May 31, 2010

Cake #17 Marscapone-Filled Cake with Sherried Berries



Oooh la la.  This Marscapone-Filled Cake with Sherried Berries is/was divine.  Again, to me it is a dessert, not a cake, and it was like a very grown-up elegant version of strawberry shortcake.  The cake itself was excellent - almost like a pound cake.  I did cook it 3-5 minutes too long (forgot to re-set the timer) but it was still great.

We served this at a garden party on Memorial Day weekend.  It was a breath of fresh air after all those triple layer cakes...this one took 1 measly 9" round cake pan.  Slice that cake in half - the cake was sturdy and tall enough to withstand this.  I made the cake the night before and put it in the fridge covered over night.  On the day of the party, I macerated the berries about 6 hours before serving (recipe said only 15 minutes-2 hours).  And I made the marscapone cream filling in advance & assembled the cake once at the party...I was worried the cream would get crushed - that was not a problem at all since the cream is pretty firm.


This cake is easy to make.  In fact, my 9 year old nephew made the entire cake portion all by himself with me supervising.  Maybe he should have done the berries too, b/c I messed them up and had to recover.   To macerate the berries involves fino sherry (borrowed from my in-laws so as to use a much better sherry than the cooking crap I had on hand) + sugar.  So I dumped in the sugar and then the sherry on top of the berries.  And then I read the recipe again.  I was supposed to first dissolve the sugar in the sherry by boiling it in a saucepan and then dumping it on the berries.   Enter the photo above where I strained out the sherry and some sugar to boil and add back.   The end result was just fine - not too alcohol-y either.  Yummm.

This cake would be a great base-cake for other frostings.

This marscapone + cream + sugar whipped into a thick whipped cream is AWESOME.  You could definitely use this as a whipped cream replacement for other desserts.

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