Valentines Day is 4 days away. Well, it’s also the day we welcome in the year of the Tiger. But Valentines Day was my EXCUSE to bake this sensuous looking cake. Although I must say I was disappointed with my decorating skills. I ran out of cream, so the sides of my cake were barely iced, as you can see in this photo. Grrrrr…
I made this out of spontaneity so I didn’t have enough strawberries which was my fault as I ate half a punnet the night before. Could have made some nice conserve or jam for the in between layers. Oh well, next time..
I made the sponge cake base following the recipe from my mixer’s (Kenwood Major) recipe guide which was slightly different from my usual approach but I actually prefer today’s result. It was more moist and had a more tender crumb as opposed to dry and gritty. But the best sponge cake recipe is still from my mom’s collection so I will pester her for it next time. So no conserve, but I briefly stewed some strawberries with sugar and reserved some of the syrup for drizzling over the sponge layers. I laced the syrup with a little orange liquer (it’s sitting in my pantry). I then made 500ml of stabilised whipped cream which is thickened cream whipped with dissolved gelatine and icing sugar, flavoured with a teaspoon of vanilla extract. As for assembling the cake, it was 3 layers of sponge cake, whipped cream, stewed strawberries, the tops and sides covered with more whipped cream ( in this case, insufficient) and decorated with fresh strawberries and halved squares of Lindt’s Excellence Chilli Dark Chocolate. I was too lazy to melt chocolate to make curls so I helped myself to the chilli chocolate (also sitting in the pantry). Kinda sounds appropriate. You know? Valentines Day: strawberries and cream, chocolate and chilli – Spicy! (chuckles)
J and I had a slice each, of the cake. As for the rest of it, he’s taking it to work tomorrow. Sharing is caring. I hope his colleagues will like it. Like I said, great EXCUSE to make strawberries and cream cake. 😛
Enjoy the photos..
Hi M,
Just to let you know the cake was delicious light and moist and to say thanks for sharing your tasty experiments with us at hubby’s work…….Happy New Year……fondest regards, G
Glad you like it. Will make a better version next time. 🙂
Hey M,
What’s with the one letter names? Haha. So J and U had a slice each eh? How romantic. Where’s my share? Hehe
Hey Moyang, you know me …lots more to come..you’ll get your share