Midsummer has arrived!
You’ve gotta have a big flirty berry cake in midsummer and strawberry is the royal berry on a day like this. This cake is baked without refined sugars and using wholegrain spelt flour, cacao, honey, banana and salt which goes really well with the refreshing strawberries. The filling is a delicious mix of raspberry and quark yoghurt and the topping a layer of mascarpone cheese, whipped together with lemon, honey and a bit of cinnamon.
Nothing spells midsummer more than wild flowers and I must confess that I enjoy decorating the cake just as much as I do eating it. When it comes to styling or simply decorating I like to give it an effortless look. Perfection doesn’t charm so much and a bit of a bohemian natural style is more enjoyable and relaxed.
This cake has a delicious dense taste with a light cacao flavour and orange zest that you will love. The Swedish summer cakes are often made juicy by adding a fresh accent of orange lemonade to the dough. I still remember my childhoods summer cakes tasting like banana and cardamom, so that just had to be added to this creation.
A midsummer berry cake
Makes one cake
INGREDIENTS
Cake
125 g coconut oil
150 ml honey
2 tsp vanilla extract
200 g spelt flour
50 gr pistage or almonds, grounded
75 gr cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
150 ml almond milk
50 ml orange limonade or juice 50 ml orange juice
zest of 1 orange or lemon
1/2 tsp fine salt
1/2 tsp cardamom
1 banana, mashed
Raspberry filling
2 dl quark or cottage cheese 150 gr raspberries, frozen or fresh
2 tbsp white cashew cream
2 tbsp honey
Mascarpone topping
200 g mascarpone
50 ml honey
1 tbsp lemonjuice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
a tiny pinch of salt
a dash of cinnamon
Decoration
0.75 – 1 liter strawberries, halved
Cruelty free list:
Vegan cheese – Our favourites are Vegusto and Toffuti. Available from health food shops.
Slaughter free cheese, from Ahimsa www.ahimsamilk.org
INSTRUCTIONS:
Heat up your oven to 180 ℃. Grease a 20 cm spring form pan with coconut oil. In a mixing bowl, add your dry ingredinets: spelt flour, ground nuts, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and cardamum and mix well. Melt the cocoa oil slowly in a pan. Add the mashed banana, almond milk, vanilla extract, orange lemonade, citrus zest, and honey to the pan. Mix the moist ingredients together. Pour it slowly a little at a time into the bowl with dry ingredients and mix well.
Pour the dough mixture into the greased form and make the top surface flat and even using a dough scraper or a spoon. Bake in 180 ℃ for 40 minutes. Test with a thin stick to see that it comes out dry and clean to know if it’s done. Bake it longer if needs it. Let the cake rest and cool.
Now make the filling and the topping while the cake sets and cools. For the filling mix raspberries with the quark (or cottage cheese), cashew cream and honey. Set aside. Mix the topping ingredients together by whipping it briskly and set aside.
When the cake is cool, gently half it with a knife and lift off the top and set aside carefully. Add a generous layer of raspberry filling on the the cake base. Gently place the top cake half on top of the raspberry filling. Carefully add a thick layer of the mascarpone mix to the top of the cake. It should be even but it doesn’t have to be super smooth. Decorate placing the halved strawberries on top of it all. It’s also beautiful and festive to add flowers and berries of different sorts around the base of the cake, as you can see on my photograph.
Voila, the cake is done, serve direct and enjoy the summer tastes.
Nina Olsson
