We make strawberry cake with the Thermomix® every year from mid-May, when the German berries appear at farm shops. The trick that makes the difference between a homely cake and one that looks as though it came from a patisserie has nothing to do with the base and nothing to do with the cream. It is the way we arrange the strawberries.
The halved strawberries go onto the cream with the point facing upward, not with the cut side facing upward. That sounds like a minor detail, but it is exactly where the result is decided. Point upward means the red cake glaze runs cleanly down the slanted sides and fills the gaps without flooding the berries. Cut side upward means the glaze forms little puddles on the flat tops of the berries, runs over the edges and makes the surface look patchy. We have compared this enough times over the years to make it a house rule.
Strawberry Cake with the Thermomix®
Ingredients 0 / 14 ✓
- 5 g butter
- 3 eggs
- 100 g sugar
- 1 sachet vanilla sugar
- 80 g flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1000 g strawberries
- 200 g double cream
- 1 sachet cream stabiliser
- 250 g Mascarpone
- 1 sachet vanilla sugar
- 1 sachet red cake glaze
- 250 g water
- 1 tbsp sugar
Instructions 0 / 9
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1
Preheat the oven.
Preheat the oven to 180°C top and bottom heat and grease a springform tin with butter.
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2
Whisk the eggs.
Insert the butterfly whisk, add eggs, sugar and vanilla sugar to the mixing bowl and whisk for 4 minutes / speed 4 until light and fluffy.
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3
Mix the batter.
Add flour and baking powder and mix for 10 seconds / speed 4. Rinse the mixing bowl.
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4
Bake.
Pour the batter into the prepared springform tin and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 15 minutes. Test with a skewer.
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5
Prepare the strawberries.
Wash and hull the strawberries. Cut 300 g of them into small pieces and halve the rest.
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6
Whip the cream.
Insert the butterfly whisk into the mixing bowl, add double cream and cream stabiliser and whip on speed 3.5, watching carefully, until the cream is firm. Set aside. Optionally transfer some cream to a piping bag for decorating the cake later.
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7
Make the strawberry cream.
Remove the butterfly whisk. Add Mascarpone, vanilla sugar and strawberry pieces to the mixing bowl and mix for 10 seconds / reverse direction / speed 3. Fold in the cream with the spatula.
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8
Assemble.
Spread the cream over the cooled base and arrange the remaining strawberries on top.
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9
Glaze.
Prepare the cake glaze according to the packet instructions and pour it over the strawberry cake. Leave the cake to cool fully before slicing.
Tip: Garnish your cake with chopped white chocolate, chopped almonds or mint leaves.
Nutrition per serving
Why this strawberry cake works
The thin sponge base carries 1 kg of berries. We deliberately bake the base flat (80 g flour, 3 eggs, 100 g sugar) for just 15 minutes at 180°C top and bottom heat. A thick base soaks up the cream and collapses under the weight of the berries. A thin, fully baked base stays firm even when 1000 g of strawberries plus 250 g of mascarpone cream land on top.
The mascarpone and cream layer counteracts the juice problem. Anyone who has made strawberry cake without a cream layer knows the issue: the berries release juice, the juice hits the base directly and the base turns soggy. We place a 450 g layer of Mascarpone, whipped double cream and 300 g of finely chopped strawberries in between. The cream absorbs some of the juice, and the base stays dry.
In the Thermomix®, the base and the topping run in parallel. While the sponge is in the oven for 15 minutes, we whip the cream in the cleaned mixing bowl on speed 3.5, watching carefully, until stiff, then set it aside. We mix the Mascarpone with vanilla sugar and small strawberry pieces for 10 seconds / reverse direction / speed 3, then fold in the cream with the spatula. The cream is ready before the base comes out of the oven.
The berry arrangement in detail
Of the 1 kg of strawberries, 300 g go into the cream finely chopped. We halve the remaining 700 g lengthways. Halving lengthways means one cut from top to bottom, from the stalk end to the tip. Not across the middle, as that gives two slices with two flat sides that wobble. Halved lengthways, each half has one flat cut side (which goes face-down into the cream) and one rounded back with a tip (which faces upward).
We place the halves tightly together, starting at the edge of the tin and working inward in concentric circles. Each berry supports the next. The gaps between the berries are kept deliberately small, because the cake glaze fills only those gaps and does not pool on top of the berries.
Applying the cake glaze correctly
The cake glaze is the second point at which this cake can go wrong. Hot glaze poured straight from the hob onto the berries has two problems: it turns cloudy as it cools because the starch sets too quickly, and it partially cooks the surface of the strawberries, making them mushy.
Our solution: prepare the cake glaze according to the packet instructions with 250 g water and 1 tbsp sugar, then remove from the heat and leave to rest for 4 to 5 minutes until it has cooled to room temperature. Only then spoon it in circles over the berries. The glaze can be quite thick at this point, almost like syrup. If it starts to form threads as you pour, it is too cold. In that case, warm it for 10 seconds in the mixing bowl at 50°C / speed 1.
Where strawberry cake turns watery or the glaze goes cloudy
Soggy base after 4 hours in the fridge
This happens when the strawberries are washed before arranging and not patted dry. Residual water on the skin combined with juice from the cut surfaces mixes with the cake glaze and seeps through the cream down to the base. Our solution: wash the strawberries, lay them briefly on a clean tea towel and pat them dry with a second towel before hulling and halving. The base can also be brushed thinly with a little apricot jam beforehand to seal it.
Cake glaze running out at the edge of the springform tin
The cake glaze always finds the path of least resistance, which is the gap between the base and the springform ring. Our solution: we leave the springform ring in place until the glaze is fully set. We only remove it after 30 minutes of chilling, once the glaze has set completely. Do not spread the berry cream all the way to the edge either. A 5 mm gap is enough for the outer berry halves to form a wall that holds the glaze in place.
Base underbaked in the centre
15 minutes is sufficient for a 26 cm springform tin and exactly 80 g of flour. If you increase the amount of flour or use a smaller tin, the base will be thicker and will stay sticky inside. Our solution: a skewer test is essential. Insert a wooden skewer into the centre. If it comes out clean, the base is done. If not, bake for a further 3 minutes and test again.
Variations we make ourselves
With a pistachio topping: Once the cake glaze has set, we scatter 30 g of roughly chopped unsalted pistachios around the edge. This adds a green accent colour and a crunchy contrast to the soft cream.
Strawberry and rhubarb in the glaze: Instead of water, we cook the cake glaze with 250 g of homemade rhubarb juice. The glaze becomes slightly tart and is a perfect seasonal match from mid-April to the start of June. It also works well with our Strawberry and Rhubarb Sheet Cake as a flavour pairing.
With Limoncello in the cream: Use 20 g of Limoncello instead of a sachet of vanilla sugar in the mascarpone cream. Most of the alcohol evaporates in the fridge and the citrus aroma remains. This makes the cake feel a little more grown-up and cuts through the sweetness of the berries.
Without cream stabiliser: If you want to skip the cream stabiliser, add an extra 50 g of Mascarpone to the cream in the mixing bowl before whipping on speed 3.5. Mascarpone stabilises the cream just as reliably.
Cream, vanilla ice cream or a glass of strawberry lemonade
When the weather plays along, we serve the strawberry cake with our Thermomix® strawberry lemonade on the terrace. Anyone who wants to switch to no-bake desserts will find the summer version with a biscuit base in our no-bake strawberry cheesecake. For a glass dessert instead of cake, we recommend the strawberry and mascarpone dessert, which uses the same mascarpone and cream logic in individual portions.
Up to 1 day in the fridge, best eaten on the day it is baked
In the fridge: The cake keeps for 2 days covered with a cake dome. From day 3 the base softens and the berries start to release juice that dissolves the glaze. If you want to bake the cake a day ahead (the classic birthday-prep scenario), that works well. The base, cream and berry topping hold for 24 hours without any loss of quality.
Freezing: This does not work. We tried it twice. Thawing makes the berries mushy, the cake glaze draws water as it defrosts and the cream separates. If you want to get ahead, freeze only the bare sponge base and make the topping and glaze fresh on the day of serving.
Using up leftovers: Leftover slices taste almost better the next day because the cream has taken on the flavours of the berries. We eat them cold with coffee in the morning rather than throwing them away.
What sets our strawberry cake apart from the standard recipe
Most strawberry cake recipes for the Thermomix® use a ready-made flan base or a heavy all-in-one sponge with a red cream cheese topping. Both work, but both have two weaknesses: the ready-made base tastes of nothing and the all-in-one sponge turns soggy under 1 kg of berries. Our approach reverses both points. Instead of a ready-made base, we bake a thin, homemade sponge with just 80 g of flour that still supports 1000 g of berries plus 450 g of mascarpone cream. Instead of a standard cream, we place a mascarpone and double cream layer with 300 g of finely chopped strawberries as a moisture barrier between the base and the topping. And the real difference lies in the berry geometry: tip facing upward, halved lengthways, packed tightly together. That turns a home-baked cake into the patisserie look that our readers have been sending us photos of since 2021.
Goes well with: Vanilla sauce and icing sugar.
Erdbeerkuchen aus dem Thermomix®
Zutaten
Zum Fetten der Form
- 5 g Butter
Für den Boden:
- 3 Ei
- 100 g Zucker
- 1 Päckchen Vanillezucker
- 80 g Mehl
- 1 TL Backpulver
Für den Belag:
- 1000 g Erdbeeren
- 200 g Sahne
- 1 Päckchen Sahnesteif
- 250 g Mascarpone
- 1 Päckchen Vanillezucker
Für den Guss:
- 1 Päckchen roter Tortenguss
- 250 g Wasser
- 1 EL Zucker
Anleitungen
- Backofen auf 180 °C Ober- und Unterhitze vorheizen und Springform mit Butter fetten.5 g Butter
Für den Boden:
- Rühraufsatz einsetzen, Eier. Zucker und Vanillezucker in den Mixtopf geben und 4 Minuten/Stufe 4 schaumig rühren.3 Ei, 100 g Zucker, 1 Päckchen Vanillezucker
- Mehl und Backpulver zugeben und 10 Sekunden/Stufe 4 mischen. Mixtopf spülen.80 g Mehl, 1 TL Backpulver
- Teig in die vorbereitete Springform geben und auf der mittleren Schiene des Backofens 15 Minuten backen. Stäbchenprobe machen.
Für den Belag:
- Erdbeeren waschen und putzen. 300 g davon in kleine Stücke schneiden, den Rest halbieren.1000 g Erdbeeren
- Rühraufsatz in Mixtopf einsetzen, Sahne und Sahnesteif zugeben, unter Sicht auf Stufe 3,5 schlagen, bis die Sahne fest ist und beiseite geben. Optional etwas Sahne in einen Spritzbeutel geben, um den Kuchen noch zu dekorieren.200 g Sahne, 1 Päckchen Sahnesteif
- Rühraufsatz entfernen. Mascarpone, Vanillezucker und Erdbeerstückchen in den Mixtopf geben und 10 Sekunden/Linkslauf/Stufe 3 mischen. Sahne mit dem Spatel unterheben.250 g Mascarpone, 1 Päckchen Vanillezucker
- Creme auf den erkalteten Boden geben, verstreichen und restliche Erdbeeren darauf verteilen.
Für den Guss:
- Tortenguss nach Packungsanleitung zubereiten und über den Erdbeerkuchen verteilen. Den Kuchen vor dem Anschneiden gut abkühlen lassen.1 Päckchen roter Tortenguss, 250 g Wasser, 1 EL Zucker
Rezept-Zubehör
Notizen
Nährwerte
For more berry recipes, have a look here:
- Strawberry and Rhubarb Sheet Cake
- Thermomix® Strawberry Ice Cream
- Strawberry and Mango Sparkling Wine
- Strawberry Daiquiri
- Berry Bowl
