Le Fraisier with lots of strawberries

The theme for this month's daring baker challenge is  ...  Le Fraisier! I couldn't be more excited about this! The cake was omg-ly delicious! It made me really happy for days. The happy feeling was like the day he told me he felt the same way as I did, except i was giggling to myself on the way to work after having the cake and not in my small bedroom holding the wired telephone many years ago. It was my first love back then, and now I just feel happily contented without the touch of embarrassment after we both disclosed. A big spoonful of the natural vanilla bean paste into the pastry cream, then wait for the vanilla kisses it brings.


Strawberry in French is "Fraise", so Fraisier is all about strawberry right?

Its the perfect season in the UK to make this, there are plenty of different kinds of berry around. Strawberry from Scotland is deliciously sweet. The long summer sunlight and the "not too warm" weather in the north allows the strawberry to mature slowly, giving its intense fragrant and juiciness.  The jubilee strawberries I got from M&S were full of flavour, beautifully petit and juicily sweet. Perfect for the Fraisier.

I adapted the recipe from Ladurée: Sucré: The Recipes. The recipes are really good, most importantly, very accurate! I could "always" produce something very nice from the book if I follow the recipe closely, mostly about the "temperature" and "time". If it says beat the egg and sugar mixture for 10 minutes and over a bowl of hot water, it really produced the fluffiest and silky pale base for the génoise. I halfed the recipe to make a smaller génoise base for my 6" Fraisier. The mixture was so fluffy that my normal mixing bowl was too small for it.

If making a 6 to 7" cake, half the Génoise recipe OR double the Crème mousseline recipe to make a large cake.Use a cake ring for assembling, that makes a huge difference to its look. Cake rings are inexpensive and I own difference sizes in the kitchen although they were difficult to get hold of in the UK.


for the recipe:

Almond Génoise Cake 

50g butter, plus extra to grease the cake pan

200g sifted plain flour

6 eggs

200g caster sugar

50g ground almonds

Butter the cake pan and keep it in the refrigerator. Melt the butter over low heat and set aside. 

In a LARGE heatproof mixing bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together. Place the mixing bowl over a pan of almost boiling water and whisk vigorously until the mixture has reached about 35C. When the mixture is ready, it would be pale and fluffy, and has at least tripled in volume. It takes around 10 mins with an electric mixer. Remove the mixing bowl from heat and continue to beat until the mixture has cooled down completely.

Using a large spatula, gently fold in the sifted flour little by little, than the ground almonds and the melted butter. To make a smooth and homogenous mixture, start with the spatula in the centre of the bowl, work up the sides of the bowl and bring back down towards the centre, keep turning the bowl regularly.

Remove the buttered cake pan from the fridge and lightly flour the pan, turn the pan upside down to tap out any excess. Fill the pan with the batter, place in the 170C preheated oven for approximately 30mins. Insert a knife into the centre of the génoise and it should come out clean, dry and crumbs free. Remove the génoise from the cake pan after it has been cooled for 10 mins.

Syrup

50ml water

50g caster sugar

Boil the sugar and water together, and let it cool.

Crème mousseline

1 tsp (or more) of natural vanilla bean paste

400ml whole milk

4 room temperature egg yolks

80g caster sugar

30g cornstarch

90g diced butter

Simmer the milk. Add the vanilla bean paste after removing from heat.

In a mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until pale. Incorporate the cornstarch. While whisking the egg yolk mixture, pour a third of the hot milk over it to temper it. Then pour the tempered egg yolk mixture back into the saucepan and bring it to a boil while stirring constantly with a spatula. Make sure to scrape down to the sides and bottom. This is the fun part. The mixture would go from very foamy to less foamy, after that it would start to thicken up and turn to “scramble eggs” like texture. Keep it on the heat and keep stirring. The “scramble eggs” would turn into a smooth and shinny cream paste eventually. Remove from heat as soon as it turns glossy and pour the cream into a clean bowl over a pan of colour water to help cooling. Let it cool for 5 mins. While the cream is still warm and not hot, add the butter and keep whisking until it is room temperature. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap until ready to use.

Assembling

Place a cake ring on top of the génoise, press down to trim off the edges. Remove the génoise from the ring, and cut into two equal pieces forming the top and the bottom layers. If the génoise cake is too high, cut into three pieces, reserve the third piece to make a mini Fraisier. Use the one with the nicest surface for the top layer.

Line the cake ring with acetate plastic or baking paper. Place the bottom génoise inside the ring, brush it with the syrup generously. Cut the strawberries in half and arrange them against the ring. Really pack the strawberries tightly to achieve the neat result. Once a circle is formed, fill the centre with plenty of whole strawberries.

Give the crème mousseline a whisk to lighten up the texture, pour it down into the ring. The height of the cream part would be the length of the strawberry plus approximately 1cm. Cover the cake ring with the top génoise layer and press down firmly so that the gaps are filled with cream.

Refrigerate the cake for at least 4 hours or over night. Remove the ring for final decoration.

Chocolate decoration

Melt a small piece (approximately 10g) of dark chocolate in the microwave; mix in a dash of milk/cream to form a smooth paste. Use the baking paper to fold a mini piping bag and fill it with the melted chocolate. Then pipe.