March 17, 2013
Rob
5

Fraisier – Creamy strawberry cake

It’s spring time! Well, almost, since it is snowing in many parts of France, but anyway strawberries are here!

One of the most famous French cakes is the Fraisier: two layers of genoise with a vanilla mousseline cream and fresh strawberries.

Fraisier - Step 13

It is also required for my C.A.P. pastry exam next June, so I was eagerly waiting for March to finally be able to buy strawberries.

I tried decorating the cake some way, but I failed pathetically… and that’s why I don’t have pictures taken from the top! 😛

But anyway, here is the step-by-step recipe of the Fraisier. It might seem long and complicated but it’s not. Let’s start with the two layers of genoise:

Basic genoise

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Serves1 pan

Ingredients

150gEggs (3)
90gGranulated sugar
90gPastry flour

Directions

1
Whip the eggs and sugar on a bain marie
2
When they reach the temperature of 55°, remove from the heat and pour in a mixing bowl. Whip at medium speed for 10-15 minutes.
3
Gently fold in the flour gradually with an upward movement taking care not to deflate the batter
4
Bake in the way that suits your needs:
1) Pour the batter on a pan and spread evenly. Bake at 200° for 10 minutes.
2) Bake in a buttered and floured cake mold for 25 minutes at 180°
3) Pipe the batter in the desired shape (e.g. rounds for cakes). Bake at 200° for 10 minutes.
5
Hint: if you're going to pipe the batter in a round shape, draw a circle with a pen/pencil using the cake ring on parchment paper. Remember to flip the paper before piping (so that the batter is not in contact with the ink, but you can still see the line you've drawn)!

Then let’s prepare the cream right before assembling the cake (you can prepare in advance and store it in the fridge, but then you’ll need to let it come back to room temperature and whip it again to make it light and airy).

Vanilla mousseline cream

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Ingredients

Pastry cream

425mlMilk
70gEgg yolks ((4))
125gGranulated sugar
40gCorn starch
1/2Vanilla bean (split)
85gUnsalted butter

Mousseline cream

85gUnsalted butter (room temperature)
2 tablespoonsKirsch (optional)

Directions

1
Heat the milk in a saucepan with the vanilla bean and half of the sugar, whisking regularly
2
In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, corn starch and the remaining sugar
3
When the milk is boiling, strain it on the egg mixture in three times, whisking well each time to prevent the yolks from curdling
4
Strain the mixture back into the saucepan and whisk continuously until thickened. Make sure the cream boils for at least one minute and a half.
5
Remove from the heat and add the butter; whisk until combined
6
Cover an aluminium pan with plastic wrap and pour the hot pastry cream in it. Cover the pastry cream with the remaining part of the plastic wrap and store in the fridge
7
In the meantime, in a mixing bowl, cream the butter with a whisk until it's soft and creamy
8
While whisking the butter, add the pastry cream (at 18-25° more or less, i.e. room temperature) one spoon at a time. If the resulting mousseline cream is grainy, keep on whisking.

Note

The mousseline cream can be used to fill fresh fruit tarts, but also modern cakes (e.g. Fraisier).

It is very important that pastry cream be at room temperature or slightly above, not too cold and not too hot, otherwise the butter will either solidify immediately or melt, and you will ruin your mousseline cream.

The cream can be stored in the fridge for 3 days. It can't be frozen. Don't store at room temperature for more than 2 hours, since it would become the ideal environment for bacteria.

And finally, let’s assemble everything together:

Fraisier

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Ingredients

Almond paste (for decoration)

Basic genoise

2Rounds of genoise (ø18cm)

Filling

850gVanilla mousseline cream
125gFresh strawberries (cut in half)
125Fresh straberries (diced)

Sugar syrup

90mlWater
70gGranulated sugar
20mlKirsch

Directions

1
Cut two rounds of genoise, one of ø18cm and one of ø16cm.
Suggestion: place a cake ring on the genoise to cut two rounds. Make the second ring about 2cm smaller than the first one by cutting its border with a knife: this round will be inside and doesn't have look perfect
2
Boil the sugar, water for one minute. When the syrup is lukewarm or room temperature, add half of the kirsch. Brush the genoise rounds generously with the kirsch syrup
3
Put a strip of clear acetate around the inner side of the cake ring to facilitate unmolding. Place the first round inside the cake ring and the half strawberries on the genoise all around the ring
4
Pour half of the mousseline cream in the middle and spread it with a spatula towards the border first. Make sure that the space between the strawberries is completely filled in by the cream and that the center of the cake is almost empty.
5
Put the diced straberries in the middle of the cake
6
Spread some cream on top of the strawberries (not too much) and then cover with the second round of genoise
7
Pour the rest of the cream and spread it with an offset spatula so to fill completely the cake ring. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
8
If you want, you can cover the top of the cake with a layer of almond paste: just roll it out to a 1-2mm height, place it on top of the cake and cut the excess paste with the rolling pin. Decorate to your taste
9
Gently remove the cake ring, then the acetate strip and serve

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