The ”Fraisier” is a French strawberry cake with a sponge base and cream filling. It is light, creamy, and brings a taste of summer. Now it is an excellent time to make this cake! It is important that you use big strawberries, so that you can place them nicely around, building the “wall” of your cake. This fraisier recipe has several steps, but they are all pretty easy. If you have the chance, you can also make much of it in advance. For example, I prepared the sponge cake for my fraisier 2 days in advance.

Yield: 12-16 portions

Ingredients: 

Sponge:

• 1 tea spoon of vanilla extract
• 120 g caster sugar
• 100 g wheat flour
• 50 g butter
• 4 eggs

Syrup:

• 150 g sugar
• 20 cl water
• 1 tea spoon vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean
• the zest of half a lemon

Strawberries and decoration:

• 500 g strawberries
• Some strawberries and almond paste for decorating the top

Cream filling:

• 25 cl sweet cream
• 25 cl semi-skimmed milk
• 2 egg yolks
• 40 g cornstarch
• 50 g sugar
• 2 gelatin leaves (2g each)
• 1 vanilla bean or 1 cup vanilla extract

Step-by-step:

• I started by preparing the sponge or genoise:
  • Separate the egg whites from the yolks. Beat the egg whites till they start to form a nice foam.
  • Add 1/3 of the sugar and keep beating until they get stiff and glossy.

• Beat the egg yolks with the rest of the sugar and the vanilla extract. Add melted butter and half of the sifted flour to create your dough.

• Add to the dough 2 spoons of egg whites to make it more liquid and then incorporate the rest of the sifted flour.
• Finally, incorporate delicately the egg whites and make sure that you still keep all of the air in the dough. Divide the dough in two parts and place each one in a mold. Bake the sponge in the oven for ca. 10 minutes at 190ºC.

•  Prepare syrup:
  • Put the water, sugar, lemon zest and vanilla in a saucepan, bring to a boil and cook for 2-3 minutes.
  • Take off the heat and leave it to cool a little. Use the syrup to cover one side of each of the two sponges with a thin layer, and leave them to cool off. You can add as well some Amaretto or rum to add more taste to it.

•  Prepare the cream:
  • Put the milk in the saucepan, add the scratched vanilla bean and bring it to a boil.
  • Meanwhile, in a small bowl place the gelatin leaves in cold water.
  • In a mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch.
  • Pour half of the infused milk (that you just prepared) into the mixing bowl and whisk again until there are no lumps.
  • Return the mixture to the saucepan with the remaining milk. Continuously whisk until the mixture comes up to a boil and starts thickening.
  • Reduce the temperature and continue cooking the cream for 2-3 minutes more. Then take the pan off the heat and add the gelatin leaves, stir until they are melted and mixed into the cream.
  • Pour the creme patissière into a dish, cover it with plastic film that you will press onto the surface, to stop a skin from forming on the surface of the cream. Leave it to cool and then place in the fridge.
  • Whip the sweet cream (crème fraiche) until it almost forms stiff peaks and fold it into the cooled creme patissiere. Put the creme back in the fridge and allow it to cool for 20 minutes before using.

 

• Prepare strawberries and almond paste:
  • Cut half of bigger size strawberries in halves. Cut the rest into small pieces. Roll-out almond paste in the same size circle form and size as for the sponge base and top.

• Assemble the fraisier
  • Place the bigger size sponge below with the syrup side on top. Use a cake mold with removable sides. On the mold sides place side by side the strawberry halves, so that they form the beginning of your cake “wall”. Then fill the middle with the cream you prepared.

 

• On top of the first layer of cream, place the strawberries that you cut into small pieces, then cover them with a second layer of cream.

• Place the second sponge on top to close the cake, and on top of it put the almond paste circle. Decorate with some strawberries.
• Carefully remove the sides of your mold after the cake has rested in the fridge for at least a couple of hours. You should see the sides of strawberry and cream inviting you to dig in. Enjoy the cake!