Strawberry Shortcake's Got Nothing On Our Dessert

Nothing beats ruining an entire day of healthy eating like a delicious slice of cake, especially if it's homemade!  Welcome to yesterday...after a long day of classes and work, I met up with Jamie and Joanna around 9:30 for a good ol' fashion baking party.  We set out to make something a little exotic, Japanese Strawberry Shortcake.  It's the desired dessert for Japanese Christmas parties (and apparently college girls too)! 

We eat Big pieces of  cake at 80 Lafayette!

Sponge Cake:

-3 eggs, separated
-1 whole egg
-50 g flour
-5 g oil
-pinch of salt
-1/2 tsp vanilla
-handful of strawberries

Directions:  For starters, preheat your oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit and line an 8x8 pan, or a cake pan with Pam Spray.  Whip the egg whites until really frothy. Add in the sugar, and continue to whip until stiff peaks form.  Beat the egg yolks, whole egg, flour, oil, salt, & vanilla until totally combined.  By this time, the batter should be yellow.  Mix a few spoonfuls of the egg whites into that mixture, just to make it lighter and easier to fold the rest of the whites into.  Fold the rest of the egg whites into it, making sure to fully incorporate them.  Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.  Let the cake cool and get started on the whipped cream.

Stabilized Whipped Cream:

-1 1/2 cups of whipping cream
-1/2 cup of sugar

Directions:  Whip the cream and sugar to stiff peaks.

Assembly:  Level your cake, and split it into two layers--or originally bake the layers in two separate pans.  Put a very thin layer of whipped cream down, and place the cut, sliced, or chopped strawberries down.  Cover the strawberries completely with more cream.  Put the top layer on then ice the top with cream.  Eat immediately or let chill in the fridge until you're ready to serve. 




 Beware, this is no quick dessert, but it's pretty easy to make.  Around midnight (after the final strawberries had been added) we grabbed our plates and sat down to sample.  It started off at just a slice, but we ended up devouring the whole thing right then and there! 

Our Finished Product

 Even though I had an 8am class this morning, I feel no regrets in staying up so late.  I've known it all year, but last night it really hit me that Jamie and Joanna will be graduating in just a few short week.  I'm so excited for their post-grad plans, but I'll certainly miss them!  Who else can I bake cakes with, listen to K Pop, and discuss my future plans of marrying an Asian?  They're seriously such great girls!  I'm just glad we made a pact to meet in Boston-where Joanna's exciting dietician job will be taking her-and make another Japanese Strawberry Shortcake come the fall. 

But there's still a little time left before this semester ends.  As for next Thursday, it looks like we'll be making Lemon Cheesecake with Blueberry Sauce...can someone say YUM!