Strawberry Shortcake

I never really knew what a strawberry shortcake was until I stumbled upon a strawberry shortcake recipe ( I know I sound quite ignorant) in the amazing Kak Rima's blog and I knew instantly I had to try it.Her pictures are so captivating. I begin researching more on strawberry shortcakes but found two very different recipes when I looked it up on Google. One looked like scones stuffed with cream and strawberries (The American version) another looked like layered sponge cake with cream and strawberries (Japanese version). Kak Rima's one was the Japanese version.

Before I came back to Malaysia for good, Woolworths had strawberries on special. 1 punnet for A$ 1.99,it was a steal. I brought home to Malaysia 6 packets of strawberries. Made my favourite strawberry cupcakes and made a strawberry shortcake using her recipe but something I did wrong messed the cake up. I am in NO  manner blaming her recipe cause I have made wonderful cakes and cookies using recipes found in her blog. The cake was not fluffy as it should be but the stabilised cream was wonderful.

My first attempt of strawberry shortcake

A couple of months later, I took the challenge to cake another strawberry shortcake using a different cotton sponge cake base recipe and modified Kak Rima's whipped cream recipe by omitting the gelatin solution to stabilise the cream. 

I had a little drama while making this cake. The recipe required me to bake equal amount of cake batter in two 9" square baking pan but I only had one and my oven capacity is small and in my experience, leaving sponge cake batter out too long  will make the cake dry so I had to make them at one go. So I rushed over to my cousin's place next door (advantages of having relatives as neighbours!) to bake my second sponge cake but to my horror my aunty uses a microwave to bake her cakes. I took the risk and baked it in the microwave. After 10 minutes I return, my cake has sunk,harder & begun burning. I almost cried! I kept calm and thanked God I had my first cake out and looking perfect.When I flipped it over, The middle-bottom was still wet and under-baked. Another flop! I calmly flipped the cake back into the baking tin and baked it again for another 10 minutes and removed. It baked a little more,obviously but I still kept my fingers crossed the cake will come out at least eatable.LOL. The top of the cake had a dark brown crust, darker than what was shown in the recipe so I trimmed the top off. ( Next time follow the recipe exactly and there is reason why they divided the cake batter into 2,silly girl!) I prepared the cream filling, strawberries and frosted the cake! The cream begun to melt after a while(stupid Malaysian humidity!) but I quickly frosted and kept it in the fridge to firm up a little. Stabilised cream filling is best for our weather, I reckon. The cake turned out be a definite keeper in my recipe collection. Although the cake was not as high as I expected it to be but the cake was so good and tasted like I was eating ice cream cake!! Oh my, I feel like making it again. hehe.

Cotton cake from Sedap Magazine Sept 2012 (Indonesian version) - barely adapted

(A)

130g unsalted butter

130g low-protein flour (cake flour)

160g fresh milk

200g egg yolks (10 - 11Grade AA eggs) , slightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

(B)

400g egg whites (10-11 Grade AA eggs)

1/2 teaspoon salt ( I omitted)

1 teaspoon cream of tartar ( I omitted )

200g caster sugar

1. Prepare the baking pans by greasing and lining the tins with butter and baking paper.
2. Melt butter over low heat and turn off heat. Add flour and whisk batter until well combined. Remove from stove. 
3. Heat milk until warm but not boiling. Pour over egg yolks and vanilla extract and keep whisking until well combined.
4. Pour the yolks and milk mixture slowly into the butter and flour mixture while mixing until smooth. Leave it aside.
5. Make meringue mixture. Whisk egg whites until soft peaks then gradually add the sugar until you have a smooth shiny mixture. It should be stiff peaks.
6. Slowly add (A) into (B) and fold gently until well combined. 
7. Pour into two 9" pans and bake using the bain marie method in a preheat oven of 160 C for 45 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the cake comes out clean.
8. Allow to cool completely before removing it from the pan.

Stabilised whipping cream ( Omit the gelatine mixture if you prefer the not stabilised version)

500g whipping cream (min 35% fat content)

1/2 cup icing sugar,sifted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoon gelatine powder

8 teaspoon warm water

1. Place beaters in the freezer for 1/2 hour.
2. In a small bowl, prepare gelatine mixture by pouring the warm water into the gelatine and constantly mixing it until dissolved. Allow to cool completely.
3. Prepare ice cold water bath to whip cream. Place the mixing bowl in a larger bowl filled with cold water and ice cubes. Pour whipping cream, vanilla extract and sifted icing sugar in the bowl and whisk until soft peaks. Then add the cooled gelatine mixture and continue to whisk until stiff peaks.
4. Fill cream in a piping bag with a plain nozzle for easy frosting of cake.

1 pound fresh strawberries,diced

2 tablepoon caster sugar

1 tablespoon kirsch

1. Well coat the diced strawberries in sugar and kirsch and allow to macerate for 15 minutes.

A handful of beautiful strawberries from the pound of strawberries for decoration

Kirsch for brushing

To assemble

1. Trim the crust off the cakes, slice each cake into 2 layers (not necessary if you preference your layers thick) and brush with kirsch or syrup from the strawberries coated in sugar and kirsch.
2. Fill the first layer with cream and level it with a spatula. Scatter strawberry filling without the syrup on the cream gently but generously. 
3. Add the follow layer and follow the steps above for the rest of the layers. 
4. Finally pipe the remaining cream all over the cake, level it with a spatula and decorate the cake with strawberries according to you preference. 
5. Chill the cake for at least 2 hours before slicing it and serving the cake.

17 November 2012 - I made this cake for the third time and it was an absolute success!!It was like having  strawberries and cream, the cake was very light and cottony!! Definitely a keeper.