Fluffy, light zesty sponge layers filled with whipped cream and fresh strawberries make this Strawberry Lemonade Cake an absolute delight to be shared with your family.
We love cake in our house. That’s a given considering the job that I do! However, what we love equally, if not more than cake (if that’s possible!), is the act of sitting down and sharing a meal together. Since the girls were tiny, we’ve always eaten as a family, around the table. To us sharing a meal, whether it’s a Thai curry for a weeknight meal, cheese quesadillas for a Saturday lunch or pancakes on a Sunday morning, the act of sitting together is imperative to our family unit.
It allows us to discuss the days going on, vent any frustrations or celebrate any victories. Share silly jokes, talk about work or school trials and tribulations and chat about life matters. Ultimately, it’s our time to connect together, which is invaluable.
When Portmeirion contacted me to create an afternoon tea recipe to bring families together at meal times on their #GetTogether Campaign, I jumped at the chance. After Portmeirion conducted research, they found that only 39% of families in Britain sit down and eat together. This week they are trying to get as many families to sit with each other during a meal.
So my aim for this blog post is to share an incredibly tasty layer cake that is surprisingly easy to make that you would want to sit down and share with your family over afternoon tea.
Strawberries and Lemons
Don’t these two flavours encapsulate summer? Fresh, sweet, juicy strawberries teamed with zesty, tart lemons ... all in one cake. And with whipped cream. Does it get better than that I ask? This is the best of summer in a cake. Fresh, light, zingy, sweet and pretty.
The lemon sponge is so light and fluffy. Light as air, my kids called it, and with fresh lemon juice and lemon zest, it has quite a tang.
Half the strawberries are then diced and folded into whipped cream, and spread decadently in between the sponge cake slices. But that’s not where the strawberries end. I sliced rounds of them and placed them over the layer of cream, just to get an extra mouthful of strawberries and cream. (It doesn’t get more quintessentially British than that!)
How to construct the layer cake
Once all three layers of cake have cooled on the wire rack, the whipped cream has been combined with the diced strawberries and the remaining strawberries have been sliced, it's time to construct!
- Dollop a teaspoonful of the cream onto the centre of the cake stand. Then place one layer of sponge cake on top. TIP: The cream stops the cake from sliding around
- Place your first layer of sponge onto the cake stand.
- Spoon one-half of the strawberry whipped cream onto the sponge and level out with an offset spatula.
- Place a layer of sliced strawberries over the cream pressing them gently to prevent them from sliding.
- Add the second layer of sponge and place it on top of the strawberries and cream.
- Repeat by layering the remaining strawberry whipped cream and sliced strawberries over the sponge layer.
- Place your remaining sponge layer on the top and press gently.
- Once you’ve made your lemon glaze pour it over the top of the cake, and with an offset spatula, gently push it to the edge of the cake so that it slowly travels over the edge.
For more strawberry recipes, check out:
- Roasted Strawberry Crepes. The recipe is found here.
Strawberry Lemonade Cake Recipe
Ingredients
Lemon sponge
- 330 g unsalted butter
- 330 g caster sugar
- 6 large eggs
- 5 unwaxed lemons, zested
- 500 g self-raising flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon fine salt
- 100 g sour cream
- 60 ml lemon juice
Strawberry whipped cream
- 300 ml double cream (heavy cream)
- 500 g fresh strawberries, hulled
Lemon glaze
- 400 g powdered icing sugar
- 60 ml lemon juice
Instructions
Lemon sponge
- Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F). Grease x3 20cm (8-inch) springform/cake tins and line the bases with parchment paper;
- In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar and lemon zest until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
- Whilst continuously beating, add the eggs one at a time, stopping halfway to scrape the sides of the bowl. Beat until eggs are well mixed in and then stir through the
- Fold through the flour, baking powder and salt until just combined. Then fold through the sourcream and lemon juice until just combined.
- Pour batter into your three prepared cake pans, weighing each one to get even distribution of batter. Level batter with an offset spatula.
- Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown on top and the centre is firm to touch and springs back when pressed. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for ten minutes before removing and allowing to cool completey on the wire rack. If the cakes are domed then using a serrated knife, slice off the tops to level the cakes.
Strawberry whipped cream
- Chop half the strawberries quite finely and set them aside. In a medium bowl, whip the cream until soft peaks form. Add the diced strawberries and fold through. Slice the other half of the strawberries into rounds.
To assemble
- Add a dollop of cream on your cake stand and then place one layer of your sponge cake. Spoon half the strawberry whipped cream onto the sponge layer and level out with an offset spatula. Then press layer half of the sliced strawberries.
- Add another sponge layer and spoon the remaining cream onto this second layer, again levelling out with an offset spatula. Add the remaining sliced strawberries on top of the cream. Place the final sponge layer on top.
Lemon glaze
- In a medium bowl, sieve the icing sugar and whisk in 3 tablespoons of lemon juice until smooth. Pour the lemon glaze over the top of the cake allowing the glaze to just go over the edges. Allow the glaze to set for ten minutes. Decorate with fresh flowers, more sliced strawberries or sliced lemons.
All recipes are developed and tested in Metric grams. I strongly recommend that you bake using digital scales for a more accurate result. I have provided a conversion to US customary in the recipe but please note that I haven’t tested using this method.
Notes
Nutrition
For all the products I used within this shoot, please see the links below:
Sophie Conran for Portmeirion White Baking Set - CPW78851-XD - http://wfsr.co/ed-pm-scbaking
Sophie Conran for Portmeirion Coupe Plate 8.5 inch - Assorted Colours - CPT76530-XP – http://wfsr.co/ed-pm-sophiecoupe
Sophie Conran for Portmeirion 6.5 Inch Coupe Plate Set of 4 - CPW78862-XF - http://wfsr.co/ed-pm-scplate
Sophie Conran for Portmeirion 4 Inch Coupe Plate Set of 4 - CPW78863-XF - http://wfsr.co/ed-pm-scsmallplate
Sophie Conran for Portmeirion 4.5 Inch Low Bowl Set of 4 - CPW78861-XF - http://wfsr.co/ed-pm-sclowbowl
Sophie Conran for Portmeirion White Footed Cake Plate - CPW76840-X - http://wfsr.co/pm-sc-whitecakeplate
Sophie Conran for Portmeirion Balloon Tumbler (Set of 2) - CP76721 - http://wfsr.co/ed-pm-ballontumbler
Sophie Conran for Portmeirion White Medium Pitcher - CPW76817-X - http://wfsr.co/ed-pm-scpitcher
Heather
Thanks so much for the recipe. I made this cake yesterday and it was so delicious! I used sour cherries (as I had lots left from picking them this summer) instead of strawberries and the combination was still terrific. The only thing is my cake turned out more like a pound cake density and texture, is this how it’s supposed to be? If not, any ideas on where I might have gone wrong? I’m not that experienced of a cake baker to tell what might have happened.
Emma
Hi Heather, Firstly, thank you so much for baking my Lemonade cake. Secondly, let’s trouble shoot the pinch points as to why it turned out dense. I’ve made this on four various occasions and it definitely turns out light and airy. Now the butter and sugar should be beaten until light and fluffy - perhaps you didn’t do this step for long enough. The dry ingredients should be folded in until just combined and then the same with the sour cream. If you over mix at either of these two stages then then batter can loose some of its air and become denser. Those are my thought, I hope that helps with your next bake,
Emma
Heather
Okay thanks so much for the tips, it may be the mixing of butter and sugar, my hand mixer is really poor quality so I think I might have just needed to do that longer. And then maybe because that wasn’t airy enough when I mixed in the dry ingredients I lost the air altogether, making a pound cake density lol. Thanks again, I’ll definitely watch that first mixing step on my next cake!