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! π
Lovely photos. The cake was too dry for my liking, but like you, I thought the frosting was outstanding.
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Heather
June 19th, 2012 at 2:19 pm
Thank you, Judy! Yeah, after we had the rest of it the other night it was decided that I should stick to my angel food cake recipe π
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So cute! I definitely agree that the strawberries look better without their tops.
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Heather
June 19th, 2012 at 2:19 pm
Thank you, Sara! I’m glad I’m not alone in my topless strawberry preferences π
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brilliant job!! looking good heather!!
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Heather
June 19th, 2012 at 2:20 pm
Aww, thank you!
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great photo, your cake looks great!
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Heather
June 19th, 2012 at 2:17 pm
Thank you, Jen!
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Yes, it’s strawberry season, after all. The best part of all. Your cake is a great success.
Ulrike @KΓΌchenlatein
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Heather
June 19th, 2012 at 2:18 pm
Thank you, Ulrike!
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I hear yah on this cake – was totally wary, and with good reason. I’ve made sponge cake, but this particular whole egg sponge was a beast. I really want to give it another go, but I’m scared truthfully. Ha. Yours looks beautiful.
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Heather
June 19th, 2012 at 2:33 pm
Thank you, Ace! Yeah, I think I’m going to pass on giving it another try, though I’m glad I did this time! I’m going to stick to my angel food cake, I think π
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When surfing the web for info on genoise I found that the U.S. is the only place where its common to add butter. Most of the world does not. You just made a continental genoise:) I looks great.
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Heather
June 20th, 2012 at 1:22 pm
Haha! That’s good to know π
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How pretty and delicious!
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Heather
June 20th, 2012 at 1:22 pm
Thank you, yummy!
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Beautiful job! π
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Heather
June 20th, 2012 at 1:25 pm
Thank you, Jessica!
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Your cake looks so pretty! The cream does look wonderful, perfectly whipped. The tops of my strawberries were pretty gross so I left them off as well.
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Heather
June 20th, 2012 at 1:26 pm
Thank you, Susan!
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Good for you for going ahead with the piping even though you could not find your couplers. Frankly, the piping scared me because I thought the rosettes would not hold up in the whipped cream, so I skipped it altogether. I think your top decoration looks great!
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Heather
June 20th, 2012 at 1:27 pm
Thank you, Marlise! I really didn’t think the rosettes would hold up either! I’m surprised at how “sturdy” the cream ended up being.
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Very lovely!
Isn’t it funny how you can never find things when you need them; but as soon as you don’t need them, they seem to be everywhere?
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Heather
June 20th, 2012 at 1:32 pm
Thank you, Cher! And YES, that always happens! I’ll find them in a place that I will swear up and down I looked at, twice!
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I like how some of your berry halves are right-side-up and others are cut-side-down! Nice π
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Heather
June 20th, 2012 at 1:33 pm
Thank you, A!
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my genoise woes (remember the scene in Wizard of Oz, when the wicked witch starts melting) happened when the butter started to break down the egg foam, so maybe it’s just as well. nice improvisations when things didn’t go exactly as you planned!
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Great job. I came across several posts that had chopped the tops of the strawberries and wondered why. Never thought of them as gross; I find them artsy. π Now I know!
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