawberry picking back home in July!
Your grandma's cake recipe sounds delicious. My granny doesn't bake cakes, but she does have a nice recipe for sweet poppyseed yeast bread that she promised to write down for me this summer..
Oh it's wonderful ! Your photos are beautiful and the cakes too ! (for me it's a dog...)
Like Stefanie wrote above, I'd love to bite into the first photo, these have to be the most beautiful strawberries I have seen for a long time! Thanks for the recipe, the next time I find good straberries, I have to try it. And a funny last picture, happened to me too, some weeks ago!
Strolling through strawberry fields - sounds like a perfect description of summer to me! I can't imagine anything better, having been similarly disappointed by tasteless strawberries too many times. Your picture of the little cake is just amazing!
No doubt - a dog!:-)
I believe that the dough has cemented itself into a doggy statue! surrounded... by burnt dough turds and a bit guilty might I add. i kid. =)
I haven't visited in a while... i've been waiting for a recipe whose ingredients i might have a chance at getting.. strawberries that smell, taste and look beautiful might be a challenge but not as much as woodruff!
I wish I've had such a wonderful grandma :) It's very nice of you to share her recipes with us, the next strawberries I'll buy will be turned into these little pleasures. Keep up the great work!
Those starwberries are just perfection! I am planning on making the same kind of thing but with raspberries, so I think I might use your recipe for the base if you don't mind.
By the way I agree with Kyla its a dog surrounded by giant poos.
I agree with you, the mentioned strawberry cakes are very tasty. Your description of them makes me even more hungry. Thank you for sharing the recipe with me.
[...] Mentions of strawberries are popping up everywhere - I’m hoping I find some either tomorrow or this weekend at the farmer’s market. [...]
Eure Seite erst vor kurzem entdeckt und gleich an Freunde weiterempfohlen, appetitanregend, schlau und schön anzusehen. Macht weiter so!
Spring/summer is a little late in coming to Paris. I can't wait to have strawberries! The best are the ones that have been soaking in the sun for a while... YUM!
Wow, absolutely beautiful! Nothing like perfectly ripe and sweet strawberries, by far my favorite fruit. Your cakes looks fabulous.
This really is one of the most beautiful blogs I have seen! Well done. Gut gemacht!!
Stunning, just stunning !!!!! What a beautiful cake, and you have captured the soul of it in the photos.
Stefanie, Milie, Alexandra, Zarah Maria, Kyla,
Glad I got some support on the "dog-side" (I was for dog, Oliver for rabbit). Like Alexandra suggested, Snoopy's actually not to far from it...
Hi Pamela, Sitting in front of the computer and eating strawberries...that sound just like me!
Christine, Everything messy containing strawberries can only be a GOOD thing, the combination of strawberries with clotted cream is new to me!
Lobstersquad, She really was. I know that memories tend to fool us, sweet nostalgia, but she was a heart of a grandma and simply the most wonderful person :)
Pille, Please don't miss to ask your grandmother for the recipe! I'm so glad I have written down some of my grandmother's favorites, because her daughters (my mom and aunt) never really cared about putting them down and now they are glad that I saved them. Wouldn't it be a shame to forget about these traditional culinary treats? And about your trip back home in July, would you - please - eat some wild picked strawberries for me, too?
Anita, Glad I'm not the only one who gets fooled by strawberries... As the weather is finally getting better, I'm still hoping to visit some fields soon - including lots of sampling before buying ;)
Kyla, I know, it can be quite a challenge to get woodruff, but I was so positively surprised by its taste, I simply had to write about it!
Jenjen, Of course I don't mind :) Funny, because the next best thing we use this base for is a raspberry cake - I'd be happy to hear about how your cake turned out!
LPC, Spring and Summer are also running "a little" late here in Germany. Can you believe it, a few elevated spots even had snow (!!!) last week. But it seems things are finally getting warmer... Looks like a beautiful warm and sunny weekend :)
It's Snoopy!! :D
Beautiful cakes!
My boyfriend used to live in Burghausen four years ago and always raves about a tartlike cake that he used to eat that had lots of fresh strawberries on top and something that he describes as a "gelatin-like" substance over all of it...I have no idea what he is talking about, but his friend who still lives there calls it a "erdbeerkuchen." Is the above recipe similar to what he could possibly mean? I want to make it for his upcoming birthday as a surprise. Please tell me what you think! Any help is much appreciated! :)
Hi Krystal,
Yes, I think this recipe is pretty similar to what your boyfriend/his friend may have in mind.
This is what I found online in a German forum:
Tortenguss translates to clear cake glaze in English. You may order it here or try making it yourself (I haven't tried this recipe):
Clear Fruit Glaze
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water or fruit juice
2 tbsp. corn starch
2 tbsp. corn syrup
Bring sugar to a boil with 1/2 of the water or juice. Dissolve cornstarch in 1/2 water or juice and add to the sugar mixture. Cook, stirring until mixture thickens and clears. Stir in corn syrup. Bring to a boil then remove from heat. Cool before using.
Hi, I tried making these today. And I must admit I was rather disappoineted with the sponge base. Without any leaveners (baking powder/ soda) added, the cake turned out rather hard and dense. I thought sponge cake are susposed to be soft? I followed your recipe to exact, and I'm not sure what went wrong.
EDIT: Hi Jacelyn, I'm sorry you weren't satisfied with your results. I've used this recipe over and over again and always have been happy with the outcome. Maybe we have different expectations about sponge cakes as a base for strawberries, since I like to eat mine straight out of my hand and therefor the cake has to be rather dense. My favorite fluffy sponge cake would be this recipe, we just had it last weekend again and I can't imagine it to be any better and fluffier.
Can I just bit into that first photo?
Oh, and definitely a dog. Looking slightly guilty for having made a bit of a mess.