Cam’s birthday fell on Father’s Day this year so it was a weekend of Cam’s favourite sweets. On the Sunday we celebrated Father’s Day with Strawberry Shortcake, only the chocolate version of it. Perhaps a little finiky of a recipe to use but one I really love. We made our cakes three messy tiers of yumminess!
Here’s what I did:
Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake
- 4 Eggs
- 3/4 cup Sugar plus extra for sprinkling
- 1/4 cup All Purpose Flour
- 1/4 cup Cocoa
- 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1/2 tsp Vanilla
- 2 cups fresh Strawberries, coarsely chopped
- 1 tsp unflavoured Gelatin
- 1 1/2 tbsp cold Water
- 2 cups Whipping Cream
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 1/4 cup Icing Sugar
- Preheat oven to 350’F. Grease a large cookie sheet (or jelly roll pan). Line with parchment paper so that the paper hangs over the edges and then grease and flour the parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs at high speed with a mixer until foamy. Gradually add the sugar, continuing to beat for 5 minutes until mixture is thick and fluffy. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt together. Add sifted ingredients to bowl and blend on low speed. Add the vanilla and mix to blend.
- Pour batter onto prepared pan, spreading evenly. Bake for about 11 minutes. Cake should spring back when it’s pressed lightly with your finger.
- Remove cake from oven and immediately loosen the sides of the cake from the parchment and then sprinkle the top with a little sugar. Place a large, clean linen or cotton kitchen towel on top of the cake and use another cookie sheet to flip the cake over onto. Carefully peel away the parchment paper. Allow the cake to cool.
- When cake is cool, prepare the cream filling. Place gelatin and cold water in a glass measuring cup or custard cup. Place cup in a saucepan containing an inch of water. Heat gently until the gelatin melts. It’s important that the dissolved gelatin mixture is still warm when added to the whipping cream. It thickens as it cools. Thick gelatin will create little gelatin balls in the whipped cream, resembling tapioca. You don’t want that.
- Place whipping cream and vanilla in a large bowl and beat until the cream has thickened slightly. Stir 2 tablespoons of the cream into the warm gelatin and quickly add mixture back into the large bowl of cream. Immediately resume beating. Sprinkle icing sugar over the cream and continue beating until cream is thick.
- Use a large cookie cutter or freehand cut the cake into rounds or squares. Layer the servings with cake, whipped cream, chopped strawberries, cake, whipped cream, strawberries… Enjoy!
