Lemon and Strawberry Celebration Cake

 

 

A few weeks back, as you might know, I took a short trip to Paris to co-host a Parisian Afternoon Tea organised by my amazing friend Marine Tanguy, CEO and Founder of MTart. It was an honour to co-host with Jeanne De Kroon, Founder of Zazi Vintage. These two women are inspirational and I admire their passion and determination. The Afternoon Tea took place in a dreamy Parisian apartment, filled with art pieces, edible flowers, tea, my cakes (which seemed to go down a treat) and lots of interesting and influential people.

So now, let me share some insights into transporting cakes across the English Channel…

I decided to make kinder brownies, a coffee cake and this lemon and strawberry cake. With time constraints upon my arrival in Paris, I decided to bake all of the sponges and transport these along with the buttercream in piping bags across the English Channel. I arrived at Gare du Nord with sponges which had seen better days! At this point in time, I had no idea of what the kitchen was going to be like AND I had no turn table but I knew I had to make this work! Shortly after, I arrived at the gorgeous Parisian apartment and set to work in the kitchen. One of the ladies watched me repair the broken sponges with icing and she couldn’t believe the transformation – it turns out I’m good at sculpting things! This was the first time that I had travelled to a different country with cakes, and what an experience this was! I learnt lots and I’m looking forward to putting these into practice ahead of my next event 🙂

 

Quantity:  3 layers cake – 12 pieces
Utensils: Electric Mixer, Turn Table, palet knife, 3*7 inches cake tin, grease proof paper, thermometer
Difficulty:

Lemon Sponge

• 300g of plain flour
• 2 tbs baking powder
• 1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda
• 300 ml of buttermilk (if you can’t find it at the shop, hole milk + lemon)
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 3 large egg whites + 1 full egg
• 300g of granulated sugar
• zest of 3 organic lemon
• 150g of butter

Italian Buttercream Icing

• 300g of caster sugar
• 90ml of water
• 90g of egg whites
• 300g of butter at room temperature
• 1 tbs of vanilla paste ( or extract )

Other

• 200g og strawberries

METHOD

Preheat oven at 180 degrees + Grease the cake tin with butter and cover with flour, finishing with grease proof paper for the bottom.

1. Sponge: In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix the butter, sugar and zest and mix for about 4 minutes. Take 2 other bowls. Bowl number 1: mix the flour, salt, baling powder and bicarbonate of soda. Bowl number 2: mix the buttermilk and all of the eggs. Finish the sponge: Alternate mixing bowl number 1 and number 2 within the butter and sugar mix, until everything is smooth and incorporated. Spread the mix between the 3 tins, and cook for 30 min. Insert a knife to check it is cook (should come out clean). Leave it to cool.
2. Buttercream: In a pan, add the sugar and water and bring to 118 degrees. In the bowl of an electric mixer, add the egg white and start to mix until soft peaks. When the temperature has reached 118 degrees, slowly pour to the egg whites. Leave it to mix for about 10 minutes and until the meringue has cooled down to room temperature. Finish the buttercream: slowly add the diced butter to the meringue until you reach a smooth consistency.
3. Assemble:  Take one of the sponge, and place on the top of the turn table, add some buttercream using a pallet knife (5mm thick) and cover with sliced strawberries. Do the same with the other 2 sponges and finish it up with covering all of the cake with the buttercream using the pallet knife. Decorate with strawberries and anything you feel like it 🙂

I really hope you love the fruity and smoothness of the buttercream combined with the sharpness of the lemon and strawberries as much as I do!