A light, fluffy cake that is delightful to eat with a cup of tea. The syrup makes it moist so it can easily work as dessert too. I served mine with some scattered chopped candied strawberries but that is not essential. In fact the cake would also look stunning with some white chocolate curls amongst the strawberries.
Ingredients (serves 8-10)
For the cake
- 75g white chocolate
- 100ml whole milk
- 100 caster sugar
- 80g unsalted butter, soft
- 2 medium eggs
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 175g plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 lime, zest only
For the strawberries
- 750g strawberries
- 75g white chocolate
For the syrup
- 100ml water
- 100g caster sugar
- 1 long piece of lime peel
- ½ lime juice only
For the cream
- 300ml double cream
- 250g mascarpone cheese
- 1-2 tbsp icing sugar
- ½ lime, zest
Method
To make the cake, preheat the oven to 170°C. Grease and dust with flour 2 x 20cm diameter cake tins.
Put the chocolate and milk in a saucepan and stir over a gentle heat the chocolate has melted. Leave to cool.
In a bowl whisk to combine the flour, baking powder and salt.
Using an electric whisk, beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add a spoonful of the dry ingredients and an egg and whisk to incorporate. Add the second egg and repeat. Finally add the cool chocolate milk and lime zest and whisk again to fully incorporate. Pour half of the cake batter in each cake tin, tap gently on the counter and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
While the cake is in the oven, make the syrup.
Put the sugar, lime peel and water in a saucepan and heat on medium until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil and cook for 1 minute beyond the boiling point. Take the syrup off the heat and add the lime juice.
In a bowl, beat with an electric whisk the double cream, mascarpone cheese, icing sugar and lime juice to a soft peak stage. Transfer to a piping bag.
When the cake is cooked, leave to cool for a few minutes in the cake tins and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Trim and slice some of the strawberries thinly to use between the two cakes when assembling. Cut the remaining strawberries in half and lay out on a wooden board. You may want to leave the green part on some of the fruit.
Chop finely the chocolate for the strawberries. Melt 50g of it in a bain marie and stir the 25g to the melted chocolate stirring until it has fully melted too. Transfer to a piping bag and cut a tiny hole at the bottom. Use the chocolate while it is runny up and down the half strawberries to make pretty chocolate lines.
To assemble the cake, put one cake on a cake stand. Use a brush to apply half the syrup onto the cake. Pipe with cream and cover with sliced strawberries. Add a little more cream and top with the second cake. Repeat with some more syrup, pipe with cream again and decorate with the chocolate strawberries.
Serve any left over cream and cut strawberries on the side.