Author: Adapted from Lancashire Courting Cake Downtown Abbey Cooks
Ingredients
1cupunsalted butterroom temperature
1cupcaster sugaror regular sugar
4eggs
3teaspoonspure vanilla extractdivided
2 3/4cupsall purpose flour
4teaspoonsbaking powder
1teaspoonsalt
1/4cupmilk
1pintwhipping cream
3heaping tablespoons Mascarpone cheese
3cupssliced strawberriesplus 4 strawberry fans and 1 whole berry for garnish
2teaspoonsor more, powdered sugar, plus additional for dusting
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare 2 round cake pans by lining bottoms with parchment paper.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Taking time at this stage will result in a much lighter cake.
Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat in 2 teaspoons of vanilla.
Sift flour, baking powder and salt into medium bowl. Fold into butter mixture.
Gently mix in milk to a dropping consistency.
Divide batter into your prepared pans. To remove extra air bubbles, give you pans a good whack on your counter before putting into the oven.
Bake cake for 25-30 minutes, or light brown and firm to the touch. Let cool completely on wire racks.
Beat whip cream until fairy firm peaks form, adding 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla midway through the process (don't over beat however or it will not combine well on the next step.)
Gently fold mascarpone into the whip cream mixture. This stabilizes the cream and gives it additional body.
Place one cake layer on a decorative plate, layer with 1/2 of the whip cream mixture and arrange sliced strawberries over the cream. Top with next layer of cake and spread the remaining cream on top. Arrange strawberry fans and whole berry decoratively in center of cake.
Dust with additional powdered sugar.
Refrigerate cake for at least 1 hour before serving to let flavors blend.
Notes
Optionally, If you have lots of berries and extra cream, you can increase the layers by carefully slicing the 2 cakes in half horizontally with a long serrated knife, creating 4 layers. Spread cream and arrange strawberries between each layer.