Strawberry & Olive Oil Marscapone Cake

 

The wheat flour version of this Strawberry & Marscarpone Olive oil cake by Mario Batali appeared in the Italian issue (September 2014) of ABC delicious. magazine.

This recipe was designed specifically to be made with Bakers' Magic gluten free flour. The finished baked product will not be the same if you use another gluten free flour and you will need to adjust the recipe, particularly if the flour you're using contains rice flour.  

Ingredients

Cake*

Strawberries hulled - see note

50 g Agave syrup or maple syrup

Finely grated zest & juice of 1 lime

170 g Potato starch

140 g Bakers' Magic Gluten free flour

1 1/2 tsp Baking powder

1 tsp Salt

125 g Extra Virgin Olive oil

60 g Milk

1 tbs Vanilla extract

4 Eggs separated

2 Eggs

330 g Caster sugar

 

Maize starch = Cornflour from maize/corn and potato starch is sometimes labelled as potato flour. For more information go to Maize starch vs Cornflour.

 

Strawberries - The original recipe called for ~750 g (3 punnets). However I only used ~400 g of small strawberries on the cake. A lot of strawberries are needed to find enough that are roughly the same size & colour without any blemishes on them to put on the cake. Having quite a few left over strawberries I made topping out of them. When I make this cake again I will use some of the excess strawberries to make a topping containing Agave syrup, lime juice & zest. I will use this syrup either on the cake or as an extra.   

The assembled cake is huge. The original recipe states that it serves 8 - 10, I think it would comfortably feed 12. If you want to make a trial cake half the ingredients & only make one cake. To assemble slice off the top of the whole cake, then cut it down the middle & stack the two halves.  

 

 Vanilla icing

20 g Vanilla extract

75 g Caster sugar

375 g Thickened cream

 

Marscarpone filling

150 g Thickened cream

300 g Marscarpone

1 1/2 tsp Cointreau

Method

Cake

This recipe requires either hand held beaters or a stand mixer.

Combine the strawberries, agave syrup, lime juice & zest in a bowl. Stir to coat all strawberries. Let sit for 20 mins, then drain the strawberries keeping the juice.

Turn on the oven to 175 C.

Grease & line the base & sides of two 20 cm cake pans with baking paper.

Mix together the Bakers' Magic Gluten free flour, potato starch, baking powder & salt.

Beat together the milk, vanilla, 275 g of sugar, 2 whole eggs & 4 egg yolks for ~7 mins until pale & at least doubled in volume. 

Continue beating and add in the olive oil. The olive oil will deflate the mixture a little.

Add the dry ingredients & stir to combine. 

In a separate bowl beat the egg whites to medium peaks. Add the remaining 55 g of caster sugar & continue beating until stiff peaks form. 

Fold the beaten egg whites into the cake batter.

Divide the batter between the two cake pans & bake for ~40 mins. The top of the cake will spring back when it is ready.

Bring the cakes out of the oven & allow to cool in the pans for 15 mins before turning them out on to wire racks to cool completely.

Vanilla icing

Whip together the vanilla, sugar & cream until it is thick. This will be used on the outside of the cake so it needs to be able to hold its shape.

Cover with plastic clingwrap & put it in the fridge for an hour.

Marscarpone filling

Beat the marscarpone, cream & Cointreau together until it forms firm peaks. Cover with plastic clingwrap & put it in the fridge for 10 mins.

Preparing the cakes

Cut off the tops of both cakes with a bread knife to make them level. 

Brush the tops of the cut cakes with the reserved strawberry juice. 

Spread 1/4 of the marscarpone filling over the cut side of one cake.

Arrange the strawberries, standing upright, stem end down, over the marscarpone layer. I started arranging the strawberries from the outside working into the middle.

Put the remaining marscarpone filling over the strawberries, filling in the gaps & leveling the top.

Place the second cake on top of the strawberry/marscarpone layer, cut side down, pressing down gently.

Spread the Vanilla icing on the top & sides of the cake. 

Refrigerate the cake for at least 15 mins before serving.

Enjoy.