Makoto's TV Strawberry Shortcake! Remember when Makoto was invited onto a cooking show which could have potentially lanched her culinary career but then Usagi ruined it o_O, well I've attempted to recreate that cake here! I used La Fuji Mama's recipe http://www.lafujimama.com/2010/07/japanese-strawberry-shortcake/ But I tweaked the recipe a little bit. 4 eggs a pinch of cream of tartar 120g castor sugar 3 tablespoons milk 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 120g cake flour (or normal flour with 2 tbsp of cornstarch replaced for each cup) 22g melted butter strawberries (enough to fill the cake) strawberry syrup (i just melt some sugar and water and add finely chopped up strawberries or you can use the syrup from canned strawberries) 1tsp gelatin 4tsp water 300 ml cream (ordinary whipping cream is fine, it tastes the most frothy and cool i don't much care for heavy cream) 1/4 cup icing sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract. |  Separate the eggs, placing the whites in a spotlessly clean metal bowl (this is crucial, you must not use plastic or have any fleck of impurity on your beaters/whisk or bowl) and the yolks into a medium sized bowl. Put the cream of tartar (optional, it just makes folding easier) in the egg whites along with a pinch of salt. Beat until soft peaks form at high speed or with a large whisk (when, if the beaters are lifted out, the white froth forms little droops) at this stage, gradually beat in 2/3 of the sugar until stiff peaks form and it is very glossy and stark white. Turn the bowl upside down, if nothing falls out, you are done. Do not overbeat the whites (when you beat them until they dry out) with a whisk, beat the remaining sugar with the egg yolks until you reach the ribbon consistency, where a figure eight made by the yolk holds long enough to see. very gently mix the yolks into the whites with a slow flicking action of the whisk until incorporated. fold with a metal spoon or spatula, the milk in and the flour which you must sift 3 times beforehand. The flour should be gradually folded in. Fold in the melted butter. Pour into a well buttered or baking paper lined cake pan (around 17-19 cm) and drop the pan onto your counter to release gas bubbles. bake in a 175 degree celcius oven for 25 minutes, or until the cake springs back when you press on it gently. leave in the oven for a few minutes, then invert it onto a cooling rack (this is important as if left uninverted, the cake will deflate and wrinkle). cool until at room temperature. sprinkle the gelatin on the water and leave for a couple of minutes. Microwave for a few seconds. Place the cream in a large bowl and begin to whip it until it thickens slightly, at this point gradually beat in the gelatin solution and the icing sugar and vanilla. slice the cake into two even halves horizontally. brush every face except the bottom with syrup, and then spread cream on the bottom half. arrange sliced strawberries or canned strawberries and spread another layer of cream on top of that. then put the other slice of cake over it and cover everything with cream using a palette knife or a rubber spatula. You can also pipe some shapes with the cream but if you are to do this, it would be best to use heavy whipping cream as it holds its shape better. |
