FRAISIER CAKE RECIPE
Servings
10
Prep Time
2 hours
Cook Time
30 minutes
A beautiful, classic French cake which is made from layers of genoise, fresh strawberries and homemade raspberry marzipan. The name comes from the French word for strawberries 'fraise'. Perfect for summer parties, to celebrate birthdays or to mark the start of Wimbledon.
The look of the cake is very distinctive with its exposed strawberries along the sides. The cake does have many stages as with most things Patisserie, but the finished result is well worth it!
You can half this recipe and bake in a 15cm mould instead- but we feel it has the most impact when large and grand. The cake will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days
Author:Mon Dessert
Ingredients
125g sachet organic pastry flour
85g sachet caster sugar
85g sachet caster sugar
5g sachet gluten free baking powder
20g sachet custard powder
20g sachet custard powder
1/2 Madagascan vanilla pod
5g sachet raspberry powder
72g sachet ground almonds
108g sachet British icing sugar
40g sachet caster sugar
40g sachet caster sugar
40g sachet caster sugar
Acetate strip
Sticker
2 sheets of parchment
6 Organic eggs- 1 separated
300ml milk (dairy or plant)
300g strawberries
150g cubed soft butter (plant or dairy) plus extra for greasing
Boiling water
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20cm diameter cake mould
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Smeg handheld electric whisk
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Smeg stand mixer
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Palette knife
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Piping bag
Ingredients included
Ingredients you will need to add
Recommended equipment
Directions
Making raspberry flavoured marzipan part 1
Take the sachet of raspberry powder and pour on 10ml of hot water. Empty the ground almonds and half of the icing sugar in a large bowl.
Pour in half of the raspberry mixture and use your fingertips to create a dough, adding more raspberry as you go until a ball forms. You may need to add a touch more water, but go easy as the dough will become too sticky and hard to handle. Cover and pop this in the freezer.
Crème Mousseline stage 1
To make the crème Mousseline, pour the milk into a pan and add the vanilla pod. Slowly bring to a simmer.
Whisk together the 1 egg yolk, 2 whole eggs, 1 sachet of 85g sugar,1 sachet of 40g sugar and the 2 sachets of custard powder into a large bowl until there are no lumps.
Pour the hot infused milk through a sieve into the egg mixture and whisk to combine. Take the vanilla pod, slit in two and scrape out the seeds, then add this to the egg mixture too. Keep the vanilla skin aside.
Pour the custard back into the saucepan and set over a medium heat. Whisk constantly.
Cook the mixture until the crème is very thick and holds its shape. Stir in a third (50g) of the butter until it melts and is well incorporated into the crème.
Pour into a shallow dish and cover with a plastic lid or film so that it doesn't form a skin. This needs to be cold so once slightly cool, pop it into the fridge.
Making raspberry flavoured marzipan part 2
Take out the marzipan from the freezer. Roll out to fit a 20cm diameter circle between two layers of parchment paper- roughly 3mm thickness.
Unpeel the top layer of parchment and cut around the base of a 20cm mould for the perfect circle. Place the disc into the freezer.
Genoise sponge
Preheat the oven to fan 180°c, 190°c if a normal oven. Grease the cake mould well.
Place one 40g and one 85g sachets of sugar into a large bowl or stand mixer. Add in three eggs and the remaining egg white. Whisk on medium to high speed for 10 minutes.
Sift in the flour and baking powder sachets a third at a time. Use a metal spoon or spatula to combine and fold the flour into the mixture, whilst trying to keep in as much of the air as possible.
Pour the mixture into the mould and bake for 20 minutes. Check to see the cake is cooked properly by inserting a skewer into the middle. If not, pop it back in the oven for another 5 minutes.
Once baked, turn out immediately onto a wire rack with parchment on it. Be careful as the cake is very fragile.
Syrup
Boil a kettle and then take a medium bowl to pour in the remaining 40g sachet of sugar and the vanilla pod skins. Pour on 150ml water and stir until sugar granules have dissolved.
Slicing cake & stawberries
Take a serrated knife and carefully slice the cake into two equal layers.
Set aside around 5 of your prettiest strawberries for the decoration at the end. Then slice the remainder by firstly cutting off the leafy tops to ensure each strawberry has equal height and then slice in two.
Prepare the acetate to go around and hold the layers in place
Take your acetate and place this around the inside of a 20cm cake mould, holding it in place with your sticker. Then place a 20cm cake board in the bottom of the mould.
Crème Mousseline stage 2
Start whisking the remaining 100g of squidgy room temperature butter in a stand mixer or bowl until very pale and fluffy for around 5-10 minutes
Slowly add in the now cold crème mouselline spoon-by-spoon, on a low to medium speed. Keep whisking for another 2-3 minutes until you have a fluffy and smooth crème mousseline.
Assembly
Brush this with more syrup and lay the marzipan circle on top of the cake so that it adheres. Trim off any acetate overhang.
Place one layer of sponge cake in the bottom of the cake mould, cut side up. Use the top of the cake first as this is likely to be not as flat. Then liberally brush the sponge with half of the syrup. With the back of a spoon, gently squash the edges of the cake down so that they are pushed directly against the sides of the acetate, creating the defined edges necessary for the Fraisier cake.
Form a circle of strawberries. cut side against the acetate. Get your crème mousseline bag and cover the exposed sponge completely. Then pipe between each of the strawberries so the gaps are filled. Cut any remaining strawberries and off cuts into 0.5cm cubes and scatter all over the crème. Pipe more crème on top of the cut strawberries to cover the whole surface. Then smooth with a palette knife.
Set in the fridge
Gently press the top down quite firmly, so that the cake and filling push against the acetate to create the distinctive smooth and defined sides of the Fraisier cake, then put the whole thing back in the fridge to set for at least 2 hours or overnight.
You can weigh the whole thing down by covering the top with parchment and placing a couple of plates on top on the cake. When ready to serve, remove the cake from fridge.
Unmoulding and decorating
Very carefully flip upside down on a board and unmould, but leave the acetate. Flip the back the right way up and place onto a serving cake stand or serving plate. Carefully peel off the parchment from the marzipan topping.
Decorate with reserved strawberries and use the remainder of your icing sugar to create a striped patten. Finish off with the strawberries that you set aside earlier. Enjoy!
Serve chilled.
Recipe Video
Recipe Note
*All sachets are recyclable at all major supermarkets. Simply keep them with the rest of your supermarket bags and they will be recycled.
*Wash any new equipment that is in contact with food throughly.
Ingredients contained in kit:
Sugar,WheatFlour,GroundAlmonds, Custard Powder (Cornflour,NaturalColours (Annatto,Curcumin),NaturalFlavouring), Vanilla Pod, Raspberry Powder, Gluten-Free Baking Powder(Sodium Dihydrogen Diphosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Calcium Sulphate)
Allergens:
*Risk of trace particles from manufacturing of Sesame, Soy, Peanuts and Milk
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