Summer RoundUp #8: Strawberry sponge cake, Sari {Cook your dream}

Here we are again, a guest post to open the new season of blogging, an intense, interesting and amazing new season, I dare say!  It’s fun to have Sari, from {Cook your dream} as guest, when it was me, a few months ago, that was a real guest at her house in London for Food Blogger Connect.  She opened her heart and her house to a complete stranger, and from that moment we have become friends, sharing emotions, laughs and suggestions. I am really happy to present you Sari and her light, elegant and emotional photography, I’m sure you’ll love her and her blog as much as I do!

London holidays and a Strawberry sponge cake

Summer is my favourite season and I always look forward to summer all year. This feeling has been even stronger since my boyfriend and I moved to London two years ago as I don’t really enjoy the sun enough there.

It’s been a tradition that each year we plan 3-4 weeks holiday during summer. We prefer adventure travel holidays and a longer holiday gives us a chance to explore more places and taste more local food and drinks.

This summer is completely different though, and it’s the first year when we don’t have our traditional one month holiday. We realised that after two years living in the UK, we haven’t seen much from a beautiful local nature and decided to change it. So this summer is filled with short trips around the British countryside. I love to pack some food and have a picnic in a park or forest and enjoy some nature after spending too much time in the city.

We bought a National Trust Pass that allows us to visit for free hundreds of  Britain’s beautiful gardens, castles and buildings. That’s also a great motivation to plan more trips for us. So far, we have visited several lovely buildings in London, like Ham House which is 400 years old grand house near the River Thames in Richmond, and made a few trips outside London.

Summer to me also means lots of fruit that I love, especially strawberries, apricots and peaches. I really enjoy light and fruity desserts during summer. I make lots of fruit ice creams and sorbet that are fantastically refreshing. The recipe I decided to share with you is very easy and quick to make and it’s the perfect summer dessert. And the best thing is, that you don’t have to turn on your oven to make this dessert, when it’s already hot enough outside!

Strawberry sponge cake

• 200 g sponge biscuits
• 1 kg fresh strawberries
• 3 tbsp rum
• 500 g greek yogurt
• 500 g quark
• 1tsp vanilla
• 50 g icing sugar

1. Set about 10 strawberries aside to be used as decoration. Wash your strawberries, drain them or pat them dry gently. Stem and halve the strawberries or slice if they are large, and put them aside.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the greek yogurt, quark, vanilla and sugar. Stir well until fully incorporated.

3. Start filling a 25cm spring form pan with the biscuits. Place each biscuit flat side down in the bottom of  pan. Repeat with enough biscuits to cover the bottom. Pour 1,5 tbsp of rum over the biscuits.

4. Cover the biscuit layer with strawberries. Pour half of quark mixture over the strawberry layer.

5. Arrange more biscuits over the quark mixture in pan, covering completely. Pour  remaining rum over the biscuits. Repeat another layer of strawberries. Pour remaining quark mixture over the top and spread evenly with rubber spatula.

6. Refrigerate for at least 5 hours until firm or overnight. To loosen the cake, run a knife around the inside edges of the pan. Release the pan’s springs sides.

7. Decorate the cake with fresh strawberries and serve.

Related posts:

Summer RoundUp #9: Strawberry Shortcake, Paula {Bell’Alimento} Strawberry and mascarpone pound cake Lemon and white chocolate cake A simple crostata: thank you for the ordinary that becomes extraordinary