recipe
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Chicago
The Whipped Cream Berry Cake
Martin Sorge
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$1.00
This cake strikes the balance of richness and lightness. It’s made of equal weights of sugar, eggs, flour, and heavy cream, creating a light, moist, and fluffy texture. It is topped with lemon verbena whipped cream and fresh summer berries. This cake verges on trifle in the best possible way.
You Need
9-inch square
3:00
Lemon Verbena Whipped Cream Frosting
- Zest of 1/2 of a lemon
- 6-8 fresh lemon verbena leaves
- 40 g (3 tablespoons) granulated sugar
- 56g (2 ounces) cream cheese, cold
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 230 g (1 cup) heavy cream, cold
Assembly and Decoration
- About 2 quarts of fresh berries (e.g., red raspberries, black raspberries, blueberries)
- Few sprigs of fresh lemon thyme or fine shavings of lemon zest
How To
- Spread some oil or butter on the bottom (not the sides) of a 9-square cake pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper.
- Heat the oven to 350°F with a rack in the middle.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour and baking powder. Set aside.
- Whip the heavy cream on high speed until thick and soft peaks form. Scrape into a bowl and refrigerate while you whip the eggs.
- In the mixer, add the eggs, sugar, seeds from the vanilla bean (or extract), and salt, then mix on low speed for 1 minute to combine.
- Mix on the highest speed for 10 minutes until the batter looks very frothy and light. Turn the mixer to medium speed and beat for 5 minutes, then turn to the lowest speed and beat for an additional 10 minutes. This mixing method ensures a light and stable egg foam.
- On low speed, slowly add the flour mixture.
- By hand, fold in whipped cream in two batches.
- Pour batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top
- Bake the cake at 350F for about 32-38 minutes (mine takes exactly 36 minutes), until the cake springs back when pressed in the middle and a cake tester comes out with just some fluffy crumbs attached (no wet batter). It will be a deep golden brown and it may have risen and domed a lot.
- Remove the cake from the oven, hold it 5 inches above your counter and drop it onto the counter. (Thud.)Cool the cake in the pan for 15 minutes.
- Run an offset spatula around the edges of the pan to loosen the cake. Invert the cake onto a wire rack, remove the parchment and let it cool completely on the rack (I just leave it upside down). Handle the cake gently, because this cake is quite light and fragile. After it's cool, carefully transfer the cake to its final destination. (A platter or something like that.)
- You can make the cake up to a day ahead of time. Keep the cake wrapped at room temperature.
- In a small food processor, combine lemon zest, verbena leaves, and sugar, and pulse until the lemon verbena is finely ground.
- Add the sugar mixture, cream cheese, and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix on low speed for about 1 minute to combine. Turn the speed to medium and whisk until smooth, about 1-2 minutes.
- With the mixer on medium-low, stream in the cold heavy cream. After the cream is all added, turn the mixer to medium speed and whip until you get your desired consistency: soft peaks for casual swoops, and stiff peaks for piping. Don’t walk away from the mixer while whipping cream. That’s a general rule.
- You can make the whipped cream about one day ahead of time, if you need to. Store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
- Just before serving, assemble the cake.
- Dump all of the Frosting onto the cake and use an offset spatula to spread the frosting evenly around the cake.
- Wash and dry the berries (yes, dry them). Put them on top of the frosting, and be generous.
- I like to to finish mine off with some sprigs of lemon thyme or even a dusting of finely grated lemon zest.