Tradition, tradition! If I were a rich woman, deba deba deba deba doo I would bake cakes all day long and I’d eat them too…
My favourite tradition, apart from our weekly Friday night Shabbat dinner (Friday night dinners) is our regular Shabbat birthday dinners. I get to bake my cakes guilt free and celebrate a special day with the people I love most. Last night we celebrated my beautiful sister (in-law’s) birthday and I wanted to make her a pretty-looking three-layered traditional sponge cake, each layer is light, fluffy and moist. And we all know that NOTHING compliments a classic sponge cake like STRAWBERRIES!
I certainly couldn’t leave out the sweet vanilla cream and to top it off a tangy homemade Raspberry sauce. Taking advantage of the berry season, I decorated it with a variety of berries and pretty flowers.
Ingredients
Note:
First make and refrigerate the sauce and the cream, you want them to be cold and firm when applying them onto cake.
Cake
4 extra large eggs
¾ cup caster sugar
⅔ cup cornflour
¼ cup custard powder
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of so
3 punnets strawberries
Berry sauce
150gm frozen strawberries
150gm frozen raspberries
2 tablespoons cornflour dissolved in 2 tablespoons of water
1 or 2 tablespoons sugar (depends on how tart you want it)
Cream
250ml thickened cream
1 cup full cream milk
1 packet vanilla sugar
1 packet instant pudding vanilla (you can find it in the Kosher section in Coles)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Topping
I used the following:
1 mango
2 punnets blueberries
5 strawberries
¾ cup mixed blackberries and raspberries
Flower petals, edible flowers and fresh flowers
Arrange however you desire
Method
Preheat oven to 180°C (fan-forced 160°C). Grease and flour two 20cm round, deep cake tins. Line the bases with baking paper.
If you want three layers you will need to bake four tins and use 3.
Place eggs and sugar into a mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat for approx. 7 mins or until mixture is thick and creamy.
In a separate bowl, sift the corn flour, custard powder, cream of tartar and the bicarbonate of soda. Using a metal spoon, gently fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture until just combined taking care not to over mix.
Divide the batter evenly between the cake tins. Bake for 20 mins (DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR to check before 20 min)or until the cake surface springs back when touched lightly in the center. Cool in the tins for 5 mins then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.
Berry Sauce
In a pot stir berries and sugar over medium–high heat. Once it starts to boil add cornflour mixture and stir for a couple of minutes, until sauce starts to thicken. Let it cool down and refrigerate.
Cream Filling
Whip the vanilla sugar, vanilla essence, thickened cream, milk and instant pudding vanilla until soft peaks appear.
Divide whipped cream into 2 even portions and refrigerate.
Assembly
To assemble the cake, place one cake layer on a serving dish, spread about 5 tablespoons of berry sauce evenly on top of layer.
Spread whipped cream evenly on top of berry sauce, or you can use a piping bag to spread it evenly, I find the piping bag method easier to keep it even.
Slice the strawberries lay then on top of the cream pointy beat sticking out (the cream acts a glue to keep the strawberries in place)
Repeat with another layer of strawberries, placing them a little back creating a step effect. You will be left with unused strawberries slices (the ones that didn’t fit nicely) cut them up and add more if you want, and throw them on top of cream.
Repeat with second layer of cake.
Spread about 2-3 tablespoons of berry sauce on top layer and start to decorate with what ever topping you like!
Love,
Nava.
PS - I love hearing from you! Let me know how it went and feel free to spread the word/passion/love, the more the merrier!
Comments