Strawberry Moscato Cake | The Perfect Summer Pound Cake

Sometimes Ideas Start on Twitter

Right?! How can you say no? The lovely Terra from Cafe Terra said, “Hey, we should make that thing.” So I went to look. And was a little sad, because the recipe started with Yellow Cake Mix.

I’m not a cake mix person, so no thanks. But still. Moscato Cake. How good does that sound?!

And I make pound cakes. A lot of them. What’s to stop me from putting some wine in my pound cake? Nothing. I tweeted back to Terra–I don’t wanna make a box cake. And she was all, “Ew–no! I never bake from boxes.” So we both did our Own Thing.

She made hers with grapes. Makes sense, right? Grapes. Wine. Wine. Grapes. And Greek Yogurt. The Greeks drank wine, so there you go. Her cake is lovely. See below.

The Thought Process

I wasn’t really sure what kind of moscato pound cake I was going to make until…Kismet!

The Beloved and I won an extra Gallon of strawberries from our produce box delivery service. Yay. But a gallon on top of the quart we had equaled a Very Lot.

And there are only so many sour cream and brown sugar-coated strawberries you can shove into your face before things turn ugly. Only so much fruit dip ice cream to be made.

Here was my thought process:

• hey strawberries are Quite Nice with champagne.
• And champagne is a white wine.
• And so is Moscato. (I really have to plot these things out with a compass).

So, I whipped up (or cooked down, which is really more correct) some strawberry-Moscato puree.

Making an On-the-Fly Strawberry Puree

This I didn’t measure. Here’s what I did:

• I threw a about a quart and a half of the strawberries in a big pot
• glugged in some Yellowtail Moscato (I like it–it’s fizzy), some lemon zest, a bit of lemon juice and a handful or two of raw sugar
• I let all of that bubble away on low-ish for about 45 minutes until the juices were a bit syrupy.
• I tossed everyone into the Blendtec and pureed them. I strained the puree through a fine mesh strainer to catch the zest and seeds.

I, of course used the standard Van Halen Pound Cake recipe with just a few tweaks.

• I used the puree plus some extra Moscato for the liquid (rather than the usual dairy)
• I reduced the sugar by a couple of ounces to compensate for the sweetness of the puree and the wine.
• I was going to fold in some whipped cream at the end of mixing since berries and cream are always a good idea, but I loved the flavor of the puree and wine and didn’t want to mute it, so I ended up stirring in an extra ounce each of puree and wine. Next time, I’ll just add it all in 2 additions instead of waiting until the end.

After baking, I wrapped that guy up tight and threw him in the fridge.

Wrapping the cake while it’s still hot keeps moisture that would otherwise evaporate in the cake.

The resulting cake was extremely moist and cut cleanly, both with a fork and a knife.

Glazing the Pound Cake

I used 2 glazes on the moscato cake:

1. One was just 10x powdered sugar, the strawberry-Moscato puree and a pinch of salt.
2. To balance out some of the sweetness, the other glaze was just straight lemon juice and 10x along with a pinch of salt.

The consensus so far from everyone who has tried it, including me whose Slice Count currently stands at 3 1/2, is that this is definitely a keeper.

But the cake won’t keep beautifully for too long because of the fresh fruit in it.

Make it one day and serve it the next. It’ll last for maybe one extra day, but I wouldn’t push it past then just because it won’t be as Aesthetically Pleasing, although it will still taste good.

For longer storage (maybe 5 days), leave out the diced berries entirely and just serve with a Swoosh of puree.

Why Isn’t This Cake Pink?

The sliced cake has only a hint of pink in it. That’s because I didn’t add any pink or red food coloring.

If you’d like your cake to be as pink on the inside as it is on the outside, feel free to add a couple of drops of food coloring.

A Lovely Peach Blueberry Variation

My friend Stacy from Food Lust, People Love recently posted this peach blueberry variation, and it is stunning.

Also, everyone loved it!

So use whatever fruit and wine pairing sounds good to you!

A Note About Measurements

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03/07/2024 05:03 pm GMT

I really hope you love this cake, you guys!

If you make it, please share a photo with me, either in the PCO Facebook Group or on instagram by tagging @onlinepastrychef and using hashtag #pcorecipe.

Thanks, and enjoy!

Strawberry Moscato Cake

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Jennifer Field

This moscato cake is super moist and full of sliced berries and berry puree. And moscato. With the two glazes, it's a real show stopper!

4.41 from 27 votes

Tried this recipe?Please give it a star rating!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 25 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Cooling Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 45 minutes mins

Course Pound Cake Recipes

Cuisine American

Servings 24 slices (1 cake)

Calories 329 kcal

Equipment

• KitchenAid 6 quart Stand Mixer
• 12 cup Bundt Pan
• Escali Primo Digital Kitchen Scale

Ingredients

For the Cake

• 12 oz unsalted butter at cool room temperature (I used organic, and I can definitely taste the difference)
• 18 oz granulated sugar (I used an organic sugar, so it wasn't Dead White)
• 1 very gently rounded teaspoon fine sea salt
• 5 eggs at room temperature , beaten with a fork
• 13 oz cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• heavy pinch of baking soda
• 7 oz strawberry-moscato puree
• 3 oz moscato
• 4 oz strawberries , diced (optional)

For the strawberry-moscato glaze

• 1 ½ cups 10x powdered sugar
• enough strawberry moscato puree to make a thick glaze
• pinch of salt

For the Lemon glaze

• 1 cup 10x powdered sugar
• enough lemon juice to make a thickish-but-thinner-than-the-strawberry-one glaze
• pinch of salt

Instructions

 

For the Cake

• Preheat the oven to 350F and set your oven rack in the bottom third of your oven. For me, that's one slot below the middle.
• Liberally spray a 12-cup Bundt-type pan with pan spray then knock some flour around in the pan to evenly coat. Knock out the excess flour. Set aside.
• Whisk the flour, baking powder and baking soda together. Set aside.
• Stir together the puree and wine. Set aside.
• Use the creaming method to make this cake.
• Cream the butter and salt together until smooth. Add the sugar and cream until very light and fluffy, scraping the bowl as needed. This will take 5-7 minutes. Don't rush it.
• With the mixer on low-ish speed, drizzle in the eggs a bit at a time, scraping the bowl as necessary. It will take about 5 minutes to get the eggs incorporated.
• Turn the mixer back up to medium and mix for another few seconds.
• Alternately add the flour mixture and the puree mixture beginning and ending with dry and mixing on low speed for just a few seconds between each addition (3 additions for the flour, 2 for the puree). Scrape bowl as necessary.
• Finish folding the batter together by hand. If using the diced strawberries, fold them in now.
• Evenly scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake until done. In my oven, this takes 1 hour and 5 minutes. Start checking yours at 50 minutes. A tester inserted into the cake should come out clean.
• Let the cake cool in the pan for 20 minutes then turn out to cool completely on a rack. (Wrap it hot and put it in the fridge to cool for an extremely moist cake).

For Both Glazes

• Whisk together all the glaze ingredients, adding a bit of liquid at a time until you like the texture.
• Apply the glazes however you would like. Pour it over, drizzle it on with a fork or a spoon, or go all Jackson Pollack on it and sling it on.

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Video

Notes

NOTE: All ounce measurements are by weight and not volume.

To make the puree, cook strawberries together with a glug or two of wine, some sugar, a pinch of salt, and a bit of lemon juice. Cook down for a few minutes. Puree and strain. Use the puree in both the cake and the glaze.

I think you could probably make this with whatever fresh fruit you have around. Just pair it with a wine that will work well with it.
It seems to me that it might not be a bad idea to use freeze-dried or dehydrated strawberries as mix ins. I think they'd plump back up nicely while in the oven. If you try it, let me know. If I try it, I'll let you know.

Nutrition

Serving: 1gCalories: 329kcalCarbohydrates: 50gProtein: 3gFat: 13gSaturated Fat: 8gPolyunsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 69mgSodium: 141mgFiber: 1gSugar: 36g

Keyword moscato cake, pound cake, strawberry moscato cake

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