In Malta they take strawberries seriously. They have a wide production of juicy and sweet strawberries from late February till May. Traditionally, the village of Mgarr, in the northern part of Malta, is the one with the best production and quality.
I found a beautiful tray of early produce, and I could not resist to make this quick but scrumptious cake!
Ingredients
For the cocoa sponge
For the filling and topping
Steps
For the cocoa sponge
– open the eggs onto a large bowl;
– add the sugar and the pinch of salt;
– whisk everything together for at least 15 minutes or till you get a stiff cream
– slowly pour the oil and keep whisking;
– sift the flours and the cocoa powder and mix gently;
– pour the obtain mixture onto a greased baking tray of 26cm diameter
– bake in a pre heated static oven at 170 degrees for about 30 minutes;
– remove the cake from the oven and transfer it onto a wire cooling rack;
To assemble the cake
– wash and rinse well the strawberries;
– keep 8 whole strawberries aside, chop the remaining ones into small cubes;
– cut the sponge into 2 discs;
– wet both disc with the rum (use a brush to spread the rum evenly);
– whipt the cream together with the icing sugar vanilla;
– mix half of the whipped cream with the chopped strawberry and spread the thus obtained filling onto the base of the cake;
– cover with the top disc and spread the remaining whipped cream onto it;
– decorate with the whole strawberries and the ground pistachio;
– refrigerate for at least 8 hours before serving: it will allow the sponge to become moist and to absorbed the flavors;
Varied doses for servings