Roasted Strawberry Buttercream Cardamom Cake

Last post for April, we survived another month and another theme. If you haven't noticed this month was all about the berry. First week was the Blackberry Cream Cheese hand pies. Then on to the Blueberry Glazed Doughnut. Last week were the Raspberry Swirl Mini Cheesecakes. Finally we are on the Roasted Strawberry Buttercream Cardamom Cake. I don't know why I chose cardamom, I believe I was just trying to use some cardamom pods I had. The flavors really worked well together. The buttercream is sweet and reminds me of summer, the jam is refreshing and a bit tart (in a good way) and the cardamom rounds the whole thing off. I chose to make these in some 4 inch spring form pans. They are the perfect size, I loved the way they turned out. These cakes were also pretty easy to make.

Roasted Strawberry + Cardamom Mini Cake

Cardamom Cake

• 1 1/2 cups cake flour (sifted)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 oz unsalted butter room temperature
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg room temperature
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of fresh ground cardamom

Roasted Strawberry Vanilla Jam

• 1 lb fresh strawberries
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla

Roasted Strawberry Buttercream

• 1 cup of butter (2 sticks) (softened)
• 2 cups of powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons of roasted strawberry vanilla jam

For the Roasted Strawberry Jam

First cut and quarter your strawberries, remove all tops. Place the strawberries on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Sprinkle 1/4 cup of sugar and vanilla extract over strawberries and toss to completely cover.

Place strawberries in a 350F oven for 30 minutes

You better save that syrup

This would be nice on vanilla ice cream

Take your roasted strawberries and syrup and place in a blender or food processor and blend till smooth.

Place pureed strawberries in a pan and place on stove top on medium high heat. stirring until puree thickens slightly. Placed cooled jam in a bowl to cool completely.

Look at that yummy jam

For The Cake:
Preheat oven to 350F and grease three 4"x 3" cake rounds, line with parchment.


In a small bowl whisk flour, baking powder, and salt, set aside.

If using fresh cardamom (crush your pods and place the seeds in your spice grinder) Add in your cardamom to your flour mixture

Fresh Cardamom smells so amazing

Cream butter and sugar on med-high until pale and fluffy, approx. 3mins.

Add egg and mix until combined. Add vanilla.

Alternate adding flour mixture and milk, beginning and ending with flour (3 additions of flour and 2 of milk), fully incorporating after each addition.

pour in that milk

This is a thick batter guys.

Divide batter evenly amongst pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (approx 25-30mins).**

look at all that cardamom

Cool in pans for 10mins, invert and cool completely on wire rack.

For The Buttercream:

Cream butter medium high until pale and fluffy.

whip that butter

 Reduce speed and slowly add in sugar.

 Beat until smooth and add roasted strawberry jam and beat until combined.

Assembly:
Using a serrated knife or a cake leveler, cut each cake in half horizontally.

cut off the round tops and eat them, then slice it in half

At this point you can either have three 2-layer cakes or make two 3-layer cakes.

Place a cake layer down and add pipe a ring of buttercream on top, spread evenly.

close up of those strawberry pieces

 Add 1 tsp jam in the ring  of buttercream and spread evenly.

This looks so beautiful

Place another cake layer on top and repeat the process, finishing with buttercream on top and around the sides and add fresh berries.

Crumb Coat

Perfect Cake For Mother's Day

Yummy Jam & Cake

Mini Raspberry Swirl Cheesecakes

We are almost finished with the berry bakes for April. We started with blackberries, then blueberries and now we are baking with raspberries. I wanted to bake with strawberries this week but when I went to a few stores they just didn't look great. I saw raspberries and thought to myself I can work with these. I decided to bake mini cheesecakes because I did not want to make a huge 9 inch cheesecake. Also mini versions of desserts just look so much cuter. Oh another reason is I literally had all of the ingredients in my fridge so I didn't have to buy anything extra.

Mini Raspberry Cheesecakes

Mini Cheesecake Filling

• 2 – 8 ounce packages of cream cheese (softened to room temperature)
• 2 eggs (room temperature)
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• pinch of salt

Graham Cracker Crust

• 1 cup chocolate graham cracker crumbs
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 4 tablespoons melted butter
• pinch of salt

Raspberry Puree

• 1 pint raspberries
• 1/3 cup of sugar
• 3 tablespoons of water

Place your raspberries, sugar, and water in a blender, or food processor and blend together until you have no berry pieces.

I poured the puree through a sieve to remove the seeds (if you are into seeds you can skip this step)

I hate raspberry seeds, just strain them out

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray the inside wells of the mini cheesecake pan and set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the cup of graham cracker crumbs, the sugar and the salt. 

Drizzle the melted butter over the crumb mixture and toss until the butter has coated all the crumbs.

 

Spoon the crumbs into each well of the pan and press the mixture flat into the bottom of each well. 

make sure to flatten the crust down

Bake the crusts for about 10 minutes then remove them from the oven and set them aside to cool completely.

Reduce your oven temperature to 300 degrees F.

 Place the 16 ounces of cream cheese into the bowl of your electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat until the cream cheese is smooth, scraping down the bowl several times. 

Next, add the eggs one at a time and beat until each is incorporated.

I forgot to take picture of the egg, but you need to add them one at a time.

 Add the heavy cream and the vanilla and beat for about a minute. 

Cream Cream

 Add the sugar and salt and beat well making sure you scrape the sides and the bottom of the bowl so that all the cream cheese is incorporated. 

 I transfer this batter to a pitcher style measuring cup as I find it easier to pour the batter this way into the wells of the pan.

Divide the batter evenly between the 12 wells filling to the top of each well. 

Using a spoon, add little dots of raspberry puree to the tops of your cheesecakes, then take a toothpick and swirl each top.

Bake for about 20 minutes until the cakes are set. Remove to a cooling rack.

The cheesecakes do puff up but once they cool they fall down a bit

 Once the cheesecakes have cooled, I place them back in the refrigerator to chill completely before removing them from the pan. I have made the cheesecakes a day in advance as long as they are kept  in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

I made a little ganache to top some of the cheesecakes and added a fresh raspberry on top of each mini cheesecake. I also added more of the raspberry puree to the the top of some cheesecakes and sprinkled some powdered sugar on top.

yummy raspberry

these mini cheesecakes were really yummy

 a little chocolate drizzle never hurt nobody

close up of the cheesecakes