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Classic Foam Cakes
Recipe
3 hr

Refined Strawberry Shortcake

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Refined Strawberry Shortcake
Author: Lan Lam

Recipe By Lan Lam

Published on October 15, 2024

Loads of fresh berries were a given. But for a refined version of this classic dessert, the key was engineering a cake that could take the juice—and hold on to the berries.

Time

3 hr

Yield

Serves 8

Why This Recipe Works

For our Refined Strawberry Shortcake, we used a genoise sponge cake, whose structure is dependent on egg proteins versus the weaker gluten proteins of a butter cake, making it better able to absorb the berries’ juice without breaking down. To ensure the ideal airy, springy texture, we followed a number of key steps: Fully dissolving the sugar in the eggs by heating the mixture over simmering water made for a more viscous mixture that’s more capable of holding in air. Transferring the batter to a wide, shallow bowl to fold in the dry ingredients and melted butter made folding more efficient so that we could retain as much air in the batter as possible, and lightening the melted butter by combining it with some of the batter before folding it in made it easier to combine. To balance the sweetness, we added lemon zest to the cake’s batter and lemon juice to the berries. To give our berry filling cohesion, we thickened some of the juice with cornstarch, and we drizzled the remaining juice over the cake before adding the berries to ensure that it was evenly moistened.

Ingredients

Strawberries

2 pounds (907 grams) strawberries, hulled and sliced vertically ¼ inch thick (6 cups)
¼ cup (1 ¾ ounces/50 grams) granulated sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
Pinch salt
½ teaspoon cornstarch

Cake

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 ¼ cups (5 ounces/142 grams) cake flour
¼ teaspoon salt
5 large eggs
¾ cup (5 ¼ ounces/149 grams) granulated sugar

Whipped Cream

1 cup heavy cream
⅓ cup crème fraîche
3 tablespoons confectioners' sugar, plus extra for dusting

Instructions

Cook along with these step-by-step instructions

step 1 imagestep 2 imagestep 3 imagestep 4 image

    STRAWBERRIES

  1. Toss strawberries with sugar, lemon juice, and salt in large bowl. Set aside for at least 1½ hours or up to 3 hours.

    2. CAKE

  2. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 9-inch round cake pans with baking spray with flour. Line with parchment paper and spray parchment with baking spray with flour. Combine melted butter, vanilla, and lemon zest in medium bowl. Whisk flour and salt together in second bowl.
  3. Combine eggs and sugar in bowl of stand mixer; place bowl over medium saucepan filled with 2 inches simmering water, making sure that water does not touch bottom of bowl. Whisking constantly, heat until sugar is dissolved and mixture registers 115 to 120 degrees, about 3 minutes.
  4. Transfer bowl to stand mixer fitted with whisk. Beat on high speed until eggs are pale yellow and have tripled in volume, about 5 minutes. (Egg foam will form ribbon that sits on top of mixture for 5 seconds when dribbled from whisk.) Measure out 3/4 cup egg foam, whisk into butter mixture until well combined, and set aside.
  5. Transfer remaining egg foam to large, wide bowl and sift one-third of flour mixture over egg foam in even layer. Using rubber spatula, gently fold batter 6 to 8 times until small streaks of flour remain. Repeat folding 6 to 8 times with half of remaining flour mixture. Sift remaining flour mixture over batter and gently fold 10 to 12 times until flour is completely incorporated.
  6. Pour butter mixture over batter in even layer. Gently fold until just incorporated, taking care not to deflate batter. Divide batter evenly between prepared pans.
  7. Bake until centers of cakes are set and bounce back when gently pressed and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 13 to 16 minutes. Remove cakes from pans, discarding parchment, and let cool completely on wire rack, about 2 hours.
  8. Drain berries in fine-mesh strainer over bowl. Measure out 2 tablespoons juice into small bowl (reserve remaining juice in bowl) and stir in cornstarch until well combined. Microwave, stirring every 10 seconds, until mixture is very thick and translucent, 30 to 45 seconds. Set aside.
  9. Place 1 cake layer right side up on platter. Place second layer upside down on cutting board. Using paring knife, cut circle from center of cake on board, leaving 1-inch-wide ring of cake. (Reserve circle for another use.) Place upside-down cake ring on top of layer on platter. Using pastry brush, brush all of unthickened strawberry juice onto bottom cake layer and inner sides of cake ring. Gently combine berries and reserved thickened juice in now-empty bowl. Spoon berry mixture into cake ring, forming even layer.

    10. WHIPPED CREAM

  10. Using stand mixer fitted with whisk, whip cream and crème fraîche on low speed until foamy, about 1 minute. Add sugar, increase speed to medium-high, and whip until soft peaks form, about 2 minutes. Dollop 2 tablespoons whipped cream onto center of cake. Transfer remaining whipped cream to serving bowl. Dust cake ring with confectioners’ sugar. Cut and serve, passing extra whipped cream separately.

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Refined Strawberry Shortcake

Recipe By Lan Lam

Published on October 15, 2024

Time

3 hr

Yield

Serves 8

Refined Strawberry Shortcake

Ingredients

Strawberries

2 pounds (907 grams) strawberries, hulled and sliced vertically ¼ inch thick (6 cups)¼ cup (1 ¾ ounces/50 grams) granulated sugar2 teaspoons lemon juicePinch salt½ teaspoon cornstarch

Cake

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly1 teaspoon vanilla extract½ teaspoon grated lemon zest1 ¼ cups (5 ounces/142 grams) cake flour¼ teaspoon salt5 large eggs¾ cup (5 ¼ ounces/149 grams) granulated sugar

Whipped Cream

1 cup heavy cream⅓ cup crème fraîche3 tablespoons confectioners' sugar, plus extra for dusting

Instructions

    STRAWBERRIES

  1. Toss strawberries with sugar, lemon juice, and salt in large bowl. Set aside for at least 1½ hours or up to 3 hours.

    2. CAKE

  2. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 9-inch round cake pans with baking spray with flour. Line with parchment paper and spray parchment with baking spray with flour. Combine melted butter, vanilla, and lemon zest in medium bowl. Whisk flour and salt together in second bowl.
  3. Combine eggs and sugar in bowl of stand mixer; place bowl over medium saucepan filled with 2 inches simmering water, making sure that water does not touch bottom of bowl. Whisking constantly, heat until sugar is dissolved and mixture registers 115 to 120 degrees, about 3 minutes.
  4. Transfer bowl to stand mixer fitted with whisk. Beat on high speed until eggs are pale yellow and have tripled in volume, about 5 minutes. (Egg foam will form ribbon that sits on top of mixture for 5 seconds when dribbled from whisk.) Measure out 3/4 cup egg foam, whisk into butter mixture until well combined, and set aside.
  5. Transfer remaining egg foam to large, wide bowl and sift one-third of flour mixture over egg foam in even layer. Using rubber spatula, gently fold batter 6 to 8 times until small streaks of flour remain. Repeat folding 6 to 8 times with half of remaining flour mixture. Sift remaining flour mixture over batter and gently fold 10 to 12 times until flour is completely incorporated.
  6. Pour butter mixture over batter in even layer. Gently fold until just incorporated, taking care not to deflate batter. Divide batter evenly between prepared pans.
  7. Bake until centers of cakes are set and bounce back when gently pressed and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 13 to 16 minutes. Remove cakes from pans, discarding parchment, and let cool completely on wire rack, about 2 hours.
  8. Drain berries in fine-mesh strainer over bowl. Measure out 2 tablespoons juice into small bowl (reserve remaining juice in bowl) and stir in cornstarch until well combined. Microwave, stirring every 10 seconds, until mixture is very thick and translucent, 30 to 45 seconds. Set aside.
  9. Place 1 cake layer right side up on platter. Place second layer upside down on cutting board. Using paring knife, cut circle from center of cake on board, leaving 1-inch-wide ring of cake. (Reserve circle for another use.) Place upside-down cake ring on top of layer on platter. Using pastry brush, brush all of unthickened strawberry juice onto bottom cake layer and inner sides of cake ring. Gently combine berries and reserved thickened juice in now-empty bowl. Spoon berry mixture into cake ring, forming even layer.

    10. WHIPPED CREAM

  10. Using stand mixer fitted with whisk, whip cream and crème fraîche on low speed until foamy, about 1 minute. Add sugar, increase speed to medium-high, and whip until soft peaks form, about 2 minutes. Dollop 2 tablespoons whipped cream onto center of cake. Transfer remaining whipped cream to serving bowl. Dust cake ring with confectioners’ sugar. Cut and serve, passing extra whipped cream separately.
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