Strawberry Shortcake

What a nice Easter! I spent the weekend welcoming my cousin Arthur to Philadelphia and then hanging out with him and my sister. Saturday we had a nice lunch with his parents (my Aunt Barb and Uncle Bruce) at Top Of The Hill Market and bought some Easter candy at Zipf's. Good thing he came to visit because he was a great help in the kitchen; baking this cake and rolling out balls of Jaques Torres' chocolate chip cookies. I need him next Xmas when we turn my mom's house into a gingerbread cookie decorating factory again. But back to the cake...

In honor of my Nona I made strawberry shortcake for Easter dinner at my Aunt Pat and Uncle Tommy's house. Nona used to make her cake from a box- but when we were little kids we didn't care. It was delicious anyway. I came across this recipe while stumbling around Taste Spotting one day. The recipe comes from Thyme, it's called Mammie Moo's Strawberry Shortcake.

What an easy recipe!! I pretty much followed it to a T except I didn't realize that they don't sell creme fraiche at Pathmark so I just made regular whipped cream instead of the one in the original recipe. I also just used two 9 inch cake pans and covered the bottoms with tin foil and Pam since I didn't have a spring form. But I knew I'd have to cover the bottom because this cake will stick if you just try to grease and flour the pan. Parchment circles will work as well. Then I cut each cake in two and made a four-layer cake with whipped cream in between each layer and strawberries in the middle and on top. Again, really easy and very tasty.

For the cake:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
5 eggs, separated
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
5 Tbs. boiling water
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
Grated zest of 2 lemons

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350, in a bowl sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl whip together the egg yolks and sugar with a hand mixer on high speed until thick; the mixture will still be grainy. Reduce the speed to medium-low and add the boiling water. Turn off the mixer and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Increase the speed to high and whip again until thick. Stir in the vanilla extract and lemon zest. Reduce the speed to low and stir in the flour mixture.

3. In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites on medium-low speed until frothy. Increase the speed to medium-high and whip until thick and smooth; the mixture should not look dry. Fold half of the whites into the batter with a spatula, then fold in the remaining whites.

4. Gently spread the batter in the prepared pans. (You can use a 9 in spring-form pan, I used two 9 inch cake pans- don't forget to line the bottoms) Bake until a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the inside edge of the pan and invert the cake. Transfer the cake to a wire rack and let cool completely. Using a serrated knife, cut the cake horizontally into 3 layers if you used the spring-form or cut each layer in 2 to make 4 layers if you used the two 9 inch cake pans. (Snippet's Notes: If you used the spring form wrap dental floss around the cake, cross the floss, and gently pull it through the body of the cake to get 3 even layers.)

For the strawberry layer:

2 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and thinly
sliced, plus more for garnish
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
2 Tbs. granulated sugar

Method:

Place the 2 cups strawberries in a bowl. Stir in the lemon juice and 2 Tbs. of the granulated sugar.

For the whipped cream:

2 cups heavy cream
4 Tbs. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Method:

Whip cream, sugar, and vanilla with a hand mixer on high until cream is thick and fluffy- don't make butter out of it.

Hurry up, it's almost gone!!

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma TASTE Magazine, "Layers of Delight," by Emily Luchetti (Spring 2002).