Strawberry Cream Cakes: Blissful Picnic Treats
These super cute mini strawberry cream cakes make for the most blissful summer picnic treats. Strawberries are the star of the show, but cream is an essential ingredient too. They’re also flavoured with rose as befits the season. Ideal for summer entertaining and alfresco eating.
June is full-on strawberries and cream season. As you may have noticed from my previous posts, it’s also the prime time for roses. So when we were invited to an alfresco lunch at Incredible Vegetables near Ashburton, these three ingredients immediately sprang to mind. I needed something that was portable and easy to eat outside. Strawberry cream cakes with a hint of rose it had to be.
Strawberry Season
Wimbledon will soon be upon us and the happy spectators will consume around 27,000 kilos of strawberries and 7,000 litres of cream. I may not be attending the game, but I have picked and eaten my very first strawberry of the season from our pot in the garden. The blackbird got the second one.
Luckily our local grocer stocks sweet scented Cornish strawberries, so off I tripped to purchase a punnet for my cream cakes.
Incredible Vegetables
There was a veritable feast awaiting us and most of it had come from the plot – theirs not ours: hablitzia fritters, various delicious and pretty salads, bread from the local bakery and pumpkin cake. We arrived with a few strawberry cream cakes and left with full bellies, sticks of yard long rhubarb, some strange plants that were of particular significance to CT and a young katsura tree. Many thanks Mandy.
Incredible Vegetables is in a stunning location on the edge of Dartmoor and everything was growing in abundance. It put our plot completely to shame. I’ve never seen such an enormous stand of rhubarb and so many beautiful lupins.
Strawberry Cream Cakes
As these are strawberry and cream cakes, I substituted whipped cream for the more usual butter. It’s not something I’ve done before and it makes for an interesting change. The texture of the sponge is quite different – lighter and softer but sort of denser at the same time.
I may not have described them very well, but they were delicious and we could definitely taste the cream. The rose came through as a subtle enhancing floral note, but the strawberries were the star of the show. As they should be in strawberry season.
I used my super easy-to-make rose syrup, but if you don’t have any suitable roses, you can swap it for a little rose water or a drop or two of rose extract.
If you make these cakes for a picnic, I can recommend this carrot and cheese sandwich filling to make your alfresco eating experience even better.
Other Strawberry Cream Cakes You Might Like
- Chocolate genoese with minted strawberry cream
- Chocolate pomegranate cake with lemon curd and strawberries
- Eton Mess chocolate cake
- Rose & strawberry Victoria sponge
- Strawberry chocolate hearts
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make these little strawberry cream cakes, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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Choclette x
Strawberry Cream Cakes. PIN IT.
Strawberry Cream Cakes with Hint of Rose
Ingredients
- 125 g golden caster sugar
- 2 large eggs (I used duck eggs)
- 1 pinch Himalayan pink rock salt
- 100 g wholemeal spelt flour
- 100 g white spelt flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 250 ml double cream (heavy cream)
- 2 tbsp rose syrup or 1 tsp rose water or 1 drop rose oil (optional)
- 150 g strawberries washed and hulled
Instructions
- Beat the eggs, sugar and salt together in a large bowl with electric beaters or by hand until the mixture is thick, pale and has at least doubled in volume.
- In a separate bowl whip the cream and rose syrup until the mixture is just holding its shape, but be careful not to over whip.
- Sift the flours and baking powder into the egg mixture and fold in until just incorporated.
- Fold in the whipped cream, again until just incorporated.
- Chop half of the strawberries and carefully stir in to the cake batter.
- Divide the mixture between 30 small muffin moulds.
- Slice the remaining strawberries and place a slice on each cake.
- Bake at 180℃ (350℉, Gas 4) for 22 minutes or until well risen and golden.
- Leave to cool for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Sharing
I’m sending these summer picnic cakes off to Cakeyboi and The Baking Explorer for Treat Petite as this month’s theme is Fit for a Queen. Well I reckon strawberries and cream are fit for anyone, including the Queen.
Herbs and summer berries is the theme for Tea Time Treats over at Lavender and Lovage this month. My strawberry cream cakes may not contain herbs, but they do have rose and definitely berries.
And as I made these for an outdoor picnic, they also go to Eating Alfresco with Rebecca at Munchies & Munchkins.
I made these little cakes this morning. I had to make a few adaptations due to being in the US but they are absolutely delicious! This recipe is definitely a keeper. Thank you!
Hi Jennifer. Thanks so much for letting me know and I’m glad you liked them. Perhaps you could let me have the US measures you used and I can add them to the recipe for others to use who are also on the other side of the pond.
There’s something so delightful about little individual cakes. The combination of strawberries, cream and rose in these little cakes sounds absolutely heavenly. Commenting as BritMums Baking Round-up Editor. 🙂
Thanks Julie. I have a thing for mini cakes or conversely gigantic cakes 😉
I love the way the strawberries and poking out of the tops. They look so pretty. It’s definitely the best time of year for strawberries and it’s so good to see more varieties in the shops at the moment too x
They are rather cute little cakes. I wish we had more varieties of strawberries on offer around here, but at least we have local Cornish strawberries.
Wow they sound amazing! I had a cake with double cream in it once and it had such a wonderful texture, I really need to give it a try myself. Thanks for entering into #TreatPetite
Thanks Kat. The texture is really quite different, but very very nice.
Strawberries and cream is a wonderful combination and these are gorgeous.
Strawberries and cream embody the essence of Summer for me – along with roses.
These are just adorable and they look delicious! Tiny bakes like this are so dangerous though – it’s so easy to say ‘just one more’!
Hahaha, you are absolutely right Becca. These are best made for a gathering where they will be snuffled up by everyone else 😉
These would definitely be fit for a Queen (and Wimbledon too) – thanks for taking part in Treat Petite.
Thanks Stuart and yes, they’d be perfect for Wimbledon 🙂
I love the idea of using double cream and I can imagine the heavy/lighter texture. These look so lovely. Thanks for linking to Eating Al Fresco. x
Thanks Rebecca, they were fab and perfect for eating outdoors.
These look beautiful and it looks like such a wonderful lunch spot too!
Thanks Natalie, it was a wonderful place to have lunch and a delicious lunch too.
I saw these on Instagram and have been meaning to pop by and have a look at the recipe. They are so pretty and summery!
Thanks Jac. They were delicious and just had to be baked for a June picnic.
There’s nothing to match British strawberries, I love strawberry season and missed picking them last year so I must get out over the next couple of weeks to a local grower Your cakes look amazing, the rise is just wonderful and they look so light and Summery.
Thanks Vicky. It’s strawberries and rhubarb all the way at the moment. I feel like I have to make the most of the season.
I love the inclusion of rose. I love the smell and taste of rose. Perfect with a cup of tea and then a snooze in the sunshine.
A snooze in the sunshine sounds utter bliss Elinor 🙂
Really interesting about the cream, must make them much lighter than butter? Love strawberry season and long may it last!
Yes, the sponge is lighter and softer than a classic butter one. It makes for an interesting change. My personal strawberry season has been taken over by the blackbirds!
This would have gone perfectly with my afternoon coffee. I love strawberries and cream together in the summer.
Thanks Dannii, strawberries and cream are a summer classic and cannot be ignored 😉
These look great Choclette, perfect for the start of Wimbledon. I love that you’ve replaced the butter with the cream and still achieved a great bake.
Angela x
Thanks Angela. It’s really interesting using cream. I think I shall be experimenting a bit more, but it seemed particularly appropriate for strawberry cakes in June 😉
Great summery cakes – nothing like good british strawberries in season and they look so pretty as well
Thank you. We had a load of local strawberries last night after a long solstice walk on the moors – with cake 😉