Strawberry Shortcake may be the most popular dessert in the US (according to Rose's notes in the Baking Bible) but it's virtually unknown in Australia. In fact if you carried out a street poll you'd probably draw a complete blank except from women of a certain age who had a Strawberry Shortcake doll in their youth. I was a Holly Hobby fan myself.
I'm not sure why we haven't taken it to our bosoms because it looks delicious. This version uses sponge cake instead of scones which is a bit controversial with strawberry shortcake aficionados - apparently not the real thing... But as I've just established, I'm a strawberry shortcake novice, so genoise it is.
Good things about this Alpha Bakers project:
1. I could buy a new baking tin - you can see it at the right of the photo below. It turned out to be a bit smaller than I expected (internet shopping) which meant I ended up making two cakes. I can only see this as a positive.
2. The ingredients are pretty simple. Just plain flour, cornflour, sugar and lots of eggs. Plus LOTS of strawberries. I opted to use all fresh except for a handful of frozen I found which were leftover from another Alpha Bakers project. I'm not a big fan of frozen strawberries although I suppose they're okay if you're going to puree them.
3. It involved whipping eggs into a delicious frenzy so they triple (quadruple?) in volume.
4. The genoise mixture was actually stable enough to stand around in the humidity waiting for the oven for 30 minutes while the first cake cooked (one small convection microwave). I consider this as a minor miracle. The second cake became a ring cake.
5. It's also fun to puree, particularly when it's lovely red strawberries. These are mixed with sugar and lemon (Rose's hallmark) which makes it very fresh tasting.
6. It came out of the tin with ease. I buttered, floured and sugared the tin before putting in the mixture.
7. Even the ring tin cake came out easily.
8. The construction process was so easy, even an impatient and slapdash cook could make it look pretty.
9. It was so, so delicious. I put some of the puree through the cream instead of the suggested strawberry jam. I didn't strain it, but a few pits don't bother me. It made the cream a lovely pink colour with orangey-red stripes.
10. Still delicious. Way too delicious and light really - it made it easy to overindulge.
Next week is dattelkonfekt which appear to be date meringues.
I'm not sure why we haven't taken it to our bosoms because it looks delicious. This version uses sponge cake instead of scones which is a bit controversial with strawberry shortcake aficionados - apparently not the real thing... But as I've just established, I'm a strawberry shortcake novice, so genoise it is.
1. I could buy a new baking tin - you can see it at the right of the photo below. It turned out to be a bit smaller than I expected (internet shopping) which meant I ended up making two cakes. I can only see this as a positive.
2. The ingredients are pretty simple. Just plain flour, cornflour, sugar and lots of eggs. Plus LOTS of strawberries. I opted to use all fresh except for a handful of frozen I found which were leftover from another Alpha Bakers project. I'm not a big fan of frozen strawberries although I suppose they're okay if you're going to puree them.
3. It involved whipping eggs into a delicious frenzy so they triple (quadruple?) in volume.
5. It's also fun to puree, particularly when it's lovely red strawberries. These are mixed with sugar and lemon (Rose's hallmark) which makes it very fresh tasting.
6. It came out of the tin with ease. I buttered, floured and sugared the tin before putting in the mixture.
7. Even the ring tin cake came out easily.
8. The construction process was so easy, even an impatient and slapdash cook could make it look pretty.
9. It was so, so delicious. I put some of the puree through the cream instead of the suggested strawberry jam. I didn't strain it, but a few pits don't bother me. It made the cream a lovely pink colour with orangey-red stripes.
10. Still delicious. Way too delicious and light really - it made it easy to overindulge.
Next week is dattelkonfekt which appear to be date meringues.
