Strawberry Shortcake

Instructions

We get the cake done

• 1. Sift together the flour and wheat starch. Set aside. In a small saucepan, combine the syrup ingredients (water and sugar but not the vanilla extract yet) and bring to a boil. Cook until all the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and let it cool to room temperature. Stir in the vanilla extract (if you use some). Set aside.
• 2. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line the bottom and the sides of a 18cm circle cake pan with parchment paper. Tip : Put a bit of butter on the inside of the cake pan, it helps the parchment paper stick to it. Set aside.
• 3. In a mixing bowl add eggs and sugar. Whisk to combine with an electric mixer until the mixture whitens, doubles in volume and forms ribbons (about 5~6min). Slow down to low speed for a few seconds and then stop.
• 4. Gently add the sifted flour mixture from #1 and mix with a rubber spatula until incorporated.
• 5. Put butter and milk together and microwave them till the butter melts. Pour the butter mixture little by little into the cake mixture from #4. Mix gently with a spatula until it is homogeneous. Do not over mix.
• 6. Pour the cake mixture into the prepared cake pan and gently tap the bottom of the pan a few times to eliminate air pockets. Bake for about 20min or until done. Insert a skewer in the center of the cake : if there is no sticky butter residual, then your baking is done.
• 7. Remove from the oven and take the cake out of the pan. Let it cool to room temperature on the wire rack.

and fix the whipping cream

• 8. In a mixing bowl, combine the whipping cream and sugar, beat at high speed until stiff.

until we put it all together

• 9. Put some strawberries aside as you'll need them for the topping. Cut the remaining strawberries into thin slices.
• 10. Slice the cake horizontally in 2 halves. Brush syrup from #1 on top of each cake layer. Spoon some whipped cream from #8 over the bottom layer and spread it evenly. Arrange part of the strawberry slices evenly over the cream, and top with enough whipped cream to cover the strawberries. Place the top cake layer above.
• 11. Finally spread the whipped cream on top and sides of the cake. Decorate it with the 'topping' strawberries you set aside in #9.
• Chill the cake for a few hours before serving.