1. Make the strawberry curd. In a medium bowl, whisk egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch. Set aside. In a medium saucepan, add strawberries and juice of lemon. Cover pan and cook over medium-low heat for 7 minutes. Use an immersion blender, or a blender to blend the strawberries until smooth. Pour mixture into beaten egg yolk mixture and whisk to combine. You can add red food dye at this point if you want the color to be a deeper red. Pour mixture back into saucepan and cook over medium-low heat for 5 minutes, or until thickened. Remove from heat and pour through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl. Cover the curd with plastic wrap, pressing the plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the curd (so it doesn’t form a skin), and set in refrigerator to chill for 1 hour.

2. Make the strawberry syrup. In a medium saucepan, add strawberries, water, sugar and juice of lemon. Cook over medium-high heat for 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and use an immersion blender to blend until smooth. If you don’t have an immersion blender, wait until the mixture cools, then blend in a blender until smooth.

3. Once the mixture is blended, divide. Pour 1/3 into a large shallow bowl, and reserve the remaining 2/3.

4. Make the strawberry filling. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add mascarpone cheese and cream cheese. Beat until combined. Add in the heavy cream, sugar, vanilla extract and remaining 2/3 of strawberry syrup. Pulse a few times just until the mixture begins to mix together (so that it doesn’t splatter everywhere). Beat until mixture is combined, smooth and creamy.

5. Dip the ladyfingers in the 1/3 of strawberry syrup, being sure to coat both sides. Place ladyfingers in a single layer in the bottom of a 9×9 inch pan. Add half of the strawberry filling mixture on top. Place dipped ladyfingers on top, then add remaining strawberry filling on top.

6. Add chilled strawberry curd on top and spread in an even layer.

7. Place in refrigerator and allow to chill for 4-8 hours, ideally overnight. Serve and enjoy!