Jun192012

TWD: French Strawberry Cake

This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie is French Strawberry Cake, hosted by Sophia and Allison.

I’ll be honest, I was a little wary about this one. I was happy because strawberries! But it’s got a lot of steps, some of them fiddly, and though the information with the recipe says that French chefs makes these over and over again to become comfortable with it, this was my first time and I was definitely not comfortable with it.

Case in point: I totally forgot the butter step. I had the two tablespoons of butter melted in a bowl, sitting on the counter waiting for me while I did the rest of the cake. And I completely forgot it. I thought I was doing so well, too.

But aside from it being a bit on the drier side (and to be honest, I’m going to keep using my angel food cake recipe), it was good and no one would have guessed it was missing anything. And as you can see, I didn’t manage to cut the cake into three layers, either. I got the top part off okay, but when I went to saw into the rest of it it just wasn’t having any of that (even though I had frozen it as others had suggested). So I shrugged and said, eh, good enough. I just loaded up the strawberries in one layer and of course that didn’t affect the taste. Oh, and I couldn’t get the strawberries to mash so I just piled them on.

I couldn’t find my couplers for my piping tips (where are they???) so I just squeezed the whipped cream out of a hole clipped in the corner of a plastic baggie to keep things fancy. And I did too many dollops on top and had to improvise with the five strawberries I had set aside.

Also, this was the best whipped cream I’ve ever had and I will now be using it for everything.

And I don’t like the tops of strawberries to still be on top of the strawberries when they’re used for decoration. It looks gross to me, so they had to go.

Otherwise, exactly like the recipe! 🙂

Apr62012

The Best Angel Food Cake

Angel Food Cake

Though we’re a little early for strawberry season, I couldn’t help picking up a container of them when I went to Sam’s earlier this week. They were huge and perfect and calling my name, so into the basket they went. I also remembered to pick up more eggs, because I’ve got this recipe memorized and knew I didn’t have enough in the fridge.

Strawberry shortcake is traditionally made with, well, shortcake, but I prefer to use angel food cake. It’s light and spongy, and beautifully absorbs the macerated strawberry liquid.

The recipe says to use a tube pan, but I always just use my bundt pan. As you can see, a little bit of it sticks to the pan but it really works well. You’re going to be dumping delicious strawberries on it – no one will care what it looks like!

I use a small rubber spatula to loosen it from the sides of the pan and it comes out pretty easily. The removable bottom of a tube pan would be a bit more convenient, though 😀

This recipe is an oldy but a goody from Allrecipes, and you’ve got to give it a try. Seriously, this is even good on its own without anything on it.

It calls for 12 eggs, or enough eggs to get 1-1/2 cups of egg whites. I usually only need 10.

Angel Food Cake

Heavenly Angel Food Cake

12 eggs
1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar

Separate eggs; discard yolks or refrigerate for another use. Measure egg whites, adding or removing whites as needed to equal 1-1/2 cups. Place in a mixing bowl; let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, sift confectioners’ sugar and flour together three times; set aside. Add cream of tartar, extracts and salt to egg whites; beat on high speed. Gradually add sugar, beating until sugar is dissolved and stiff peaks form.

Fold in the flour mixture, 1/4 cup at a time. Gently spoon into an ungreased 10-in. tube pan. Cut through batter with a knife to remove air pockets.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Immediately invert pan; cool completely before removing cake from pan.

Jul132010

Strawberry Season


I love strawberry season! There are so many things you can do with strawberries that I feel like I’m constantly running back to the store for more containers since there never seems to be enough. Read More