I was baking for my colleague’s birthday the other day, and wants to bake something more girly – something looks cute and tastes good for a girl. So I was looking for a cake recipe with Strawberries, and find this Japanese YouTuber ‘Ochikeron’ teaching people making this Japanese-style Strawberry shortcake. It looks nice and easy to decorate, so I decided to adapt it and give it a try.
It turned out that all my colleagues love it so much. They were firstly amazed by how it looks, and when they tried it, everyone wishes there’s a second piece for them! So you know, this is the kind of cake you should make if you want a cake to impress. The cake itself is not super sweet and is very light and fluffy. Some people are scared of the cream will be too rich, but trust me, they are just right to give all the flavors you need for this cake.
You can also check out our updated version of Japanese Strawberry Shortcake here! The recipe is a mini cake recipe perfect for 1-2 people.
The light and fluffy sponge cake!
Cutting the cake into ‘perfectly’ half.
Whip the cream over ice.
Sprinkle with syrup to keep the sponge cake moist.
Decorate with whipped cream and strawberries!
Make 1 cake (20cm round cake pan)
Preparation time: 4-6 hours (including cooling time)
Baking time: 25 mins
Ingredients:
Sponge Cake
- 2 Eggs (room temperature)
- 60 g Cake Flour (45g all purpose flour + 15g corn flour)
- 60 g Granulated Sugar
- 20 g Unsalted Butter (melted)
Syrup
- 20 ml Hot Water
- 7.5 g Granulated Sugar
Decoration
- fresh strawberries
- 250 ml whipping cream
- 7.5 g granulated sugar
- a few drops vanilla extract
Sponge Cake
1. Preheat the oven to 170C. Line the cake pan with baking paper.
2. Slightly beat the eggs with a whisk. Put the bowl in a hot water bath, mix sugar and melt the sugar until the mixture is warmed up to body temperature. Remove the water bath, continue to beat the mixture with an electric mixer on high speed until it is white and fluffy. Change to low speed, continue beating for another minute, it supposed to set the texture of the mixture.
3. Sift the flour bits by bits, and GENTLY fold them in so that they are combined with the egg white. SPRINKLE the melted butter with a spoon bits by bits, and quickly lift the batter up with a spatula to mix. (If you pour the melted butter in, the cake may end up being heavy and dense.)
4.Pour the batter in the cake pan and drop the pan lightly on the table to minimize the air in the batter. Put in the oven for 25mins.
5. Leave in the cake pan for 5 mins. Remove the baking paper around (if you use). Put a paper towel on top of a chopping board and place the cake pan upside down on the paper towel. Allow it to cool down completely.
6. Wrap it with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for several hours. (Or bake it 1 day before you want to decorate it.)
Syrup
1. Mix the granulated sugar in the hot water until dissolved.
Decoration
1. Take the sponge cake out of the fridge. Cut it into half horizontally. (Place the knife at one edge, cut a little bit while rotating the cake in a clock-wise direction. When you cute until the original point, you can start cutting deeper into the cake carefully and eventually cut them into half perfectly.)
2. Wash and prepare the strawberries. Halves the one for the decoration. I also half the ones that I put in between layers. If you want, you can cut them smaller.
3. Directly taken out from the fridge, put the cream into a mixing bowl. Put the mixing bowl over ice to keep the cream cool and smooth. Put the sugar and vanilla extract into the cream. Whisk the cream with an electric mixer until soft peaks formed.
4. On the bottom layer of the spongecake, splash some syrup on top. The syrup will help to keep the cake moist. Put 1/3 of the whipped cream evenly. Then put the strawberries on top, add some whipped cream so that the cake will stay together. On the bottom side of the top of the sponge cake, splash some syrup as well. With the side with syrup, put it on top of the strawberries. Finished whipped cream on top and some strawberries for decoration.