How to make a delicious strawberry cake with elderflower cream

This is a light and airy fatless sponge filled with a lovely elderflower custard and sliced strawberries and then topped with whipped cream and decorated with wild strawberries.

Summary

Makes: 12 slices

preparation:20 minutes

Cooking:60 minutes

Ingredients:

For the cake:

margarine and breadcrumbs for the cake tin

4 eggs

200 g (0.9 cups)* caster sugar

50 g (0.4 cups) plain white flour

80 g (0.4 cups) potato flour (starch)

2 tsp baking powder

For the filling:

1 egg yolk

1 tbsp icing sugar (confectioners' sugar)

1 tsp elderflower essence

150 ml (¾ cup) whipping cream

250 g (8 oz) strawberries, hulled and thinly sliced

For the decoration:

150 ml (½-¾ cup) whipping cream

 wild strawberries to garnish

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 175°C (350°F, Gas 4, Fan 160°C).

2. Generously grease a 23 cm (9") round cake tin and coat with breadcrumbs.

3. Beat the eggs and sugar until light and airy (about 4 minutes with a kMix or KitchenAid on full speed).

4. Mix the plain flour (all-purpose flour), potato flour (starch) and baking powder, then fold into the mixture.

5. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake on the lowest rung for approximately 35-40 minutes, until an inserted skewer comes out clean and the cake is just beginning to come away from the sides of the tin.

6. After 2 or 3 minutes turn the cake out onto a wire rack. Let the cake cool completely. (Note that the sides and base are not as smooth as they should be because I didn't grease the cake tin enough!)

7. When cold cut the cake in half horizontally. (Swedes often have a special device for doing this called a tårtdelare.)

8. Make the filling by whisking the egg yolk, 1 tablespoon of icing sugar and ½ teaspoon of elderflower essence together until thick and creamy (about 1-2 minutes when whisked by hand).

9. Whip the cream until it forms soft peaks and then gently fold it into the egg and sugar mixture. Spread it over the bottom cake layer.

10. Crush the sliced strawberries lightly with a spatula or the flat side of a knife and place them on top of the vanilla whip. Place the other half of the cake on top.

11. Whip the cream for decorating until fairly stiff and spread over the top. Decorate with wild strawberries.

12. Serve with lots of extra fresh strawberries!

Tips

- Elderflower essence is sold in some delicatessen shops or online.

- If you can't obtain elderflower essence use a tablespoon or two of undiluted elderflower cordial instead.

- I like to garnish the cake with elderflowers as the scent of the blooms is wonderful

- I also like to garnish the cake with wild strawberries, but if you can’t find any, decorate the top with ordinary strawberries.

- If you have space, it is worth growing some alpine strawberries just for garnishing cakes as they are easy to grow!

Recipe courtesy of John Duxbury, founder and editor of Swedish Food.