Wishing you a very berry Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day! Unfortunately living quite far from my parents, we weren't able to celebrate together, but I channeled Mom all the same.

As I've mentioned before, birthday cakes are big in my family. On my dad's birthday when they were first dating, my mom baked him a strawberry shortcake, and he was so surprised because it had been years since he'd had a birthday cake.

When a friend invited us over for a dinner party this week, I offered to bring dessert. I've been making the same two cakes for quite a while now, so I was looking for something new, light and refreshing (the temperature shot up to nearly 90 degrees today). I found just what I was looking for on my latest obsession, Food52: a strawberry shortcake. I nearly forgot about our family connection until I called my mom today and she asked me how I was spending my afternoon.

"Strawberry shortcake" is a bit of a misnomer - I'd prefer to call it a strawberry "tallcake," because the four proud strata reach pretty impressive heights (it scraped the top of my cake box I used to transport it to the party). Rather than plain whipped cream, this recipe calls for you to fold in some softened mascarpone cheese, which was a fabulous addition in my opinion, giving the cream more body and a velvety richness. The yogurt in the cake itself kept it from drying out and gave it a nice crumb as well.

*

Strawberry (Tall)cake

From Food52.com

Cake:

12 T unsalted butter, softened

1 3/4 c granulated sugar

4 eggs

3/4 c sour cream or full-fat yogurt

Zest of one lemon

1 t vanilla extract

2 c all-purpose flour

1/4 c cornstarch

1 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

Filling:

1 qt strawberries

2 to 4 T granulated sugar

8 oz mascarpone cheese, softened

2 c heavy cream (an extra cup if you plan to frost the outside of the cake)

1 t vanilla extract

Cake: If you have time, bake the cake a day ahead and freeze for easier handling - it's pretty delicate cake.

Preheat the oven to 350*F. Prepare two 8" round pans: grease and line with parchment, then dust with flour. Cream the butter and sugar together on high speed for about 5 min. Meanwhile, sift together flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Add eggs, one at a time, to the creamed butter and sugar mixture, scraping down the sides of the bowl as you go. Add yogurt, lemon zest and vanilla to the batter and mix until just combined. Add the flour mixture on slow speed in three batches. Take care not to overmix. Divide batter into two pans and bake for 25-30 min., or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes and then invert onto wire racks to finish cooling.

Filling:

Wash, hull and slice strawberries. Macerate for at least 15 min. with sugar. I strained mine (saving the sweet strawberry juice for future cocktails) so as not to make the cake soggy.

Whip cream until soft peaks form. Add sugar and vanilla and whip just a bit longer, then gently fold in mascarpone.

Assemble: Don't assemble the cake until the day you plan to eat it, no more than a few hours in advance (ideally) - otherwise at least leave the strawberries off the top of the cake until later for maximum perkiness.

Slice the cooled cakes in half to form four layers. Build each layer at a time, starting with cake, spreading with the cream mixture and a layer of macerated strawberries. I made extra whipped cream and decorated the outside, but Food52's recipe leaves it charmingly rustic and hipster-looking.