Strawberry Shortcake Royale

My fussy hb, bless him.. is super fussy when it comes to sponge cake.. hes not a big fan of ur typical sponge cake.. i think the only time where he ever enjoyed a sponge cake-like texture cake was the Katsura aka Castella cake which we bought fm Isetan supermarket long time ago.. anyway long story short.. this cake was baked simply bec last weekend while in cold storage i bought a pack of fresh strawberries that was on quick sale.. i knew i couldnt keep it for long and hence the need to use it up immediately.. hb suggested strawberry shortcake and i reminded him that this cake uses sponge cake as base.. he said i shud just bake the american type where they use scones like cake to sandwich the strawberries.. i on the other hand felt like baking japenese strawberry shortcake after looking at this photo lol

I began to look around for the best sponge cake recipe for this strawberry shortcake.. i dont want to be baking something which my hb will not enjoy so the journey to look for the best non choking type of sponge cake began.. after hrs of looking i finally settled on cotton cake since the texture of this type of cake is known for its softness.. decided to use Ricky Indiani green tea cotton cake recipe and fuji mama stablized whipping cream recipe.. hehe my version of japenese strawberry shortcake is a fusion of an indon and caucasion lady recipe :op

Ingredients
Cotton Cake
145g low protein flour - cake flour
15g corn flour
1 egg
5 egg yolks - whisk lightly with a fork
150g unsalted butter
65g fresh milk

5 egg white
100g castor sugar
1/4 tsp salt


Method

Preheat oven 160C.. grease and line ur 7 or 8" baking pan.. wrap bottom of ur baking pan with aluminium.

Heat butter and milk till warmish.. do not let it boil ok.. switch off heat and add in sifted flour and corn flour.. mix using wooden spatula.

Transfer to a bigger bowl and add in ur eggs.. continue to mix till smooth.

In another bowl.. whisk egg white till frothy.. add in salt and add in sugar in 3 addition.. whisk till soft peak

Pour 1/3 of egg white mixture into ur egg/butter mixture.. fold in gently.. pour the rest and continue to mix gently.. (same manner as when ur baking chiffon cake.. cotton cheesecake)

Pour batter into baking pan and bake it au bain marie method for abt 45 mins.

Stabilised whipped cream
2 tsp gelatin powder
8 tsp cold water
2 cup whipping cream, cold
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Method

Chill mixing bowl and beaters in the freezer for 10minutes.

Put the cold water in a small saucepan. Sprinkle the gelatin over the surface of the water and let stand for 5 minutes. Place the saucepan over low heat and stir constantly with a wooden spoon just until the gelatin dissolves. Remove the saucepan from the heat and cool to room temperature.

Remove mixing bowl and beaters from freezer. In the mixing bowl, combine the whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla and whip until slightly thickened. Then, while beating slowly, gradually pour the gelatin into the whipped cream mixture. Then whip the mixture at high speed until slightly stiff.

Simple sugar syrup
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water

Method

In a medium saucepan combine the sugar and water. Bring the water to a boil, stirring, until sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

*250g punnet of strawberries



Assembling

Reserve a handful of strawberries (the prettiest ones!) for decorating the top of the cake. Dice the remaining strawberries into small cubes. Macerate them in a little sugar and set aside.

Slice the sponge cake horizontally into three layers.

Place one sponge layer cut-side up on a cake board and lightly brush the surface with the limoncello simple syrup. Spread a thin layer of whipped cream over the cake layer and arrange the strawberry cubes over the surface. Spread a thin layer of whipped cream over the strawberries. Brush the cut-side of the second layer with the simple syrup and place it over the first layer. Frost the sides and top of the cake with the remaining whipped cream. Repeat with remaining third layer of cake. Spread a thin layer of cream over top of the cake and return to fridge to chill for thirty minutes.

Using the leftover cream, pipe the cream as decoration. Chill in fridge for cream to set for an hour or so. Garnish with the reserved strawberries (sliced in halves).

The cotton cake tasted superb.. the whipping cream was to die for.. u will be seeing me using the same recipe over and over again with different kind of fruits lol..

My fussy hb ate two slices of my strawberry shortcake - case closed!