Information
Serves 6
Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 80g caster sugar
- 90g cake flour
- 30g unsalted butter
- 30g milk
- 500g thickened cream
- 50g caster sugar
- 2 punnets strawberries
- sprigs of thyme
- 100g sugar
- 100g water
For the whipped cream
For decoration
Simple syrup
Methods
- Preheat the oven to 175 degrees c. Line a 15cm round cake pan with baking paper (sides and bottom)
- In a small bowl, combine the egg yolks, vanilla and salt. Set aside.
- Combine the milk and butter in a small bowl and microwave until the butter is melted.
- Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat the egg whites until frothy. Slowly add the caster sugar while beating and beat until soft peaks form. Around 7-10 minutes. You should be able to turn the bowl upside down without the meringue falling.
- Add the egg yolk mixture into the egg whites and beat until thick and creamy.
- Sift the cake flour over the egg mixture. Fold gently to combine.
- Add a little less than a third of the batter to the butter and milk mixture and combine with a spatula. This is to lighten up the butter mixture before folding it into the main batter so don’t need to be too gentle.
- Pour the butter mixture back into the rest of the batter and fold gently until just combined. Be sure not to overmix!
- Pour the batter into the cake mold slowly to burst any large air bubbles.
- Tap the mold a couple times on the counter to burst any remaining bubbles and bake at 175c for 30 minutes.
- When done, the middle of the cake should spring back to the touch. Drop the cake a few times on the counter once out of the oven to prevent shrinking.
- Cool the cake before slicing.
- In a saucepan, bring the caster sugar and water to a boil.
- When the sugar has completely dissolved, cool and set aside.
- Remove the baking paper from the cooled cake. Using a serrated knife, cut off the golden brown top and bottom of the cake and discard. Slice the remaining cake into 3 layers.
- Wash and dry the strawberries thoroughly with a paper towel. Pick out 6 good looking strawberries for decoration and set aside. Slice the remaining strawberries lengthwise into 0.5cm (1/4 inch) slices. Lay paper towel on a large plate and place the strawberry slices on top in a single layer.
- Using an electric mixer, whip 300ml of the cream with 25g of caster sugar until stiff peaks form. This is for the filling and crumb coat of the cake.
- Place a single layer of cake onto a cake turntable. Make sure the cake is centered. Brush the layer with sugar syrup. Top with the stiff whipped cream and spread the cream evenly with an icing spatula. Place the strawberries onto the cream in a single layer. Cover with with just enough cream to fill in the gaps between the strawberries. Repeat with the remaining cake layers.
- Top the assembled cake with the remaining stiff cream and smooth the top and sides. This doesnt need to be perfect as we’ll be icing the cake again.
- In a separate bowl, whip the remaining cream and 25g of sugar with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. The cream should be viscous enough to hold a peak but fall back in on itself after a couple seconds. This is for the final coat of the cake and the piping decoration.
- For the final coat, place a generous amount of the soft whipped cream onto the top of the cake. Spread to the edge of the top of the cake, before smoothing out. Keep the tip of the spatula in the centre of the cake at a slight angle while spinning the turntable. The thickness and smoothness of the layer of cream is determined but how much pressure is applied to the spatula. Apply just enough so most of the cream is hanging off the edge of the cake while the top is smooth.
- To smooth the sides of the cake, hold your spatula upright against the side of the cake. While spinning the turntable slowly, use a back and forth motion with the spatula to spread the cream evenly on the sides.
- When the cream is evenly coated over the sides, remove the excess cream from your spatula by dragging it on the side of the bowl. Place the spatula against the side of the cake and hold it still while spinning the turntable. Apply enough pressure on the spatula to smooth the cake. If there are still patches of uneven cream, cover the areas with a bit more cream and smooth again. Only do this a few times as the cream will become over whipped and split the more it is spread around.
- Smooth the top by using your spatula to pull the cream towards the centre of the cake. Remove excess cream from the spatula between each time and repeat until smooth.
- Once the cake is completely iced, transfer the cake to a cake plate/ board. Loosen the cake from the turntable by sliding your spatula under the cake and spinning the turntable all the way around. Slide your spatula underneath the cake and lift the side of the cake up gently. The spatula should be slightly off centre. Slide another spatula under the other side of the cake and lift the cake up with both spatulas. Place on the cake onto the plate and slide one spatula out before the other.
- For the decoration, fill a piping bag fitted with a star shaped piping tip with the remaining cream. Pipe a border on the top and bottom of the cake. Decorate with the whole strawberries and thyme leaves.