Keen baker Jen Morris, of Rowney Green, makes a summery gateau.
When British strawberries come into season, it’s good to eat them in all their fresh, natural glory. A strawberry gateau combines them with natural companions: vanilla, cream and sweet strawberry preserve.
To make the sponge batter, I start by cracking and weighing the eggs, because their weight is the variable factor, and then simply add equal quantities of the other ingredients. This means you can make a cake mix with any eggs you have, irrespective of their size, and you’ll always get the perfect consistency.
Ingredients:
4 eggs, cracked and weighed (mine weighed 222g)
Equal weight in self-raising flour
Equal weight in butter, at room temperature
Equal weight in caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
300ml double cream
Strawberry preserve
200g fresh strawberries
Method:
1) Heat your oven to 190C / 170C fan / Gas 5. Lightly grease and line 2 sandwich tins.
2) Put your food processor bowl (or normal mixing bowl) on the scales, set to zero, then break in the eggs. Note the weight.
3) Add equal amounts of self-raising flour, butter and caster sugar into the bowl. Add the vanilla essence.
4) Mix the batter in your food processor for 1 min, check it is all combined and split evenly between the tins.
5) Bake in oven for 20 mins until golden and springs back to the touch. Take out and leave in the tins for 5 mins, before turning on to wire racks to cool.
6) In the meantime, whip the double cream until stiff.
7) When the cakes are cool, assemble straight on to your serving plate or cake stand, by putting one sponge upside down onto the plate (so the domed top is on the bottom). Spread with a layer of strawberry preserve, then half the cream. Add the second sponge on top, then the remainder of the cream. Decorate with the strawberries.