passover week 2026 - strawberry and cream sponge cake

passover week 2026 - strawberry and cream sponge cake

• 27 Mar 2026

Just because it's Passover doesn't mean we can't enjoy a strawberry and cream sponge cake. Whilst I couldn't replicate Nadine Ingram's Little Queenie cake that I recently made, I managed to make something similar.

As I don't use raising agents during Passover I used the brown butter sponge cake recipe I developed last year from a Natalie Paull recipe. I knew I wouldn't be able to get my hands on Passover versions of the dairy products needed for the filling so I used lightly sweetened whipped cream instead.

Cardamom isn't kosher for Passover but all the other spices in the compote are, so I just removed the cardamom pods you can see here from the roasted strawberry compote. 

Here's the recipe for you which makes a 20-cm layer cake. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Passover strawberry and cream sponge cake 

To decorate

1 fresh egg white 
8 mint sprigs, picked
50g caster sugar
125g strawberries, hulled
1 tsp pink peppercorns, cracked
6 dried hibiscus petals

 
Sponge cake 
30g superfine matzo meal 
70g potato starch 
pinch salt
135g caster sugar
4 eggs
80g unsalted butter
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped

 
Strawberry compote
1 tbs dried mint 
½ tsp pink peppercorns, crushed
100g caster sugar
1 lemons, zested
4 dried hibiscus petals
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
400g ripe strawberries, hulled

Filling
500g pure cream
60g caster sugar
1 tsp Passover vanilla extract

To decorate
Preheat the oven to 50°C. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Alternatively, if you have a dehydrator, the fruit can be dried easier and it will retain its colour better. You can also substitute whole freeze-dried strawberries, which you can slice thinly with a paring knife, but these can be costly and hard to find.

Lightly whisk the egg white, then brush the mint sprigs with a little egg white on both sides. Toss the leaves in the caster sugar, then place onto the prepared tray or dehydrator shelf. 

Slice the strawberries into 2 mm-thick slices and place them on the tray with the  mint, then sprinkle on both sides with cracked pink peppercorns. Place the tray in the oven for 4-6 hours or in the dehydrator on 60°C for 10 hours. If having the oven on for that long isn't practical for you, the mint will dry on its own overnight in the open air. The strawberries can't really be dried any other way, so you will need to omit them from the recipe.

Cake
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C, grease and line two 20-cm tins with baking paper then dust with potato starch. 

Combine the matzo meal, potato starch and salt together, then sift onto a piece of greaseproof paper.

Over a pot of barely simmering water, heat the sugar and the eggs in the mixer bowl until they are hot to the touch. Pop the mixer bowl onto a stand mixer or use an electric hand whisk and whisk for 8 minutes on a medium/high speed until the egg mix is pale, fluffy and can hold a peak. While this is whisking, brown the butter. Heat the butter in a saucepan over a low heat until the butter starts to turn a toasty brown. Remove from heat, add vanilla seeds and set aside.

Gently scrape the egg mix into a wide, large-ish mixing bowl. Sift over half the Passover baking mix/salt mix and gently fold in with a whisk, turning the mix over while spinning the bowl slowly. Fold in the remaining sifted Passover baking mix until it has been fully incorporated. Slowly pour in the warm melted butter mix and fold in. Scrape the mix into the prepared tins and smooth the tops a little.

Pop the tins into the oven and bake until lightly bouncy in the centre and golden brown, about 20-25 minutes. I usually rotate the tins midway through the baking process. Immediately turn the cakes out onto a tea towel covered rack, remove the baking paper then invert. Let cool completely. 

Strawberry compote
Locate a deep baking tray in preparation for roasting the strawberries. While the sponges are cooling, combine the mint and peppercorns together in a bowl. I find the most effective way to do this is in a spice grinder, but you could also use a pestle and mortar. Add this to the sugar along with the lemon zest, hibiscus petals and the seeds from the vanilla bean. Toss the strawberries in a large bowl with the sugar mixture and spread evenly over the base of the baking tray. Add the scraped vanilla bean and roast in the oven for 20 minutes, giving the tray a little shake halfway through to distribute the syrup. Remove the strawberries from the oven and allow to cool in the tray.

Filling
Place all the ingredients into a large bowl. Use an electric hand beater and mix everything together to combine. Whip until the cream is thick and fluffy. Set to one side.

To assemble
Place one sponge onto your chosen serving platter, drizzle with some of the reserved strawberry syrup then spread half the filling evenly over the top of the sponge all the way to the edges, or use a piping bag fitted with a #11 plain nozzle. 

Press half the strawberries from the compote into the surface of the filling bearing in mind that when you put the other sponge on top, the strawberries shouldn't protrude too high and prevent the sponge from sitting flat. Spoon some of the roasting syrup over the strawberries and trickle a little over the sides. Place the second sponge on top, then spread the sponge with the remaining filling and remaining strawberries. Add the dried strawberries, hibiscus petals and mint, then finish with a few twists of cracked pink peppercorns, if you haven't dried your own strawberries.

I took the cake with me to share with friends, hence no cut slice photo, and it was a big hit. It was absolutely delicious and every-one went back for seconds including the 6 year old twinnies. Success!

That was my lost post for Passover Week 2026 and I hope you enjoyed my bakes.

See you all again next week.

Bye for now,

Jillian