A delicious take on the classic strawberry shortcake, with crunchy and creamy elements. This is a dream for all those who have a sweet tooth.
Creating something like this is honestly, quite easy. It's about perfecting each and every element that can take this dish to the next level. Let's talk about how.
Science
When it comes to desserts, perfecting them requires a lot of research and incorporating physical and chemical processes. Let's talk about how to make a perfectly moist yet stable cake. I personally used egg yolks in order to incorporate a large amount of fat into the cake without needing excessive flour. To put it simply, incorporating oil into any form of aqueous medium (in my case it was buttermilk and strawberry extract) requires emulsification of the fat to create a colloidal solution. Egg yolks are a brilliant means to do so as they have a protein known as lecithin, which acts as an emulsifier and incorporates all that oil into the yolk. Further, I was able to incorporate my strawberry extract etc. into this emulsion with ease.
I've made caramel many times before, but this dish already had a few elements which were delicate and really needed something which would give it some proper crunch. I decided to go with a crystallized brown sugar caramel for that. Using that quality of sugar meant that the addition of molasses (absent in white sugar) meant the caramel was thicker once browned. This gave me much crunchier shards of caramel as an end result. I decided against the traditional buttercream frosting or fondant icing for this dessert. I used a white chocolate ganache purely for it's nature of being thinner than buttercream and more indulgent than fondant. It works extremely well with berries, but it's texture is; unfortunately; often very runny. It can't be used on traditional cakes. To viably use it as a frosting, I needed to stabilize it with a chemical known as glyceryl monostearate (GMS).
Recipe:
Ingredients
3 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tbsp strawberry extract
1/2 cup icing sugar
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup crystallized brown sugar
1 cup of whipping/double cream
1 cup of shaved white chocolate
1/2 tsp of GMS
1/2 cup strawberries
Method
Preheat the oven on baking mode (heat from the bottom grills) at 180*C. In two bowls, separate the yolks and the whites. With a hand mixer, incorporate all the vegetable oil into the yolks while mixing at high speed. The yolks will get much thicker and paler. Once all the oil in incorporate, add in the strawberry extract.
In the other bowl, whip up the egg whites with a pinch of salt till they reach soft peaks. Add in half the icing sugar and continue whipping till they reach stiff peaks. Into the egg yolk mixture, add in buttermilk and butter. Mix well until just combined. Sift in the rest of the sugar, flour and baking soda. Incorporate well. Fold in the egg whites gently. Bake in a lined square tin for about 30 minutes.
While the cake is baking, add in your brown sugar into a non stick heavy bottom pan at low heat and let it melt. Once slightly melted, rotate the pan to distribute heat evenly. Once the entire caramel is melted, remove onto a silicon baking mat and let cool. Break it up into shards of desirable size.
To make the ganache, heat up the cream in a pan and once simmering, add onto the shaved white chocolate and let it sit for a minute. Stir until all the chocolate is combined. Chill the mixture in the fridge for 15 minutes and add in the GMS. Whip up using a hand blender till it becomes thick. Add an extra 1/2 tsp GMS if needed.
To serve, slice the cakes down the middle to create two layers. Top one of the layers with strawberries and some of the ganache. Place the other layer on top and ice using the rest of the ganache. Place caramel in and around garnish with more strawberries/edible flowers!
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