If you have ever eaten a Sfoglia Cake a strawberry dream cake, either filled with chantilly cream or a mocha whipped cream, you will love this play on the traditional Sfoglia Cake using a strawberry whipped topping and real strawberries.
Now if you don't have fresh strawberries on hand, you can use frozen if you have them. Amazingly, this homemade Strawberry Sfoglia cake is made with less than 8 ingredients. Yes, you read that right!
This cake I made for my mom's 77th birthday. The cake was heavenly like a strawberry dream cake, though I regret using a buttercream to frost the cake. I found the buttercream to be too heavy and too sweet. This year I made the cake again, but this time rather than a buttercream, I used the cake filling with the addition of meringue powder to maintain it's shape.
Nevertheless, everyone loved this cake and it held up great. Not to mention that it tasted great!
Jump to:
tips and trick to making this easy italian strawberry sfoglia cake
what is sfoglia?
What is Sfoglia? Sfoglia translated to English refers to thin layers or sheets of pasta dough. And that's exactly what a Sfoglia Cake is, it's layers of puff pastry with cream in between.
puff pastry - buy it don't make it!
Do yourself a favor and buy puff pastry in the frozen section of your supermarket. You'll thank me later. Using pre-made puff pasty will cut down your time, and the cake will be ready in no time, setting in the fridge as it should.
What's so great about this Italian Strawberry Sfoglia cake is that you can decide how big a cake you want. What I man by that, is when you cut the cake rounds, you can choose to cut them 8" or 10" or 12". Obviously the bigger the cake layers, the larger the cake and more serving you will have to offer to friends and family. Also, there's nothing stopping you from making this cake rectangular instead of circular.
chantilly cream vs. whipped cream
Both look very similar to one another. Chantilly cream has about twice as much sugar in it, as well as vanilla extract. They can be used interchangeably.
For my version of Chantilly cram, I don't use whipping cream. In actuality, I cheat. But that's OK. I usually cheat to cut corners when possible and get guaranteed results. For this Italian Strawberry Sfoglia Cake, I used Dream Whip Dessert Topping and Strawberry Jello. There, now you know my secret.
And while this really isn't an authentic chantilly cream (because true chantilly cream is made with whipped cream, sugar and vanilla), this will pass in my books.
Prepare the whipped cream filling the puff pastry is baking. The puff pastry will take no time to cool down. But, a word of caution, wait for the puff pastry to cool down completely before you start layering the cake with cream, otherwise the cream will melt.
Layer the puff pastry and the cream until you use up all the puff pastry layers.
Note that you'll need frosting tips if you plan on decorating the cake with rosettes and such.
Do yourself a favor and buy cheap cake boards, they're about a buck or two. Put a little bit of the cream on a cake board and put your first layer on it. The cream helps to keep the pastry from moving and slipping. I used cake boards, like these one's here.
Use a pastry bag filled with frosting to complete your crumb coat (that's just your first layer of frosting, quick and messy). Use the pastry bag to squeeze out a thin layer of frosting on the sides of the cake while you rotate the cake. Once you've layered the sides of the cake and the top, use a spatula to remove any excess frosting, you just want to leave a thin layer. Then refrigerate the cake for at least 30 minutes.
Complete your second layer of frosting the same way. This time take spatula (to make a clean edge) or a serrated scraper to create a design on the sides of the cake while you remove excess frosting. By the way, I started making the cake and the puff pastry bases on a Monday and served the cake on a Saturday. It took a few days to bake and assemble the cake because I have a full time job and did this after work when I got home. The cooked puff pastry maintains its crispness in the fridge, covered loosely with parchment paper.
I frosted the cake on Friday and served it on Saturday. The longer it sits in the fridge the better it sets. The puff pastry held up and was nice and crispy and the cream inside was fresh and delicious. Once you have assembled the cake, you should let it rest in the fridge for 24 hours. But, you should also consume it within 3 days of making it.
It will be hard to cut. Use a sharp serrated knife.
This cake refrigerates very well. You can also freeze for later. Before you freeze the cake, slice it in serving sizes. That way when you want to eat a piece, you can take it out per serving. Let the whole frozen cake thaw out in the refrigerator overnight. If you are taking a slice out, let it thaw out on the counter.
Want something smaller than a cake? Why not try my easy recipe for Mille Feuille using puff pastry sheets?
Drop a comment below if you made this Italian Strawberry Sfoglia Cake. I’d love to see your pictures as well as see how you decorated your cake. So don’t forget to post your pictures on your Instagram account. Tag me at #girl_with_a_spatula and follow me @girl_with_a_spatula.
Looking for other lip smacking recipes? Click here to search the site for some great inspiration.
Other Recipes Using Puff Pastry
Make this now or PIN this recipe for Homemade Strawberry Sfoglia for later.
Recipe Details
Strawberry Sfoglia Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 pkgs frozen puff pastry 4 sheets
Cream Filling
- 1 cups frozen strawberries thawed and drained
- 2 tbsp strawberry jello powder
- 2 pkgs KRAFT Dream Whip powder 1 large box contains 4 pkgs
- 1 cups milk
Frosting
- 2 pkgs KRAFT Dream Whip powder
- 1 tbsp strawberry jello powder
- ¼ cups meringue powder Wilton makes some
- 1 cups milk
Instructions
- Cake
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper. (Assuming that you have three racks in your oven).
- Ensure that your puff pastry is completely thawed out otherwise place it back in the fridge to completely thaw out. Roll out puff pastry so that they are large enough to cut out an 8" base. Using a plate or the bottom of an 8" spring form pan cut out a circle using a knife and place puff pastry on baking sheet. You will be able to put 1 puff pastry circle on each baking sheet.
- You will need to work quickly so that the puff pastry does not completely come to room temperature. Using a fork, prick the puff pastry circles so that they do not overpuff while baking. Follow the directions for baking the pastry. Bake for about 10 minutes or until golden and flaky.
- Repeat to make another two circles so that you have a total of 5 puff pastry rings. (You can use the remnants of the cutouts to make your 5th piece, it doesn't have to be pretty, just piece it together and bake.) Let the puff pastry cool completely.
- Cake Filling
- Mix two packages of Dream whip with 1 cup of the milk. Make as per package directions. As you are whipping it, add in 2 tbsps of strawberry jello powder. Have the strawberries drained and ready for the next step.
- Prepare either a plate or a cake board by placing a dolip of cream in the center and then placing the first puff pastry layer on it. The cream will prevent the cake from slipping. Spread a layer of the strawberry cream on the puff pastry. Then layer some strawberries on top ensuring you are reserving enough strawberries for all layers. (use a piping bag to load and squeeze the whipped topping onto each layer, that will be easier than trying to spread it)
- Repeat until you have used up all the layers but do not put any whipped strawberry cream on the last layer as that is where the frosting is going to go.
- Cake Frosting
- Mix two packages of Dream whip with 1 cup of the milk. Make as per package directions. As you are whipping it, add in 1 tbsp of strawberry jello powder. The frosting will be lighter in color as well be lightly strawberry flavor. This time also add in ¼ cup of meringue powder. The powder will help to stabilize the whipped topping.
- Place the whipped topping into a piping bag fit with a large star tip. Use the piping bag to squeeze and cover the sides of the cake as your turn the cake. Keep turning and covering the cake with whipped topping until you reach the top then cover the top. Just frost a very light coat on the cake as a crumb coat. Try and level the sides and the top. (use a piping bag to load and squeeze the whipped topping onto each layer, that will be easier than tr Refrigerate for about 1 hour.
- Repeat the step above to cover the cake with the second coat of whipped topping. This time finish to decorate. I used some reserved jello powder to sprinkle on the top of my rosettes that where on top of the cake.
- Refrigerate the cake over night. The longer the puff pastry soaks up the strawberry and cream the lighter it will taste.
Jackie says
This was so easy to make and my family loved it!
Stephanie Gatto says
My family and I love this recipe!
Charmaine Galivan says
Oh I can not wait to try this. This is my favorite cake. I am going to use the Chantilly cream though. Will keep you posted!
AmyG says
Please do let me know how it turns out!
Terri says
Wow - I am a cake decorator and never heard of this cake! I love this concept - must be so light and airy. I can't wait to try it1!
AmyG says
Hi Terri,
Thanks, let me know how you like it.
NANCY WU says
interesting I've never heard of Sfoglia cake before. Pinned for later
AmyG says
You will like it! Let me know how it turns out.
Amy
Bernice Hill says
I'm 100% with you...buy the puff pastry no need to be a hero lol. Seriously though, my birthday is in February and I would LOVE to have this cake then. It sounds amazing.
AmyG says
Thanks Bernice. I would love to know how it turns out.