Friday, November 20, 2009

Japanese Strawberry Shortcake: Soft, light, easy and very delicious!

There are some misunderstanding, when talk about shortcake, because the shortcake in Japan is not the sweet biscuit that sliced and filled with whipped cream and strawberry.

The name comes from the short time that you use to make this cake, it's a short time cake! The cake is made from sponge cake, whipping cream, and strawberry, the ingredients which you can find it almost everywhere.
I love this kind of cake too, from the look (the red color of the strawberry is standing out of the white whipped cream), the texture of the cake that is so soft and light, and from the taste that is delicious mix of the rich cream and the sweetness of the strawberry. Because of the lightness of the texture, you will finish it without feeling full up.

The recipe is an adaptation from the book: 12か月のハッピーバースデーケーキ (Birthday Cake for 12 Months) by Miwa Nakanishi
The one that I will show you today ^ ^.

12か月のハッピーバースデーケーキ (Birthday Cake for 12 Months) by Miwa Nakanishi
The book divided into 12 months, there are about 3-4recipes per month. There are many kind of cakes, mousse cake, buttercake, choux, tart and cookie. All of them turn into lovely birthday cake, in many styles.

The idea for decorating the cake is very cute too (you can see from the photograph), I like the way that they are look great, even they are the simple recipes. Like the one that you can see, the bear cake (the one on the right) is the genoise, vanilla mousse, and decorated with sweetened whipped cream the ingredient is simple, the method is easy, but the result is very good.

There are some idea for the wrapping too, it's very cute, the book shows you how to do it with ease but make a great impression.
So, this book is very good for everyone, ^ ^, because it's not only the recipe, it's comes with the idea!
The Japanese Strawberry Shortcake is very easy to make, you can bake this cake into a 18cm round if you want too. But I always like to make small one, ^ ^. I love the look of the cute little cake (you can see from my blog that I always turn big one into mini size, both for it's appearance and less guilty for eating too much, haha).

The syrup that use for soaking the cake is very important too, if you forget the cake will be too dry, and the syrup adds the slightly sweetness and great fragrance. I use my home made vanilla extract instead of the liqueur, if your vanilla extract is commercial one, add very little of it.

Adaptation from: 12か月のハッピーバースデーケーキ (Birthday Cake for 12 Months) by Miwa Nakanishi


Japanese Strawberry Shortcake
Makes 4 (6cm) or 1 (18cm)


Genoise

3
Eggs
90g
Sugar
90g
Cake flour (sifted)
20g
Unsalted butter (melted)
20ml
Milk


Syrup

80g
Sugar
100ml
Water
10ml
liqueur


Whipped Cream

400ml
Whipping cream
40g
Icing sugar


10
Strawberry



Make the syrup by put the sugar and the water together into the pan, heat until boil, then let it cool to room temperature.
When cool, mix with the liqueur.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
If you want to make small cake, prepare the 27x27cm pan with the baking paper.
Or using 18 cm round cake pan, line the base with the baking paper.

Beat the egg until mix and lighter in color, gradually add the sugar into the egg and beat until ribbon stage (you can see that you can lift the beater and make the letter 8).

Take ¾ cup of the egg mixture and mix it with the melted butter.

Sift the flour into the egg mixture, fold gently until combine.
Pour the egg and butter mixture into the bowl fold gently and follow with the milk.
Pour the mixture into the prepared pan.
Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes for 18 cm cake, or 15-18 minutes for the 27cm pan cake.

When finish, let the cake cool to the room temperature before filling the cake.

Assemble the cake:

Cut the 8 of the strawberry into small pieces.

Pour the cream into a bowl and add the icing sugar. Using a balloon whisk or electric beaters, whip the cream until it just forms medium stiff peaks.

If making 18 cm cake, slice into 3 layers and follow same the instruction.
Cut the cake into 12 pieces, using 6 cm cutter. Put the one piece into each ring mold.


Sprinkle the cake with the syrup and place the strawberry over the cake.
Pour the whipped cream over the strawberry, put the cake over the cream and sprinkle the syrup and follow with the strawberry and cream, then cover with the cake.
Chill the cake until set and cover all the cake with the whipped cream.

Decorate with the strawberry, and yes, serve it with a big smile!



Japanese Strawberry Shortcake:
Soft, light, easy and very delicious!

36 comments:

  1. OMG.. this so good....
    i wish i can try one of your cake ..
    ^_^

    keep on baking and cooking pook..

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  2. I jst baked one recently but find the sponge cake too soft. Will try out your recipe soon. ;) Thanks for sharing

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  3. i am so gonna try out ur recipe! very nice blog with detail pictures!! i love it!

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  4. hello! what liquer do you use? can i use rum compound instead? thank you!

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  5. Hi, Wei
    You can use rum or creme de frais (strawberry liguer).
    Pook

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  6. Hi Pook,

    I tried it last night and chilled for this morning.

    When Hubby & I tasted it, it was WONDERFUL!!!

    The sweetness was just right. Sweet enough to qualify as a cake and goes well with tea, but not saccharin sweet that we won't eat it anymore. Just so so right.

    Thanks for the recipe and detailed steps with pics. I had a hard time covering with cream though. Will post the pics up for your review and comments later. Thanks again.

    Cheers,
    Ronni

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  7. Hi Pook,
    Posted. http://cookingmemos.blogspot.com/2010/07/japanese-strawberry-shortcake.html

    How do you decorate your cake so nicely?! I did not even have enough cream to go round.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi, galronni
    I use less cream inside the cake ^ ^.

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  9. hi Pook,

    your shortcake is so pretty!! great work!! I am also a person who love cook books too. Mostly are Japanese cook books. i love the cake stand you have there. very pretty. Where can I get this cake stand? Thanks!

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  10. Hi Pook

    You use non-dairy or dairy whipping cream?

    Thanks

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  11. Hi Pook

    Do you whipped the cream over a boil of iced water?


    : )

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  12. Yes, I whipped the cream over iced water.

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  13. hi,

    may i know how high would the cake be inside the 18cn round tin? If mine is 6 cm high, isit okay?

    Oh, and may i ask, if my cake batter rises above the top of my cake tin while baking, isit okay?

    Thanks.

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  14. If it's your finished cake rise that high, yes, I think it's OK ^^. And is there any problem about the texture of the cake, if the cake still soft?

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  15. Hi dailydelicious,
    Love your blog which i am enjoying all your teachings. How do you remove your your cake from the ring mould?

    Thank you so much, appreciate your experience and joy in baking.

    Jacqui
    Singapore

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  16. Hi, Jacqui
    Thank you ^^.
    I place the cake with the ring mold over the glass (turn the glass upside down). And pull the mold down, to remove the cake.

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  17. Thank u for your reply. Do you put your cakes in the freezer to harden the cake before removing from cake ring? Do you need to run a knife to loosen cakes from ring? Thank u so much.
    Jacqui

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  18. No, you don't have to put the cake in the freezer, just soak a towel in a warm water and wipe it on the ring mold before taking it out.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I've just returned home to Australia from a trip to Japan and wanted to make this beautiful Strawberry Shortcake I saw everywhere. Is the cake flour plain (all purpose) or self raising cake flour?

    Many thanks, I love your blog the cakes are beautifully decorated...love your attention to detail.

    Catherine

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  20. HI, Catherine ^^
    I use cake flour not the self rising one, but if you can't find cake flour in your country you can use 70g of plain flour + 20g of cornstarch and sift them together.

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  21. Is it okay if I ice it with buttercream icing and would it be too heavy on the cake itself. Cos I need to ice it and make some decorations on the cake.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Buttercream will be heavy for this cake, unless you use the one with lighter texture like http://dailydelicious.blogspot.com/2011/10/la-creme-au-beurre.html.

    ReplyDelete
  23. hi,
    i love japan style cake and
    im really interested in the book you bought. do they have it in any english version?
    if not how do you translate japan to the language that you understand?
    Thank you
    XR

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  24. Hi, XR
    It's Japanese language ^^, I can read it (a bit, haha)

    ReplyDelete
  25. Hello, I was wondering if I have to add a flavor liqueur to the syrup. I do not own liqueur, could I add vanilla essence? or is it better to leave it just plain sugar and water. thanks :P

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  26. Hi, Dallas
    Just leave it out, it will be OK ^^.

    ReplyDelete
  27. why is the sponge cake a little dry? what did i do wrong?

    ReplyDelete
  28. Dryness can come from beating the egg too much or sprinkle too little syrup ^^.

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  29. Hello there, I tried baking this recipe yesterday. The taste came out great but the cake is a bit disappointing. Maybe I didn't read through the recipe properly. However, I still hope you can explain to me in details on the steps for the cake mixture.

    You mentioned to take 3/4 cup of the egg mixture and mix it with the melted butter. Do you mean just 3/4 of the egg mixture of 3/4 cup? And then the next step after sifting the flour into the egg mixture (this is the 3/4 cup egg and butter mixture right?), you mentioned pour egg and butter mixture into the bowl fold gently (is this the 3/4 cup portion or the remaining 1/4 portion).

    I get a bit confused on this part and just go with my instinct by adding the 3/4 egg mixture into the butter and sift flour into it. And after fold, I put in the remaining egg & butter mixture, fold again and add in the milk.

    Am I doing it right?

    Please guide me. I have tried to ask a few friends on these few steps and they are equally confused as I am. Thank you!!! But the cake still turns out pretty yummy.

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  30. As you can see from the picture, after you beat the egg to ribbon stage, remove about 3/4cup of egg mixture them mix this with melted butter.

    After you folding the flour into the large bowl of egg mixture, mix the egg+butter mixture back into the large bowl.

    With this method the butter will mix throughly without flatten down the whole batter.
    ^^

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  31. Thanks. I totally understand you now. But why does my cake don't raise as much as I would love to. I put it in a 8" round pan and it's only 1.5" tall. I tried the second time today.

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  32. Your pan is a bit larger than mine, I use 18cm (7inch). So you get thiner cake ^^.

    ReplyDelete
  33. I made the cake today as a birthdaycake. It was very delicious. Thank you~~~ <3

    ReplyDelete
  34. This sounds absolutely delicious. Thanks for sharing this recipe.

    Simon

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