claire saffitz strawberry cornmeal layer cake

claire saffitz strawberry cornmeal layer cake

• 11 Aug 2024

I've had my eye on this Claire Saffitz Strawberry Cornmeal Layer Cake recipe ever since her first book, Dessert Person came out. I looked through my copy a few weeks ago and reminded myself how many recipes I'd bookmarked but hadn't yet made. As strawberries are in abundance, the time had finally come to make the cake so I assembled all the ingredients and set to work.

Claire's recipes are so well written I knew the cake would turn out, but a few people mentioned the cake wasn't very sweet so I added a little extra sugar to the batter. The batter also seemed a little thick so I added a little extra buttermilk to the mixture, about 2 tablespoons.

Here’s the recipe for you which makes a 17 cm layer cake, adapted from here. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Claire Saffitz Strawberry Cornmeal Layer Cake
Ingredients
40g yellow cornmeal/polenta 
125g room temperature buttermilk 
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g plain flour 
1½ tsp baking powder 
¼ tsp bicarb soda
pinch salt
100g caster sugar 
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
75g room temperature unsalted butter
1 large egg

Assembly
300g strawberries, hulled 
30g sugar 
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 cup (250mls) thickened cream 

Method
Grease and line the base of a 17 cm springform pan and set to one side. Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional.

Soak the cornmeal in the buttermilk for 20 minutes to allow it to soften, then mix in the vanilla extract. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarb soda and salt into a large bowl. In the bowl of a stand mixer, place the sugar and lemon rind and massage the rind into the sugar with your fingers, until the sugar is fragrant. Add the butter and mix on low speed for 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix until fully incorporated. Add the flour in thirds followed by half the cornmeal mixture and mix to combine. Give it a final mix with a spatula before pouring into the prepared tin smoothing the top of the cake with an offset spatula.

Place the tin on the centre rack and bake for 30-35 minutes or until the top is golden and the cake tests cooked with a skewer. Place on a rack and cool completely.

While the cake is baking, prepare the filling. Reserve 5 large strawberries and trim until they’re of equal height and slice the rest. Place the sliced strawberries, sugar and lemon juice in a bowl and set to one side to macerate. Gently whip the cream until it forms soft peaks, and it holds its shape.

Unmould the cake and slice horizontally into 2 even layers using a bread knife. Place one layer on a serving plate and using a pastry brush dab some of the strawberry syrup over the cake. Place the reserved whole strawberries around the cake and one in the centre to act as supports, then layer half the strawberries over the cake followed by half the cream. Gently place the reserved cake layer on top, then dollop with the remaining whipped cream followed by the strawberries. Drizzle the remaining syrup over the cake. To serve, cut with a serrated knife.

This cake is best assembled just before serving. The cornmeal cake can be baked the day before and stored in an airtight tin.

My neighbours loved the cake as did my workmates but I found the cornmeal flavour a bit too pronounced for my taste. I have a raspberry and cream filled Victoria Sponge on my to-do list which I suspect might be right up my alley.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian