I don’t remember the exact events that led to this fun Let’s Blog Together project, but I do know that it started, as these things are often Wont to Do, with a picture. And a name: Strawberry Moscato Cake.
This is a version of my famous “Van Halen pound cake recipe,” and if you want a non-boozy option, you may enjoy my strawberry pound cake.
And for you pound cake super fans, I’ve rounded up all my pound cake recipes in one place on the blog!
Strawberry Moscato Pound Cake, At a Glance
✅Skill Level: Advanced Beginner
✅Skills: Creaming Butter and Sugar, Making a Fruit Syrup
✅Type: Pound Cake
✅Number of Ingredients: In the cake-10, In the glazes-4, with some used more than once
✅Prep Time: 25 minutes
✅Bake Time: 1 hour
✅Yield: Approximately 24 slices
Related Reading: The Creaming Method, Coulis and Gastriques
Jump Straight to the Recipe
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?!
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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.
- If you prefer to work from a more exacting recipe, make my strawberry syrup, substituting the white grape juice in it for Moscato. Or keep it completely non-alcoholic by using that recipe as written.
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.
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Glazing the Pound Cake
I used 2 glazes on the moscato cake:
- One was just 10x powdered sugar, the strawberry-Moscato puree and a pinch of salt.
- 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!
Questions?
If you have any questions about this post or recipe, I am happy to help.
Simply leave a comment here and I will get back to you soon. I also invite you to ask question in my Facebook group, Fearless Kitchen Fun.
If your question is more pressing, please feel free to email me. I should be back in touch ASAP, as long as I’m not asleep.
A Note About Measurements
Don't let its small price and small size fool you. The Escali Primo is an accurate and easy-to-use food scale that I have used for years. It's easy to store, easy to use, has a tare function, and easily switches between grams and ounces/pounds for accurate measurements.
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Strawberry Moscato Cake
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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.
Did You Make Any Changes?
Notes
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
Thanks for spending some time with me today. I hope you enjoy the cake!
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Very pretty cake with its subtle pink and contrasting lemon glazes! I am not a big fan of coloring either unless we are talking children’s birthday cakes and then they get whatever they want. 🙂 Your puree is a gorgeous color all without any help at all!
Thank you so much, Stacy! This cake surprised me with how great it turned out. And now that the blackberries are ripe, maybe I’ll make a blackberry version… =)
We love anything with blackberries so I’m all for that!
I think the color would be even more striking, too. Blackberry juice is so vibrant!
Oh gosh…I want.
You really do want this, @twitter-26613954:disqus . It turned out beautifully! 🙂
I am sorry I have not made a comment sooner, life just passes by too fast, LOL! I love love that we did this together:-) Your glaze has me drooling, AND the cake sounds amazing!!! Beautiful my friend, Hugs, Terra
I certainly understand how life can be, Terra! This was a fun project, and we Totally enjoyed our cake:) Hugs back to you, Ma’am!
Looks amazing!! And you plated it so nicely!
Thanks, @4c2a685af2c4650148782919bdec6628:disqus 🙂 I always have trouble plating Bundt cake, but I’d better figure it out since I make a lot of them!