Thoughts...and a Strawberry Shortcake

Sometimes I wish I had friends who surprise me with the treats they bake. Unfortunately, most of my friends don't bake. Either that or they don't have time to bake. Mum used to make very delicious lemon cakes, lime cakes and durian cakes but lately she doesn't do that anymore. Perhaps I've hijacked her kitchen for my own selfish motives and she didn't feel the need to do so anymore :(.

To be honest, I'm really bad at making layered cakes. I never seemed to have enough patience to last through the entire process without major glitches. It happened the last time and it happened again this time. Sigh, I probably need more patience training and correction of attitude before I attempt another layered cake. It's just too tedious unless I had the right motives and occasion to make them. Then again, sometimes I will crave for more complicated cakes in flavours that I love. Otherwise, simple, down-to-earth treats will do the trick.

There are a couple of things which I'm working on currently, and hopefully I'll be able to finish them soon if I don't get lost along the way. Among them is changing my blog template and format to, hopefully a better one, and the finishing up of my long-overdue photobook on my Taiwan trip 2.5 months ago. Gosh, I'm so so slow...my friends have already finished up theirs while I'm barely halfway through mine. I guess I'm the master of procrastination >.<.

On a day when I'm feeling a little down yet a little itchy-fingers, I decided to make a simple Strawberry Shortcake. I came across a gorgeous inspiration piece on Daily Delicious, a blog I often visit and admire for her lovely taste and style. It seemed pretty simple and I guessed I should be able to put the components together in a jiffy.

This cake is a breeze to make. I used sheet pans to bake the cake layers so that I won't have to worry about getting even slices. However, due to my laziness, I only soaked one layer in sugar syrup when I ought to do both. Mum commented the top layer was slightly dry, which I agree. Oops! I forgot I was serving a cake to someone who knows her stuff. I shall resolve not to be lazy anymore and do a really nice and detailed job next time.

Sigh...I'm going to KL for a 5 days next week and thinking about missing out on baking makes me a lil' sad. Oh well, I'm sure I'm gonna have an awesome time then. Baking can wait!


Strawberry Shortcake
adapted from Daily Delicious
(original recipe from 12か月のハッピーバースデーケーキ  by Miwa Nakanishi)

Ingredients:

For Genoise:
3 eggs
90g sugar
90g cake flour (sifted)
20g unsalted butter (melted)
20ml milk

For Syrup:
80g sugar
100ml water
10ml liquer

For Whipped Cream:
350ml whipping cream
40g icing sugar
10 strawberries


Preparation:
1. Heat the sugar and the water together into the pan until the mixture comes to a boil. Set aside and let it cool to room temperature. When cooled, mix in the liqueur.
2. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Prepare the pan by lining it with parchment.
3. Beat the eggs with a stand mixer until the mixture becomes lighter in color. Gradually add in the sugar and beat until you reach ribbon stage.
4. Take ¾ cup of the egg mixture and mix it with the melted butter.
5. Sift the flour into the remaining egg mixture and fold gently until combined.
6. Combined the egg and butter mixture with the egg and flour mixture. Fold gently to combine, add the milk and fold. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan.
7. Bake in the oven for 15-18 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

To assemble:
1. Slice up 8 of the strawberries. Cut out two layers of the genoise and fit one layer into the pan.
2. Whip the cream together with icing sugar until medium stiff peaks.
3. Soak the cake with the prepared sugar syrup and arrange the strawberries on the cake.
4. Pour the whipped cream over the strawberries and spread till even.  Place the other soaked layer of the cake on top of the cream and cover with the rest of the whipped cream.
5. Garnish with halved strawberries and refrigerate to set.

Makes a 18cm square cake.