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Strawberries & Cream Layer Cake

A light vanilla cake meets creamy white chocolate mascarpone filling with strawberries in this Strawberries and Cream Layer Cake.

Ingredients

Scale

For the Cake:

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups plus 2 Tablespoons sugar

6 egg whites

1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

For the Filling:

8 oz. mascarpone at room temp

4 oz. white chocolate melted

1/2 cup freeze dried strawberries, processed to fine pieces

For the Buttercream:

2 cups frozen strawberries

3 cups butter

5 cups powdered sugar

pinch of salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 and prepare three 8″ round cake pans lined with parchment paper.

For the Cake:  With a hand mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat egg whites with 2 Tablespoons of sugar until medium-stiff peaks form.  You want the egg whites to hold their shape.  Set the egg whites aside and mix butter, oil, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy, approximately 3-4 minutes.  Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and mix to combine.  Stir in the buttermilk.  Finish the batter by folding in the beaten egg whites.  The goal is to keep the batter light, fluffy, and aerated.  Bake the cakes for 22-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake shows a few moist crumbs, but is not wet.  The top of the cake will have just a hint of gold.

For the Filling:  Using a microwave at 30 second intervals, melt the white chocolate.  Mix melted white chocolate into the room temperature mascarpone.  Process the freeze dried strawberries to fine pieces (some of it will be powdery and that’s ok) and stir the strawberries into the mascarpone mix.

For the Buttercream:  Using a fine mesh sieve, press thawed strawberries to release juices.  Two cups of berries should yield at least a 1/2 cup juice.  Mix 3 cups of butter, 5 cups powdered sugar, and a pinch of salt for 5-7 minutes until light and fluffy.  Add the 1/2 cup strawberry juice and continue to mix until well incorporated.  It will take a minute or two for the juice to mix in to the fat in the butter.

To Assemble the Cake:  Beginning with a layer of vanilla cake on a plate or cake stand, pipe a ring of buttercream around the edge and add half of the strawberry mascarpone to the top.  Top with the next layer of cake and repeat the process, ending with the final cake layer on the top.   Frost the cake with strawberry buttercream, and decorate as desired.*

Notes

The buttercream recipe makes enough to frost, fill and decorate the cake.  If you wish to omit the decoration, reduce the buttercream recipe to 4 cups butter, 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, and 1/4- 1/3 cup strawberry juice.

I decorated this cake with fresh strawberries, Lindt Strawberries & Cream truffles, shaved white chocolate, and powdered freeze dried strawberries.

Keywords: strawberry, cream, layer cake, mascarpone, white chocolate