Wednesday 13 April 2011

Strawberry Cream Gateaux


“This is one of the best cakes you ever made!”. That was the verdict of Mr.Shabs when I baked this gateaux for his birthday. Not a sweet person, not a chocolate person, he has his own inclination when it comes to sweets and bakes. Nothing like me, in fact just the plain opposite I would say. He likes plain cakes with butter icing and if it is strawberry flavoured, that would be just his kind of cake. I always prepare some sort of white cake, mainly butter based, then use cream and strawberries as filling for his birthday. But whenever I made, he mostly came up with the verdict that the cake was not as soft as we get from bakeries!!So I kept tweaking and changing the recipes to get a spongy base and it was only then I realised that husband likes sponge cake and not the regular butter based cakes!!!!!!The easiest base, that uses no butter!


Another exiting part is that there is a Kerala Kitchen event happening every month and last month it was hosted by dear Rose of magpiesrecipe. Check out the marvellous spread at KeralaKitchen. I had sent my Kallummakkaya Nirachathu for her event, and just for her event.She was kind enough to pass me the ‘Best Dish’ prize in the event. How good is that? Thank you Rose. I am so hounoured.

Meanwhile I will let you have my recipe for the gateaux, it is taken from my cake decoration book. I started relying on the book completely without making any modifications as it has been giving me the best results, just the one I have been looking for. In the actual recipe, the sponge recipe is used for making Swiss roll, which I dint want to make for the Birthday Boy, so I Just baked it in a 6” pan that is really deep. If you don’t own a deep pan of the same size, just use 7 or 8 inch pan and adjust the cooking time as necessary. Of course, when the pan size increases, cooking time reduces. The cake was simple to make, tasted superb and was so spongy that I found it a bit hard to get neat slices!


And on another note, I thought I will let you also know that my picture din’t win the prize even though it qualified for the finals due to vote (like). There were better pictures that suited the event, and they won, which I thought was was reasonable :). You can check them out @ Perizia . Did I tell you, I got a photography book last week and the book is just brilliant. The book is for the beginners and it covers every essential details of photography to biuld up to professional photography. The book explains aperture, shutter speeds, ISO, white balance, all the controls of the camera, how to shoot in low-light setting  and anything you need to know with illustration which makes it real simple for an amateur photographer. I am now learning and discovering new stuffs with the tips from the book and believe me, I am loving it. Name of teh book is 'Photography for Beginners, Vol.1" by Debbi Allen .It has over 190 pages and is associated with Samsung. It also includes a free CD which I have no clue about as I haven't gone through it yet. You can explore their site at http://www.dphotographer.co.uk/. I shall try to shoot some pics following the tips from the book and try to share it here, if time permits.  Meanwhile let's hop over to the recipe.


Strawberry Cream Gateaux
Serves 8

Ingredients:
½ cup plain flour (Measure, then sift)
3 large eggs
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
Zest from half an orange
7 Tablespoon caster sugar

Praline:
50g Almonds, toasted
75g caster sugar

For the filling and frosting:
284 mls tub Double Cream
1/3 cup condensed milk
Grated zest of ½ orange
Few drops of vanilla essence
150g chopped strawberries

To decorate:
200g strawberries


Preparations:

1.Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celcius. Grease and line a very deep 6 inch pan or a7 inch pan.

2. In a bowl whisk the eggs sugar and orange zest on high speed for about 10 minutes until thick and pale and leaves a thick trail when the beaters are lifted.

3. Fold in the flour with a metal spoon, being careful not to knock out any air. Pour into the prepared tin. Bake for about 35-40 minutes or when a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Turn the cake on the wire rack, peel the parchment paper and leave to cool completely. Once the cake is taken out o foven, place the almonds in the pan and bake for about 5-8 minutes until lightly toasted.

4.Meanwhile make the praline and filling.

5. To make praline: Roughly chop the toasted almonds. Heat a pan and add sugar. Let the sugar melt and start to boil. DO NOT STIR WITH A SPOON HERE. Reduce the heat and let the sugar turn golden in colour. Take it off the heat, add the chopped nuts, mix well and pour the whole mixture on an oiled aluminium foil. Let it cool completely. (Beware: Pralines are extremely hot and it can cause serious burns. So keep yourself aloof). Once they are completely cold, break them to pieces and crush them in pestle and mortar or food processor. Or pop them into a ziplock bag and bang it with a rolling pin until you get coarse bits.

6. To make filling, whip cream along with zest until soft peaks form. Add vanilla essence and condensed milk and whip until stiff. Take out 5-6 tablespoons of this cream mixture and mix it with chopped strawberries, keeping aside the rest of the whipped cream to frost the cake.

7. If it is a 6 inch cake, you will easily get a three horizontal slices. The cake will be tall and can be sliced into 3 without much hassle. If the cake is of bigger size like 7” or 8”, you might be able to get only 2 layers. I baked mine in a deep 6” inch pan and so I had three layers.

8. Place the top most slice on serving plate. Slide in few pieces of baking paper underneath this slice of cake so it collects all mess caused while decorating the cake. Just slide in a bit so that you can pull them off after all the decoration is done.

9. Spread ½ of the strawberry-cream mixture, and place another slice of cake on top of the cream. Spread rest of the strawberry-cream mixture and place the last layer of the cake, i.e. bottom part of the cake which is flat. Gently press the cake down. Frost the cake all over with the cream that was reserved.

10. Using hand or palette knife, stick praline over the sides and decorate with sliced strawberries. You can use a bit of cream to stick the strawberries to the cake lest they fall. Once the decoration is all done, you can slowly slide off the bits of baking paper you placed under the cake.

N.B: Since the sponge has no fat in it, the cake will keep only for a maximum of 3-4 days of preparation and should be refrigerated throughout to keep its freshness.

32 comments:

Faiza Ali said...

Yummy Shabs. That looks mouthwatering...now even I am tempted to try some cakes from that book.

Pavithra Elangovan said...

The cake looks gorgeous shabs.. and belated wishes to Your Hubby. Congrats on your winning moment in the event which u really deserve. Regd the photography contest don't worry its still great you are one of the finalist :)

Indian Khana said...

Looks delicious and lovely pic ....

Fathima said...

Heavenly Cake! Awesome presentation as always!

Reshmi Mahesh said...

Superb...Drooling over your pics....slurp

Hari Chandana P said...

Wowwwwwwwwww... Amazing recipe dear.. looks very tempting and inviting.. Awesome presentation too.. thanks for sharing !!

Indian Cuisine

Sarah said...

that is such a beautiful cake! It looks like a work of art!

Unknown said...

Delicious looking cake

Nithya said...

Fabulous looking cake :) I am still drooling at the pics. Neat and attractive decoration and as ever I love your photography too :)

Fajeeda said...

superb ya shabs........congrats on ur best dish for kerala kitchen ........yummy cake wants a piece ya...........

cook from doha said...

wow.............i cant help it...........i want the whole piece...........

Sneha Benny said...

Cake looks so yum !!!

Priya Suresh said...

Wow wat an elegant cake, looks professional and fabulous..

Zareena said...

Wowwwwwwwwwwwwwww, lovely Shabs. Your pics make me drool.The cake looks yummy soft and moist. Great work..

http://myexperimentswithfood.blogspot.com

Raji said...

This is a gorgeous cake...looks so good. And the presentation is superb.

Swapna said...

Beautiful and elegant cake Shabee!! Was waiting to see your Monu's birthday cake post here... that was also a superb cake!

My Kitchen Antics said...

you know what ente sponge cakes never come out well..as in the moment i take it out of the oven it falls flat :( i ahve no idea why..although i love eating sponge cakes..1st pic is very nice and from the 2nd one i can make out how soft it is...
do read the photography book and give tips 2 amateurs like us..i am not the type who can read and learn stuff but if someone explains 2 me i get it...ro does that for me..hehe

divya said...

Yummy and awesome cake.. looks very tempting !!

Suja Manoj said...

Looks fabulous..neat and attractive cake.

Tina said...

beautiful clicks nd cake dear..so tempting..

Roshu said...

super duper presentation

Suji said...

The title of the post itself made me drool and when i started reading the recipe and browsed thru the pictures, my cravings steeped...Awesome gateau...Great Shabs!

Rookie Qookie said...

All the hard work has paid off..these look absolutely gorgeous!!

Plateful said...

The cake looks exquisite, Shabs! I'm seriously craving for a slice right now!! I loved how you played with the icing, strawberries and nuts, simply brilliant! Now I know whom to bug with all my cake-making queries...;)

Happy belated b'day to your hubby!

Zainab said...

Marvellous cake Shabs,,Which oven do u use for baking?

Raksha said...

this is one of the best cakes I have seen

following u.

http://rakshaskicthen.blogspot.com

Rinku Naveen said...

Hi Shabs
This cake looks so professionally made and yummy...Perfect snaps too..

Do stop by my space when time permits..
Thanks

Unknown said...

Hi shabs...i am really fond of all ur recipes also ur photographs....i hav searched a lot for the 284mls tub double cream.cant find it any of the shops.wat exactly is it.or any substitute for it?pls reply.nees to try this cake soon.

Shabs.. said...

@Sameer, thanks alot for the compliments. Regarding the cream, it is used to frost the cake. the cream u see on the cake is that double cream , that i whipped. You can substiture with dream whip powder and prepare it according to teh packet instructions and use it instead of double cream. Hope this helps.

Regds,
shabs

Unknown said...

Lovely cake. Glad to follow your blog. Please visit me at http://sadaf-culinaryadventures.blogspot.com

Sonu James said...

Hi Shabs,
Imade this cake yesterday..like Mr.Shabs ,my Mr.James said this was the best cake ever made...thank you so much..i wish i can show you my cake
thanks sonu

Shabs.. said...

Hi sonu, I am happy your husband liked the cake. I would love to see the cake you made. Please send me @ shabysajid@hotmail.com

Love,
shabs.

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