by Marie MannNo Comments

Who doesn’t like a strawberry gateaux? I can’t get enough of strawberries, I dread the season to finish, when the berries you can get are from far far away and the taste is poor. Why can’t we have local strawberries all year round – that would be paradise.

Did you make any strawberry cakes at all? Which one is you summer staple?

 

gluten free Quark Sponge Cake:

Makes: a round 13cm cake that is 5.5cm high – Cut in 3 layers.

Prep time: 15 min

Cooking: 40min at 180 degree celsius

For the quark-sponge cake base you need:

  • 4 medium eggs (beat egg whites separately first)
  • 40g ground almonds – mixed ground nuts work too.
  • 40g coconut flour
  • 250g Quark
  • 2 tbsp. unsweetened Cocoa powder
  • 1 tbsp. instant coffee (or 1tbsp. strong espresso)
  • 4 tbsp. hot water (for the instant coffee to dissolve)
  • couple of drops Vanilla extract – optional
  • 2-4 knife-tips Stevia-sweet 90% powder dissolved in 1 table spoons hot water

Note: getting the sweetness to the desired level is a matter of trial and error, the best thing is to start with a smaller amount of whatever Stevia you have on hand, it can be ready-use, liquid or tabs (need to be dissolved too), adding more is easier than diluting – you could end up with a huge amount of treat -Don’t have any Stevia yet? – you can always use normal sweetener products until you are set up.

 

Instructions:

Separate eggs into two bowls, add part stevia extract powder to the egg white part to the egg yolks.

Beat the egg whites to a stiff peak, set a side.

In another bowl mix egg yolks with the quark until smooth and creamy.

In a cup, mix the water, instant coffee and cocoa together until there are no lumps left.

Add the cocoa-coffee mix to the quark-egg yolk cream, mix until well combined.

Add the ground almonds and the coconut flour to the flavoured quark cream, mix in with an electric mixer.

Take a rubber ladle to add the stiff egg white bit by bit under the quark/ flour mass, take care not to lose all the fluffiness you have just beaten into the egg white.

Combine to smooth mass and fill into a greaseproof paper lined baking pan or use a silicone mould (-no paper necessary).

Place in the pre-heated oven for 40 min, check if it is ready by piercing centre it with a knitting needle, if the needle comes out clean, the inside is cooked.

Leave to cool for 1hour on cooling rack.

Cut the cooled cake into 3 layers.

 

TIPS:

– you can use normal flour to make this recipe too.

– keep in the fridge if making ahead of use

– this cake freezes beautifully in slices, semi defrosted like an ice cream cake great for summer Sunday treats.

 

 

 Filling and Assembly

Strawberry cream filling/ Strawberry couli covering:

Prep time: 10min

Cool/ set time: a good 2hours

You need:

  • 500 grams       Longley Farm Jersey extra rich cream or double cream
  • 450 grams        fresh strawberries (keep some back for decorating)
  • 1-2 knife-tips Stevia-sweet 90% powder dissolved in 1 table spoons hot water

Note: getting the sweetness to the desired level is a matter of trial and error, the best thing is to start with a smaller amount of whatever Stevia you have on hand, it can be ready-use, liquid or tabs (need to be dissolved too), adding more is easier than diluting – you could end up with a huge amount of treat -Don’t have any Stevia yet? – you can always use normal sweetener products until you are set up.

 

Keep  several strawberries spare for the decoration at the end.

Prepare the strawberries, cutting off the green.

Cut one 1/3 of the berries into quarters or slices, which ever you prefer for the 2nd layer on pure cream.

Blend the other  2/3  with a blender to a smoothy, add stevia if too sour.

Whip the cream until quite stiff, adding stevia to taste.

Take some whipped cream into another bowl and mix in blended strawberry smoothy. Take care not to make the mix too liquid, a few spoons at a time.

Assemble the cake, have the first base layer in a lined cake ring, poor on the strawberry cream.

If it is very liquid you may have to put this part in the freezer to set before laying on the next layer.

Cover the next cake layer with pure whipped cream, decorate with cut strawberries, them place on top of the strawberry cream.

Take last cake layer, place on top.

Poor on the spare strawberry smoothy/ coulis place whole cake into the freezer until the top is set.

When ready for eating, take it out at least 30-45min before hand (depending how hot it is on the day) add the deco strawberries and serve.

 

 

TIPS:

– use other berries to make this cake

– replace the double cream in the filling with coconut milk/ cream for dairy free version.

 

 

Finished this one of in no time, I need to make another…


MK xx

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