Wednesday 4 December 2013

Strawberry Shortcake


It was my dad's birthday a while back, and when thinking of the birthday cake, which I obviously offered to prepare, I drew a blank.  You can only make mudcake so many times.  We are all getting sick of it.  I remembered seeing a recipe in the ones my mum got from the library for Strawberry Shortcake (which was a red headed doll in my day!) and thought I would give it a go.

Being a sponge-type cake I was dubious.  The gluten free ones I have tried in the past have a nasty after taste and are just 'not quite right' in the consistency/texture feel.  They have always been a big disappointment.

I tried this one, and although it is still a different consistency to a normal sponge, it works with the cream and strawberries.  Looks pretty nice too, if I do say so myself.  The recipe comes from Lola, so here goes.

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE
INGREDIENTS
100g castor sugar
2 tsp butter
1 tbsp glycerine (edible - from supermarkets and cake decorating shops)
4 tbsp hot water
100g gluten free plain flour
2 tsp gluten free baking powder
2 tsp vanilla essence

Filling:
1 punnet strawberries
250 ml cream
2 tbsp pure icing sugar
few drops vanilla essence

METHOD
Preheat the oven to 180C.  Grease sides and line the bottom of 2x20cm round cake tins.

Place the eggs and sugar in a large metal or glass bowl and hand whisk over a saucepan of hot water until the mixture is slightly warm and frothy.  Remove from the heat and continue beating with an electric beater until the mixture is thick and creamy, but not stiff.  In a separate bowl, add the glycerine and butter to the hot water and let stand for 1 minute.  Fold the flour and baking powder into the egg mixture.  Mix in the vanilla and glycerine mixture.  Fold lightly but thoroughly.  Pour into prepared tins and bake for 30 mins.  Let stand for at least 1 minute before turning onto a wire rack to cool.

Beat cream until thickened and add the icing sugar and vanilla.  Continue beating until stiff.  Reserve strawberries for decoration, and thinly slice the rest.

Place down your base cake (the least pretty of your two cakes) and spread thickly with cream.  Top with a layer of strawberries.  Place the other cake on top.  Pipe swirls of cream on to the top and decorate with strawberries.  To fan you slice thinly, but not all the way through.  Fan with fingers.  When decorated, sprinkle the entire cake with icing sugar to serve.

Yummo!  A great cake to take to someone's house or to share with a cuppa!  Let me know what you think in the comments.

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