Author: Jen

Fraisier cake is one of my favourite French cakes. My version has a syrup soaked genoise sponge base, fresh strawberries and a crème mousseline on top. Crème mousseline is made by adding a lot of butter to crème pâtissière (or pastry cream) and is absolutely delicious. This dessert is basically a fancy way of serving strawberries and cream.

For the Genoise Sponge

• 2 large eggs
• 60g caster sugar
• 60g plain flour
• 15g unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 170°C and line a baking tray with baking paper and a 16cm diameter ring. The ring needs to be quite deep as the batter will have a lot of volume, the ring I used was 6cm deep.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan and leave to cool slightly whilst you prepare the other ingredients. Place the eggs and sugar in a bowl over a bain marie and whisk until the mixture is hot to the touch (if you have a thermometer it needs to be about 50°C).

Take the bowl off the heat and continue to whisk until the mixture is lighter in colour, bigger in volume and has cooled down.

Pass the flour through a sieve and then gently fold into the egg and sugar mix. Once the flour is fully incorporated, take a small amount of the batter and pop it in to the saucepan with the melted butter and mix together. Then transfer the butter mix into the larger batter mix and gently fold in. Mixing some batter with the melted butter first makes it easier to incorporate the butter.

Gently transfer the batter into the ring on the baking tray, being careful to not knock any of the air out. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until firm to the touch. Once baked, leave to cool in the ring.

For the Crème Mousseline

• 500ml milk
• 4 egg yolks
• 125g caster sugar
• 50g cornflour
• 2tbsp vanilla extract
• 250g unsalted butter (at room temperature)

First of all make the pastry cream. Start by heating the milk gently in a saucepan. Meanwhile, whisk the eggs with the sugar, then whisk in the cornflour. Once the milk is simmering, pour a small amount into the egg mixture and whisk together, then pour the entire contents into the saucepan and turn up the heat. Whisk continuously until the mixture is thick. Pour into a clean bowl and whisk in the vanilla. Cover with cling film (the film needs to be touching the pastry cream) and chill in the fridge.

Once the cream is cool, pop the butter (at room temperature) in an electric mixer and whisk until it is smooth and creamy. Keep whisking the butter and add the pastry cream a little at a time until fully incorporated. The mixture may look a little curdled but keep whisking and it will become smooth. If the mixture is a little lumpy, it means the butter was perhaps too warm when mixing the two together. This can be rescued by putting the bowl over a bain marie and whisking until smooth.

For the imbibing syrup

• 75g caster sugar
• 75ml water
• 25ml alcohol (e.g. strawberry liqueur, vanilla vodka or champagne)

Bring the sugar and water to a boil in the saucepan. Take off the heat and add the alcohol and mix.

To assemble the cake

For the cake, you will need a punnet of strawberries.

Remove the cake from the ring (run a knife around the ring to release the cake). The cake needs to be about 2cm in height so use a sharp serrated knife to trim off the top of the cake. I use a different sized ring mould to rest the knife on so the cake is cut evenly.

Next take the original ring the cake was baked in and line with acetate and put on a board or cake stand. Place the cake in the bottom of the ring and using a pastry brush, brush the imbibing syrup all over the cake. Use all of the syrup so the cake is really moist.

Next, you’ll need about 7 or 8 strawberries to line the ring with. Try and choose strawberries that are about the same size (the remaining strawberries will be chopped up so it doesn’t matter how they look). Hull the strawberries and chop in half. Place the strawberries inside the ring, cut half facing outwards, and press against the acetate.

Now spoon or pipe some of your crème mousseline over and around the strawberries to fill the gaps between them. Spoon more of the mousseline over the cake. Now roughly chop your remaining strawberries (reserving 3 or 4 for decoration on top) and put them in the middle of the crème.

Finally pour the remaining mouselline on top. Bring it right to the top of the ring and smooth over with a palette knife.

Pop in the fridge and leave to chill for at least 1 hour. Once chilled, remove the metal ring and the acetate. Smooth over any rough edges with a palette knife, then decorate the top with strawberries and fresh mint leaves. Serve immediately and enjoy!

This Eton Mess inspired cake has three layers of vanilla sponge and is filled and topped with chantilly cream, crushed meringues and strawberries.

Vanilla cake

• 300g self raising flour
• 265g margarine
• 265g caster sugar
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs

Grease 3 sandwich tins (8 inch diameter) using butter and dust all over with flour. Preheat the oven to 160°C (fan oven).

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix together until smooth. Split the batter evenly between the 3 tins and level the tops. Bake in the oven for 18-22 minutes until risen and golden (check the cakes are fully cooked by inserting a skewer in to the centre, it should come out clean). Once baked, turn out on to wire racks and leave to cool.

Meringue

• 3 large egg whites
• 150g caster sugar

Once the cakes are done, lower the oven temperature to 100°C and line a couple of baking sheets with baking paper. 

Whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Keep the whisk going and slowly add the sugar a tablespoon at a time. Once all the sugar has been incorporated, whisk on high until the mixture is stiff and glossy. I then filled a piping bag with the mixture and piped out meringue “kisses” on to the baking paper. Most of the meringue is going to be crushed anyway, so if you prefer, just use a spoon to dollop meringue on to the tray.

Bake the meringue in the oven for about an hour. If the meringue pieces come away easily from the paper, they are done. Otherwise, leave in the oven for a little longer.

Chantilly Cream

• 550ml double cream
• 50g icing sugar (sifted)
• 1 vanilla pod or 1 tsp vanilla powder

Chantilly cream is a mixture of cream, icing sugar and vanilla whipped up until it holds its shape. I use a vanilla powder to flavour, but you can use the seeds from a vanilla pod or a teaspoon of vanilla extract.  Place the cream, icing sugar and the vanilla in a bowl and whisk until the cream reaches soft peaks (be careful not to over whisk as it will become butter).

To assemble the cake, place the first cake on a board or cake stand (hold in place with a small amount of the cream. Take a third of the cream and spread over the top of the cake. Now take the meringues in a bowl and crush them up into irregular pieces (leave a few meringues in one piece to pop on top). Sprinkle a third of the meringue pieces on the cream and top with some chopped up strawberries. Repeat with the next 2 layers and top with the whole meringues and some more strawberries.

The sponge in this cake is flavoured with zest and a little of the juice of blood orange, however it’s the syrup drizzled all over the cake which is really strong in flavour and makes it very moist. The icing dripped on top is made purely of juice from the orange and icing sugar and adds a final burst of flavour to the cake.

Blood Orange Drizzle Cake 

• 150g unsalted butter
• 150g caster sugar
• 165g self raising flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp baking powder
• zest of 2 blood oranges
• 1 tbsp blood orange juice

Preheat the oven to 160°C (fan oven). Grease a 2 lb loaf tin with butter and line the base with baking paper.

Begin by sifting together the flour and the baking powder into a bowl. In a separate bowl, beat together the butter and the sugar until light and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until fully incorporated (add a spoonful of the flour with each egg to stop the mixture curdling). Then finally fold in the remaining flour, orange zest and juice. Once all the ingredients have been incorporated, pour the batter into the prepared tin. Bake in the oven for approx 30 to 40 minutes (check the cake is cooked all the way through using a skewer).

Orange syrup

• 50g caster sugar
• 75ml of water
• 25ml of orange liqueur
• juice of 1 blood orange

Make the syrup whilst the cake is baking. Weigh out the sugar and the water into a small saucepan. Heat slowly until the sugar is completely dissolved and then bring to the boil. Take off the heat once the syrup reaches a good boil and then add the liqueur and the orange juice. Stir and leave in the saucepan to cool until needed.

When the cake is baked, remove from the tin and place on a wire rack with foil underneath  (to catch any drips from the syrup). Using a skewer, make a few small holes all over the top of the cake to help the syrup through. Use a pastry brush to brush the syrup all over the top of the cake.

Once all the syrup has been brushed on to the cake, leave to cool.

Blood Orange Icing

• 80g icing sugar
• 2 tbsp blood orange juice

Sift the icing sugar in to a bowl, then add the orange juice. Whisk together until smooth. If you want a runnier consistency add a little more orange juice.

Once the cake has cooled, spoon over the icing, allowing it to drip down the sides.