Italian Strawberry Rum Cake

So Brent and I started our long holiday weekend off with a trip to Bellevue to try the dim sum at Top Gun.  While the food was tasty, my favorite dim sum restaurant remains to be Harbor City in the International District. Am I another online restaurant critic? No, but I thought for this blog I should tell you about what led to my making this particular cake.  So after brunch, we headed to Factoria Mall, which is really not a mall by any standards, but it was nearby and I'm always up for hunting for a deal.  Anyhow, so we end up at T.J. Maxx, where I purchase my first sifter ever!!! among other baking pans and supplies.  We arrived home, new sifter-in-hand, and I remembered that I had purchased strawberries last week at Trader Joe's.  What is better way to get rid of some strawberries than to make strawberry cake?  

If you read my first post about Chocolate Florentine Cookies you would know that the strawberry cake at Angelo Brocato's is a mouthful of perfection.  What you wouldn't know is that it is soaked in rum (and I believe amaretto).  I just happened to have some rum in our liquor cabinet but no amaretto.  Even without the amaretto, still a delicious cake overall.  I almost always bake/cook with a half splenda / half natural sugar; however, next time for this cake I would stick with straight sugar.

****DIFFICULTY LEVEL:  This cake is fairly difficult to make so follow the instructions carefully.  Also, this cake takes about 3 hours to prepare with an additional 4 hours of chilling time needed in between.  If you attempt to make this, consider preparing the pasticciera cream the night before.****

ITALIAN STRAWBERRY RUM CAKE
- adapted from Recipezaar No. 65363
- makes one 9" double-layer cake
- takes about 6-7 hours to make

Ingredients:
Italian Sponge Cake Pan di Spagna
* 5 egg yolks
* 5 egg whites
* 1 1/2 cups sugar
* 1 1/4 cups cake flour, sifted
* 1 tablespoon vanilla

Italian Pastry Cream Pasticciera Cream  (Filling)
* 3 tablespoons sugar
* 3 egg yolks
* 3 tablespoons flour
* 1 tablespoon vanilla
* 2 cups milk (I used fat-free, but whole is preferred)
* Sliced strawberries for filling

Rum Syrup
* 1/4 cup dark rum (or light rum)
* 1/3 cup water
* 1/2 cup sugar
* A pastry brush will come in handy, but is not necessary.

Stabilized Whipped Cream
* 2 cups heavy cream
* 1 teaspoon vanilla
* 2 teaspoons light corn syrup

DIRECTIONS:
Pastry (Pasticciera) Cream

1. Place sugar, egg yolks, flour, and vanilla in a sauce pan and mix well together. (Do not place over heat yet)
   
2. In a separate sauce pan, scald milk.
3. Very slowly pour milk in a thin stream over egg yolk mixture while beating the egg yolk mixture constantly.
4. Cook mixture on low heat for 4 minutes while stirring CONSTANTLY.
5. Remove pan from heat.  Add butter and mix well. (Burner can be turned off now).
   
6. Pour into a bowl (preferably a metal or glass bowl) and let cool, stir occasionally to prevent skin from forming over the top.
7. Chill in refridgerator until mixture is very thick with plastic wrap pressed onto the surface of mixture to prevent a skin from forming.  This takes about 3-4 hours.

Italian Sponge Cake (Pan di Spagna)

1. Place egg yolks and sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat with a mixer for about 15-25 minutes until very thick and lemon colored.  (The mixture should be at least double in volume and thick like frosting).
2. Add sifted flour in a little at a time by gently folding it in until well blended.  (Do not use a power mixer). 
3. Fold in vanilla. ***Mixture should stay a thick mixture, but not doughy. If mixture becomes doughy, add a splash of rum.  Mix with a power mixture.  Continue until mixture is the desired consistency.***
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
   
5. In a separate mixing bowl, beat egg whites until stiff but not dry (this will take about 15-20 minutes) and fold into the cake mixture.  ***Fold the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture and not the other way around.***
6. Grease the bottom and sides of two 9 inch pans and line bottoms with parchment paper.  Pour prepared cake batter evenly into the two pans.  
7. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  (about 15 minutes)
8. Remove cake from oven and let cool.  (Oven can be turned off now).

Rum Syrup

1. Mix together the rum, water and sugar in small pot.
2. Bring to a boil and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
3. Remove from heat and cool before using.

Stabilized Whipped Cream

1.  In a large chilled bowl, beat cold cream until it just starts to thicken.
2. Add corn syrup and vanilla from the side of the bowl, and beat until soft peaks form.

Assembly

1. On one side (the inner side) of each cake layer, brush rum syrup (about 1/8 of mixture) into the cake.   Wait 5 minutes for rum to soak before brushing another coating of rum syrup.  ***Do not brush too much at once; otherwise, the cake will become too soggy.***
2. Repeat until there is no remaining rum syrup.
   
3. Spread a layer of pasticciera cream on the first sponge layer, directly on the rum-coated side.
4. Spread a layer of stabilized whipped cream over the pasticciera cream layer.
5. Spread a layer of sliced strawberries.
6. Spread a layer of pasticciera cream over the strawberry layer.
7. Spread a layer of stabilized whipped cream over the strawberry layer.
8. Place the top cake layer on top, rum-coated side down.
9. Frost the cake with remaining stabilized whipped cream.
10. Cover and refridgerate for 1 hour before serving.
11. Refridgerate any leftovers.