i had been baking and experimenting on baking for quite some time, i usually will have spent time reading through words and trying very hard to understand and visualise on the instruction written and it often lead me to some baking errors who pull my mood a little down. but it had never kill my interest towards baking and explore the wonderful chemistry with the mixture of ingredients, you get so excited when you see have all the wet and dry content mixed together and it all became thick and fluffy. once you sent the mixture into the hot oven and watching the process of how the mixture rise up and turn into a delicious and appealing cake. that is the moment! the result achieve often motivate me and widen my curiosity and adventurous attitude to try out a new recipe after it, but of course sometimes there might be errors and room of improvement which will make you upset a little. so the positive attitude has to be there to calm you down and recap on all the steps and instruction that you had followed and realise the mistake.
remember when i was in my younger age, though i watch all sort of shows on television but there is only one particular variety show that will draw me away was cooking show. with no reasons, i am just attracted to it irregardless whether if the show was in any foreign languages or cuisine and it's still living within my blood till today. well, nowadays it's so much easier with the source of social media platform, it has been so much easier to access for cooking or baking show online. you can watch them anytime and anywhere where you want it, i have to admit that when it comes to reading i have to read through the passage a few times or i am sure to commit careless mistake. thanks to Youtube which gave me an alternate pathway to source for reliable and easy-to-learn techniques, though i may have to do some research and comparing of recipes which has the most accessible ingredients that i can reach out for from my local groceries store.
so some time back, i was invited to a birthday lunch with my ex-colleague, so i initial to bake a birthday cake for her and given a choice to choose from 3 different flavours that i offer. it was mango cheesecake, chocolate cake and strawberry shortcake. and she had chosen strawberry shortcake, and i went online to check and compare a few types of recipe and now i am about to share, it in a more relaxing and easy way to understand through a short video clip. don't ask me why, but i just bake it into square shape instead of a circle shape cake. for this recipe it does contain some alcohol which can be omit, and although i have sweet tooth but being health conscious, it's a must that i use lesser sugar for a healthier choice.
strawberry shortcake:
for cake -
part 1:
- 3 eggs
- 120g caster sugar
- 15g glucose (can be replace with honey)
part 2:
- 115g flour
- 45g milk
- 30g butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
syrup for cake -
- 50g water
- 10g kirsch (brandy)
- 100g sugar
- 60g sugar
- 600g whipping cream (reduce it by half if do not want a cream cake full of cream)
garnish -
- 10 strawberries (slice 3 of it and leave the rest for deco)
- apricot glaze
- pre-heat oven to 175 degree C and prepare an 8 inch non-stick pan.
- mix (part 1), into a mixture bowl and whisk it till combine and put it on top of a boiling pan (aka water bath), continue to whisk till mixture become fluffy, remove from heat and continue to whisk till cool down and until it leave thick trail on top.
- mix (part 2), heat up the milk and butter, sieve and fold in the flour and vanilla. then add in the milk and butter and gently fold it together till well combine.
- pour the batter into the pan and bake for 30 mins @ 175 degrees C or till a skewer come out clean and dry. leave it to cool on room temperature.
- while baking, whisk together whipping cream and sugar till it form peak and put it aside.
- trim of the brown part if needed, and half the cake evenly.
- now add all the ingredients for syrup into a sauce and pan and heat up till sugar are dissolve.
- apply a layer of the syrup on top of each layer of cake and apply a second coat if needed.
- now apply a thin layer of cream on the cake and place slice strawberries on it and cover it will another layer of cream before placing the other half of cake onto it. then spread the rest of the cream onto the surface of the cake, and pipe in some deco on top of the diameter for a nice finishing.
- place the rest of the strawberries on top of the cake and brush some apricot glaze on its surface.
- chill it for 2 hours and it's ready to be serve.
