Vanilla and seasonal berry cake
Units
Temperature
Servings
Ingredients
Cake
- 300 g plain flour rounded
- 12 g baking powder rounded
- 4 g fine salt rounded
- 225 g unsalted butter, soft enough to take a fingerprint, not greasy rounded
- 300 g granulated sugar rounded
- 4 eggs, room temperature; cold eggs will split the batter rounded
- 1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped; or 10 ml vanilla extract rounded
- 240 ml whole milk, room temperature rounded
Vanilla cream
- 500 ml whipping cream, very cold, and so is the bowl rounded
- 250 g mascarpone, cold; this is what keeps the cream standing all afternoon rounded
- 70 g icing sugar rounded
- 1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped, and leave them visible rounded
Berries
- 400 g strawberries, hulled and halved, the best ones saved whole for the top rounded
- 250 g blueberries rounded
- 15 ml lemon juice rounded
- 20 g granulated sugar, for the berries that go between the layers only rounded
Method
Method
- Prepare. Butter two 20 cm tins and line the bases with parchment. Heat the oven to 175°C. Have the butter, eggs and milk all at room temperature: this is the single biggest difference between a fine crumb and a coarse, greasy one.
- Cream properly. Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla seeds for a full 4 to 5 minutes until visibly paler and light. This is not mixing, it is aerating, and it is where the cake gets most of its lift. Scrape the bowl twice.
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating until each disappears before the next. If it looks curdled, add a spoonful of the flour and carry on.
- Alternate, and stop early. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together. Add in three parts, alternating with the milk in two, beginning and ending with flour. Mix only until the last streak goes. Every extra turn builds gluten and costs you tenderness.
- Bake. Divide between the tins, level the tops, and bake at 175°C for 26 to 32 minutes, until the top springs back and a skewer has a crumb or two on it. Cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool completely. A warm layer will melt the cream straight off the cake.
- Macerate half the berries. Toss half the strawberries with the 20 g of sugar and the lemon juice. Leave 20 minutes. These go inside, where the syrup does some good. Keep the rest dry for the top.
- Vanilla cream. Beat the mascarpone with the icing sugar and vanilla seeds until smooth, then pour in the cold cream and whip to firm peaks. Do it in that order: mascarpone whipped into already-thick cream turns lumpy. Firm peaks, not stiff: one turn past firm and it goes buttery.
- Build. First layer down, a thick spread of cream, the macerated strawberries and a scatter of blueberries, then a little more cream to bed the second layer. Second layer on, and the rest of the cream over the top and sides in a rough swirl. It should look spread, not piped.
- Finish. Arrange the reserved strawberries over the top and fill the gaps with blueberries, then press a ring of blueberries around the base. Chill 30 minutes to set the cream, and serve within a few hours while the fruit is still bright.
Notes
- Seasonal means seasonal. Raspberries, blackberries, redcurrants, halved apricots or sliced peaches all work. Keep the total fruit around 650 g and keep the wettest fruit out of the middle, or it will slide.
- Why mascarpone. Plain whipped cream weeps within an hour, especially outdoors in summer. Mascarpone stabilises it without the chalkiness of gelatine or the sweetness of buttercream, and it stays soft in the fridge.
- Do not wash berries early. Wash and dry them well before you start, and hull strawberries after washing, not before, or they take on water and bleed into the cream.
- Getting ahead. The layers keep 2 days wrapped at room temperature and freeze for 2 months. Whip the cream and assemble on the day.
- One tall layer instead. The same batter fills one 23 cm tin. Bake 40 to 45 minutes and split it in two if you want the layer of fruit through the middle.