Strawberry-Marsala Cake Recipe (2024)

Throw away the cake batter, marinate sliced strawberries in the Marsala (with sugar if needed) and serve as is or over vanilla gelato, for a dessert made in heaven. It's a winner every time.

Is there a meaningful difference between a “heaping 1/8 tsp” of salt and 1/4 tsp?

It would be most helpful if you added the word "divided" after the 3/4 cup sugar to warn that it's used in 3 portions I dumped the entire 3/4 cup on the strawberries, thinking "that's a LOT of sugar" - which are now being turned into jam, after restarting the recipe.

What happens if you DON'T serve it right away? I am not going to be preparing and baking this while I have guests...please advise

Great idea. I usually use Grand Marnier to marinate strawberries but this sounds better. I have made strawberries zabaglione many times but never thought of using Marsala as a marinade. Thanks!

Seems a waste to throw away the juice from the strawberries--could it be added to the whipped cream to stipple it pink and add another layer of strawberry flavor?

What would be a good substitute for Marsala?

Doug, did you use a slotted spoon when adding the strawberries to the batter as directed? That's so you don't add all that extra liquid. Beating the egg whites long enough, so they really develop stiff peaks and have that meringue-iness is also key--that makes for a light, fluffy cake. If you decide to give it another go, keep those things in mind.

Question: if it waits two hours before serving does it suffer much?

The picture made me think that this cake would be small and dense, but it was large and pillowy. Because of the weight and moisture of the berries, it was more like a pudding or crumble. If one wanted to make it more cakey, I'd suggest using half the amount of berries, chopping them smaller, and macerating them in some of the wine and sugar. Otherwise they sink to the bottom and concentrate the moisture there. Also, add lemon juice to the berries and double the salt in the batter!

Saba is more of a winter/fall ingredient and syrupy - might mess up the texture, while marsala is a sweet wine. I am adding vanilla sugar - a given especially in southern Italian baking - or even better Paneangeli vanillina.

Didn't really care for it. Kind of bland. Lots of better uses for strawberries (and marsala!).

I used rum and frozen strawberries because that’s what I had… turned out well!

The problem with this recipe isn’t so much the recipe, per se. I just always find a strawberry cake gets soggy from the strawberries. After I made it, I felt like I should have known better! I agree with one of the other commenters: macerate your strawberries with sugar and Marsala and put it in a delicious pound cake!

It would be useful for the recipe to note that 1/14 pounds is roughly a quart of strawberries.

Good. The cake has a lovely texture. And no, it did not seem to suffer from waiting 2 hours to eat it. I only had dry Marsala—probably should have added another Tbsp of sugar. I used the leftover strawberry syrup to pour on top of the servings.

Not worth the effort. Very eggy tasting. The description would be more apt if described as a pudding cake. We weren't crazy about the strawberries and Marsala combination. Next time would use a different flavor instead of Marsala but there won't be a next time.

Followed recipe “to the letter”… sadly, a lot of time and effort for a most “uncake-like”, mushy result.

Came our very mushy … though tester was clean

Made it with peaches (no sugar to macerate); 1/2 c almond flour, 1/2 c regular flour; and 1/c wine, 1/4 c grand marnier. The cake is a little denser and delicious.

Brown the butter-- so good!!!

I'm italian. Marsale taste is fantastic!

This is up there in my favorite summer desserts! A few suggested tweaks: Worked orange zest (whole orange) into the sugar before the egg yolks. Subbed in 1/3 cup almond meal for the AP flour because I love that texture. Don't keep marsala on hand (though I'm sure it would be lovely here), so used equal amounts of sweet Spanish vermouth and tawny port -- divine! Written baking time was a little too long, so keep an eye on it. But whatever you do, make this -- such a pleasing treat!

This ended up more like a pudding. It steamed more than it baked. Perhaps I'll try again with fewer strawberries.

Made this last night and it was delicious! Light, airy, moist; not too sweet. I changed the recipe slightly; had dry Marsala and used peaches. It was a hit with everyone and only had a small piece leftover for breakfast today. I will definitely be making it again with other fruit.

I made this for my now-adult family and no one liked it. This is the first NYT Cooking recipe that I “unsaved” so I don’t accidentally make it again.

This cake was rejected by everyone who tried it. The overwhelming assessment was that it was terrible. A waste of good Marsala and an even greater waste of beautiful berries.