Strawberry Charlotte

6th of May - May day, bank holiday, but also my little sisters birthday!!

Ok so don't pay attention to the date as I know this is severely late to be posting this recipe.

When we were younger we used to make our own birthday cakes every year. One of my favourites has to be a bunny shaped cake my mum made for me on my 5th birthday, or a barbie cake my sister's made for my ahem...24th birthday. Either way when it comes to birthday cakes for me, they have to be covered in a severely thick layer of royal icing. I love that sugar rush you get from eating blue/ pink/ green icing!!

For a while in between we would get cakes from Patisserie Valerie as we were kind of obsessed with them - don't get me wrong I still love a good ole Pat Val.

But since I've been getting back into baking, I've been dying to try to make some traditional french patisseries. So for Rania's birthday I decided to make (I use this word lightly) a strawberry charlotte.

Strawberry Charlotte

 Sponge fingers adapted from this recipe from a Daring Baker's challenge.

Vanilla Sponge

The cake itself was an adaption of the vanilla cupcake recipe from Hummingbird Bakery. It actually makes a pretty good sponge and would be perfect for a vicky sponge.

To make a 20cm cake just double the recipe below.

Ingredients

4½oz/120g plain flour

5oz/140g caster sugar

1½ tsp baking powder

A pinch of salt

1½oz/40g unsalted butter, at room temperature

4½floz/120ml whole milk

1 egg

¼ tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/gas mark 3.

2. Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter in a free-standing electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a hand-held electric whisk) and beat on slow speed until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined.

3. Gradually pour in half the milk and beat until the milk is just incorporated.

4. Whisk the egg, vanilla extract and remaining milk together in a separate bowl for a few seconds, then pour into the flour mixture and continue beating until just incorporated (scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula). Continue mixing for a couple more minutes until the mixture is smooth. Do not overmix.

5. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases or cake tin, until two-thirds full and bake in the preheated oven for 20–25 minutes, or until light golden and the sponge bounces back when touched.

Strawberry Mousse

Ingredients

250ml double cream

150g fresh or frozen strawberries

75g caster sugar

Method

1. In a pan place the strawberries and sugar and cook over a low heat. Let them cook until they have pretty much disintegrated and you have a compote. Cool.

2. Whip the cream till it is pretty thick and can make peaks on its own.

3. Take the cooled strawberry compote and blitz for a few seconds in a blender or with a hand held mixer. Add the smooth strawberries to the whipped cream and fold till completely mixed. Use straight away or refrigerate till ready to use.

To assemble the cake I cut the sponge in half, using one half for the base and putting some of the strawberry mousse on top, then some fresh strawberries. I then put the other half of the sponge and repeated mousse then strawberries.

After I arranged the sponge fingers around (with their bottoms cut off so they stood up straight-ish) and tied some pretty ribbon around to help hold it together. I then topped it with some mini meringues which use the same recipe as my pavlova meringue, which can be found here.

The Birthday Girl

P.S Apologies for the badly lit pictures. Cake time is usually an evening thing for my family!