Strawberry Shortcake

2 hours, 4 servings

Ingredients

Genoise (Sponge Cake)

  • 6 eggs
  • 125 ml (1/2 cup) sugar
  • 5 ml (1 tsp) vanilla
  • 250 ml (1 cup) flour
  • 125 ml (1/2 cup) butter, melted

Mashed Strawberries

  • 500 ml (2 cups) fresh strawberries, hulled and cut in half
  • 50 ml (1/4 cup) sugar
  • 1 vanilla bean, cut in half lengthwise

Sweet Cream Cheese

  • 500 g (1 lb) cream cheese, softened
  • 125 ml (1/2 cup) icing sugar
  • 30 ml (2 tbsp) 35 per cent cream

Garnish

  • Fresh strawberries, cut in half

Description

Genoise

  1. Heat oven to 180°C (350°F). Butter sides of a 43-by-28-cm (17-by-11-inch) baking sheet and line it with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on each side.
  2. In a large bowl, beat eggs, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer until mixture is very pale and 3 times original volume, about 8 minutes.
  3. Sift flour onto egg mixture little by little, gently folding in each addition. Fold in butter a little at a time.
  4. Spread batter on baking sheet. Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Let cool completely.

Strawberries

  1. Meanwhile, in a bowl, stir strawberries with sugar to coat. Scrape vanilla seeds over strawberries and stir well. Set aside for at least 1 hour.
  2. Working over a bowl to catch juices, press strawberries in a sieve to extract maximum amount of juice. Mash strawberries in a mortar and pestle until reduced to a lumpy mixture.

Cream cheese

  1. In a large bowl, whip softened cream cheese, icing sugar and cream into soft mounds.
  2. Using a 10-cm (4-inch) cookie cutter, cut out 8 rounds of genoise. Place a round of genoise on each serving plate. Cover with some of the mashed strawberries, and top with some of the sweet cream cheese. Place another round of genoise on top of each serving, and cover with more mashed strawberries and more sweet cream cheese.
  3. Spread sweet cream cheese all around the sides of the cakes, using a spatula to keep it smooth. Garnish with fresh strawberries and drizzle strawberry juice all around the cake.

Tip: Dip spatula in hot water before using it to spread the cream cheese. It makes the job easier.