Cotton sponge cake with strawberries and cream cheese frosting

Close-up view of top of cake, with cut strawberries and colored sprinkles

My kids had a birthday to celebrate so I made the cakes and they decorated. I used to do this when my children were small, set up a table for them to decorate cookies or gingerbread houses, even had parties like this, and to this day, they like assembling treats and are good cooks.

Here's the batter recipe I often use which you can find in my other recipes (mocha sponge, apple cider cake...) :

Cotton sponge cake recipe :

4 eggs, separated

1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar

1-1/4 cup (180 g) cake flour

3/4 cup (150 g) confectioner's sugar

1/4 cup cider (60 g) (French kind, or 4.5% alcohol) or beer or carbonated water

1/4 cup (60 g) sour cream (or thick cream)

1/4 cup (60 g) milk (as needed)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 180° F / 350° C. Line pan with parchment paper. I used a 7" spring-form pan and a small fluted brioche mold. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Add granulated sugar a little at a time and continue to beat at high until stiff, about 2 minutes. In a separate bowl, mix egg yolks with cream and sift in cake flour, confectioners sugar, baking powder and salt. Add cider (or carbonated water) to thin mixture. Add a couple of tablespoons of milk if still too thick or difficult to stir. It should blend easily into egg whites.

Fold beaten egg whites into batter a little at a time. Once done, the batter should pour easily into pan(s). Fill pan 3/4 to the top and bake for 30-35 minutes or until the center has risen. Test with a pick to make sure the batter is thoroughly cooked or it may deflate. Allow to cool on a cooling rack. Once cool, slice horizontally to get 3 disks.

How to make cream cheese frosting :

2 cups (500 ml) whipping cream

8 oz (225 g) softened cream cheesse
2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup (+ 1/2 cup if you like it sweeter) (125 g) confectioners sugar

+ 12 strawberries to decorate

Whip the cream in a bowl until you get soft peaks. Add the softened cream cheese until well blended, then the sugar and vanilla. Refrigerate until you are ready to pipe on the cake.

Quick strawberry preserves :

15-20 strawberries, chopped

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons of kirsch or fresh lemon juice

Simmer chopped strawberries in a pan with sugar over medium heat about 10-12 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Overhead view of cake, mix of diced and heart shaped strawberries

To decorate, cut up about a dozen strawberries (the kids decided to make diced and heart-shaped ones). Put one of the cake disk layers on a serving dish. Pipe frosting along the inner edges of this layer (or spread with a spatula like we did on the first disk), then add strawberry preseves in the middle (or fresh strawberries) and top with a bit more frosting.

Side view of 3 layers of cake with buttercream and berries

Add another cake disk and repeat. Top off with the last disk and decorate with the remaining frosting and add fresh strawberries. You can decorate with sprinkles, candies, macarons or edible flowers.

(you see how I made a smaller second cake so we could have our cake and eat it too.)

Enjoy, everyone !