Gâteau aux Fraises

I made strawberry shortcake last night. However, I decided to get a little adventurous and make a sponge cake instead of my usual drop biscuits. It turned out delicious! Although, I probably should have cut the cake recipe in half because now I have a ton of left-over sponge cake that I have no idea what I'm going to do with. What a terrible problem to have haha!

This was great as just regular old strawberry shortcake. But you could also cut the cake up into little pieces and then layer it with the strawberries and cool whip to make a trifle. If you want to make this an 'adults only' dessert, you could replace the orange juice with Grand Marnier or Triple Sec. Yum!

Gâteau aux Fraises
Makes: 6 servings

Cake:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
6 eggs, separated
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup plus 6 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Strawberries:
1 pint strawberries
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp orange juice

Cool whip or whipped cream

Make the cake:

• Spray a metal 13" x 9" baking sheet with a thin layer of cooking spray. Add flour to the pan and tap it around so that the flour coats all edges of the pan. Tap the pan while upside down to get rid of any excess flour. Set the pan aside.
• Sift together the flour and cornstarch. Set aside.
• Separate the egg yolks from the whites. Set the whites aside.
• In a stand mixer fitted with a whip attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the egg yolks, vanilla, and 3/4 cup sugar on high for about 3 minutes. Once the mixture is pale and fluffy, transfer it to a different mixing bowl and set aside. This is what it should look like:

• Wash the whip attachment and bowl thoroughly. This next step will not work if there is even a single speck of egg yolk left on your instruments.
• Whip together the egg yolks and salt on medium until soft peaks form. This will take about 3 minutes. First the egg whites will become frothy; then you'll slowly start the see the bubbles become extremely tiny and the egg whites will become more and more opaque. You'll also start to see lines in the egg whites trailing behind the whip. These are all signs that you're getting close to a soft peak. You'll know you have soft peaks when you dip the whip attachment into the egg whites, turn it upside down, and the mixture stays on the whip but still falls over and is not stiff, like so:

• Continue beating the egg whites and slowly add the remaining 6 tablespoons of sugar, one tablespoon at a time. You don't want to add it too quickly or you'll overwhelm the egg whites and lose all of that air you just whipped into them. Once all of the sugar is added, continue beating for about one more minute until the egg whites are glossy and stiff peaks form. You'll know you have stiff peaks when you dip the whip attachment into the egg whites, turn it upside down, and the mixture stands straight up, like so:

• Scrape the egg whites out of the mixing bowl and add them to the egg yolks that were set aside earlier. Very delicately fold the two mixtures together. If you're unfamiliar with this technique, this is what it should look like:

• Notice how I gently scrape the spatula through the middle, then around then edges. Just keep doing that over and over until the two mixtures are combined. You don't want to vigorously stir because this will destroy all of those air bubbles you worked so hard to create. The air bubbles are what are going to keep the cake light and fluffy.
• Note: Eggs can actually act as a leavening agent. In this recipe, you'll notice there's no baking powder or baking soda. That's because the eggs provide plenty of volume on their own. You'll see this in a lot of brownie recipes and other cake recipes. If you notice that your recipe is missing baking powder or baking soda, it's probably not an error; the recipe will most likely call for quite a few eggs.
• Next, add the flour and cornstarch mixture to the egg mixture in 3 additions. Fold this into the eggs just like you folded the two egg mixtures together; making sure to be very gentle.
• Pour the cake batter into the greased and floured 13"x 9" baking pan. Smooth the batter with your spatula.
• Bake at 350° F for 20 - 25 minutes until a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cake recipe adapted from Martha Stewart's Vanilla Sponge Cake

Make the strawberries:

• While the cake is baking, make the strawberry topping.
• Rinse the strawberries, cut off the leafy tops, then thinly slice them. Place the sliced strawberries in a glass bowl.
• Add the sugar, lemon juice, and orange juice. Stir then set aside.
• Note: these are referred to as 'macerated strawberries.' Maceration refers to the technique where you soften fruit with sugar and some kind of acid. In this case, the acid comes from the lemon juice and orange juice, but balsamic vinegar also tastes great on strawberries.

Assemble the Gâteau aux Fraises:

• Cut a 2" x 2" piece of sponge cake and place in the bottom of a bowl.
• Add the strawberry topping.
• Top with cool whip or whipped cream.