Strawberry Field cake

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We're right in the middle of strawberry season, which means we simply must use them in another delicious cake. This time we'll prepare The Strawberry Field cake: a beautiful green sponge cake filled with layers of strawberries, jelly and whipped cream.

 

Spinach sponge cake comes out moist and intensely green. You cannot taste the spinach at all; you will only get pleasant sweetness and vanilla notes from the sponge cake. Strawberry layer is refreshing, fruit bring a contrasting texture and whipped cream simply melts in your mouth. All together they form a summer composition that not only looks great but is also delicious.

You'll find the list of ingredients, method and approximate nutritional value below.

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List of ingredients (28 x 18 cm baking tin)

Sponge cake

  • 150 g baby spinach
  • 100 ml vegetable oil
  • 250 g (~1 and 2/3 cup) wheat flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • Pinch of salt
  • 4 large eggs
  • 150 g (~3/4 cup) sugar
  • 1.5 tsp vanilla paste

Filling

  • 2 packets strawberry jelly (+ 700 ml freshly boiled water)
  • 400 g strawberries
  • 250 g whipping cream
  • 250 g mascarpone cheese
  • 50 g (~1/2 cup) icing sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla paste

Decoration

  • Fresh strawberries

Method

  1. Dissolve two packets of strawberry jelly in 700 ml of freshly boiled water. Leave jelly on the countertop until it starts thickening. 
  2. Put 150 g rinsed and dry baby spinach into a large bowl and add 50 ml vegetable oil. Blend the contents of the bowl until smooth and set aside. It is worth removing large stems from baby spinach before blending.
  3.  Sift 250 g wheat flour, 2 tsp baking powder and a small pinch of salt into a separate bowl through a fine sieve to remove lumps. Stir through dry ingredients shortly with a whisk until baking powder gets distributed in flour.
  4. Pour 4 large eggs into a separate large bowl and add 150 g white sugar. Beat the contents of the bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until light, thick but fluffy foam forms. It will take a few minutes, so be patient. All the ingredients should be at room temperature, so take eggs and spinach out of a fridge at least one hour before making the cake.
  5. Once you obtain the right texture, add remaining 50 ml of vegetable oil to the batter. Pour oil in a slow trickle while mixing the batter with an electric mixer at low speed. Only continue mixing until light and smooth batter forms.
  6. Add blended spinach to the batter in one large batch together with 1.5 tsp vanilla paste. If you don't have vanilla paste at hand, you can substitute it with vanilla extract or replace part of sugar with vanilla sugar. Mix the contents of the bowl shortly with an electric mixer at low speed only until spinach gets distributed in batter and batter becomes beautiful and green. You can set mixer aside then, we won't need it anymore.
  7. Add dry ingredients in three batches, mixing them in each time carefully with a silicone spatula, only until you can no longer see raw flour in the batter.
  8. Pour the batter into a rectangular baking tin, 18 x 28 cm. Bottom of the tin should be lined with baking paper, and baking tin sides should be clean. Carefully spread the batter across the whole surface with a spatula and even out the top.
  9. Bake the cake in a conventional oven preheated to 170 deg C, for around 40 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. The exact baking time will depend on your oven. Take ready cake out of the oven and set it aside in the baking tin to cool.
  10. After around 2 hours cut the cake off from the sides of the baking tin, take it out and remove baking paper. Transfer the cake onto a worktop and cut off the rounded top using a long serrated knife or a string knife. You can remove browned sides, too; it will be convenient to assemble the cake using an adjustable cake mold in that case. Hollow out the cake top and breakit up into crumbles that we will use later on as decoration.
  11. Return the green cake layer to the baking tin lined with baking paper or acetate foil. Arrange 400 g strawberry quarters on top of the cake. Spread them in an even later across the whole surface so that there will be strawberries in every cake slice. Pour thickening strawberry jelly on top and spread it evenly across the surface of the cake. Put the cake into a fridge for jelly to set completely.
  12. Pour 250 ml cold whipping cream into a large bowl. Add 250 g cold mascarpone cheese, 50 g icing sugar and 1 tsp vanilla paste. Whip the contents of the bowl with an electric mixer until stiff. I recommend starting at low speed setting and increasing mixer speed gradually to avoid a huge cloud of sugar in the kitchen.
  13. Transfer ready cream onto set strawberry layer and spread it evenly across the surface. Scatter reserved green crumbles on top. It is worth returning cake to the fridge for a few hours or overnight for whipped cream to cool completely and thicken up.
  14. Decorate with fresh strawberries immediately before serving.
  15. Enjoy!

Approximate nutritional value

100 g

  • 232 kcal
  • Carbs: 22 g 
  • Fat: 12 g
  • Protein: 4 g
  • Fibre: 1 g

1 slice (recipe makes 15 slices)

  • 341 kcal
  • Carbs: 32 g 
  • Fat: 18 g
  • Protein: 5 g
  • Fibre: 2 g

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