Doesn’t a French strawberry naked layer cake sound good? Well, let me tell you… it IS good. I made this recipe with the spirit of Le Fraisier in mind. I tried to simplify Le Fraisier and came up with this combination of a cake.
A cake as fancy as this requires a fancy table setting! Antique embroidered hankies were are as napkins.
I highly suggest eating this cake off of a fancy antique plate – just don’t use your knife (not that you would when eating a cake! – side note: If you are using antique china, don’t use metal knives on it as it will scratch the plate!)
I picked the daffodils from my garden. Aren’t they pretty?
Now for the recipe:
I used Sally’s Baking Addition Vanilla Naked Cake recipe which you can get here. Note, I made a 6″ cake, so I actually baked my cake as a sheet cake in quarter size pans – this recipe actually made enough for two 6″ cakes. I also baked mine at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes in these pans.
I made the filling with creme mousseline, recipe below.
Cut fresh strawberries, halved.
Crème Mousseline
350g whole milk
100g granulated sugar
1/2 a vanilla bean, split lengthwise and scraped for inside beans/seeds
4 egg yolks
35g plain flour
200g unsalted butter, softened
Making the creme
- Place milk, vanilla bean and scraped seeds into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Then remove from heat and set aside.
- In another bowl, whisk egg yolks and sugar until mixture is pale yellow. Mix int the flour until well combined.
- Remove vanilla bean pod from milk mixture. Then pour the hot milk into the egg mixture, constantly whisking to combine.
- Then pour the whole mixture back into the saucepan and place over high heat. Whisk constantly until it is thickened, smooth, and glossy. Then remove from heat and transfer pastry cream to a plate. Immediately cover with plastic cling wrap and place into the freezer to cool but only for 10 minutes. Do not allow it to freeze (If you don’t put the cling wrap on immediately, the pastry cream will get a film on it that’s lumpy and gross and you will have to strain it out later, so don’t miss this step)
- While the cream is in the freezer, beat your butter until creamy. Then when the pastry cream is about room temperature, add the cream to the butter and mix until while combined.
Assembly
Using a 6″ cake ring, stamp out the ring into your sheet cake two times, one for each layer.
Then, place your cake ring on a stand. Next, line the cake ring with acetate.
Starting with the sheet cake you stamped out, place it in the center of the ring. Next, arrange the strawberries on the edge of the cake so the insides face the outside of the cake. Then fill the insides of the cake with strawberries.
Next, pour a layer of creme mousseline over the strawberries until they are all covered and the layer appears even.
Take the second sheet cake ring you cut out and place it over the creme layer.
On top of your second layer, spread more creme mousseline.
Top the creme with strawberries in any pattern you desire.
Place the cake in the fridge for 2 hours so that it may harden and will make it easier to take the acetate and cake ring off.
Final Thoughts… How does this compare to a Le Fraisier?
The Fraisier I felt displayed more of the strawberries’ flavor whereas this cake displays more of the white vanilla cake flavor. That said, I felt that this cake was easier as it did not include two steps that the Fraisier does: the kirsch syrup and marzipan layer. I do feel Le Fraisier is a little bit better in my opinion, however this still tastes GREAT and way better than any layer cake that I’ve had from the grocery store and even some bakeries.
