Strawberry Cream Cake

I took this shamelessly from seasaltwithfood. Her blog is seriously amazing, with gorgeous pictures.

So, with my cousins coming over for a bbq, and having had requests for dessert (tiramisu went over really well the last time they were here), I thought I'd challenge myself to make cake. Bear in mind that I've never really mastered the art of baking, especially not with something that requires delicate moisture balance, like cakes. My back up plan was fondue, where all I had to do was cut up some fruit, and melt some chocolate.

Anyways,

Ingredients:
Cake:
1.25 cups flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
5 large eggs, separated
1 cup sugar
5 tbsp boiling water
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
grated zest of 2 lemons


Filling:
2 cups strawberries, thinly sliced (I actually used 2 boxes of strawberries, picking out the most pretty for the top and slicing the rest.)
1 tsp lemon juice
4-6 tbsp sugar
2 cups creme fraiche
2/3 cup whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla extract


Strawberries for garnish
Confectioners' sugar for dusting


Method:
Line the bottom of a 9-inch spring form pan with parchment paper.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

With a whisk attachment of an electric mixer, whip egg whites on medium-low speed until frothy. Increase speed to medium-high and whip until thick and smooth. The mixture should not look dry.

Preheat oven to 350 F (180C).

In another bowl, whip egg yolks and sugar on high until thick. The mixture will be grainy. Reduce speed to medium-low and add boiling water. Turn off mixer, scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl and increase speed to high and whisk until thick, like a batter/milkshake.

Stir in vanill extract and lemon zest. Stir in dry ingredients.

Fold the egg whites into the batter, half at a time.

Gently spread the batter in the pan. Bake about 25 minutes, until a wooden skewer inserted into the centre of the cake somes out clean.

Remove from oven and let cool in pan for 10 minutes. Invert the cake, remove the base of the pan and peel off the parchment. Let cool completely. If serving the next day, stop here.

Prior to serving, cut the cake into 3 horizontal layers, using a serrated knife.

Filling:
Place the sliced strawberries in a bowl. Stir in lemon juice and 2 tbsp sugar. Add sugar to taste.

Using a mixer with the whisk attachment, combine creme fraiche, cream, vanilla and 2 tbsp sugar. Whip on medium-high until soft peaks form and the cream holds its shape.

Place 1 cake layer on a cake stand or serving plate. Arrange 1/2 of the strawberries and juice over the cake. Spread 1/3 cream over the berries. Repeat the layering process: cake, berries, cream. The top layer will have cake and cream only.

Dust the top of the cake with confectioners' sugar and garnish with berries cut in half. Cut the cake with a serrated knife.



Comments:
Have I mentioned that I'm not much of a baker? I find what happens is that I don't really understand the instructions. Here are the various places where I think I might've gotten it wrong.

I really shouldn't've whipped the egg whites first. The rationale was that I would have a clean whisk. Creating a meringue-type thing is hard if yolks get into the mix. The problem was that there was so much time between beating the egg whites and folding them in that it had started to collapse. My resulting cake was rather flat. This is supposed to be thick enough to cut into 4 layers; I only managed 3.

The next thing is that I really wasn't sure at what point the mixtures were thick enough. There is no benchmark.

Then, I wasn't sure if I was supposed to stir in the dry ingredients by hand or machine. I went with machine, and I think I might've overdone it, again, resulting in the increased density. AND it was messy. Flour was flying.

I did not have all the ingredients pre-measured and ready to add in at a moment's notice. (I'd actually grated the zest directly into the bowl of batter). I can't remember if it's baking soda or baking powder that requires it to be cooked soon in order for the leavening to happen. If it's baking powder, well, the extra wait time whilst I grated really didn't help make a fluffy cake.

I have a glass-bottomed pan, so 25 minutes was adequate bake time (possibly even too much). Regular metal pans could probably use an extra 5 minutes.



Verdict:
None yet, as we have not yet eaten. But it looks good ^^