This week's Tuesdays with Dorie (TWD) baking assignment was the Berry Surprise Cake, chosen by fellow blogger, Mary Anne of Meet Me in the Kitchen. Check out her blog for the recipe and fellow TWDers blogs for their versions of the Berry Surprise Cake!
I loved this cake and got raves from friends who enjoyed it at a recent dinner party I hosted. The cake itself reminded me of ladyfingers - light, spongy and just a subtle sweetness. It offered a great platform for the cream cheese filling and the fresh berries. Despite the time involved to prepare the 4 components of the cake (cake batter, syrup, filling & topping) it was all worth it. I would definitely make this cake again, especially in the spring or summer months. It was nice to make this in the winter for something light!
My notes on this recipe:
- One thing to note about the recipe is that once the cake is baked, it should be tall enough to carve out the middle of the cake to fill with filling and berries. My cake did not come out tall enough so I ended up just layering the cake.
- Once layered, I drizzled the syrup I made with sugar, water and a raspberry coulis. The original recipe called for using Chambord liqueur, which I didn't have on hand. I also didn't want to risk gathering crumbs by sweeping my pastry brush across the freshly layered cake so drizzling the syrup was just to play it safe.
- Where vanilla extract was called for in the recipe, I substituted vanilla paste. I loved the vanilla flecked cream cheese filling I got as a result!
- The original recipe called for raspberries both in the filling and also for the fruit garnish on the top. However I saw some great blueberries and strawberries on sale which I used instead. After spreading a thin layer of my vanilla cream cheese filling, I layered fresh blueberries on the cake. To top it off, I used both blueberries and sliced strawberries which gave a nice colorful presentation.
