Making a Japanese strawberry cake

Happy Birthday to me!!
This year I decided to make a cake for my birthday. I love making cakes but I don’t make it often. My mother-in-law gave me a handmixer as a birthday present previously so it’s about time I put it to good use.

In Japan the most common cake you see is called a “strawberry short cake” but different to a western short cake. The Japanese cake is a sponge cake with whipped cream topped up with strawberries.

Making a perfect sponge cake
This is the recipe I used for the sponge cake base. A lot of people say making a sponge cake is difficult but as long as you keep in mind these key factors it should be easy.

– use room temperature eggs
– make sure the bowls are clean and dry
– beat eggs until the make silky stiff peaks

Sponge Recipe – 18cm round cake tin
I use a three egg sponge cake recipe for my cake. These are the ingredients for the cake. 

Instructions
(1) Prehead oven to 170degrees. Separate the egg yolk and egg whites and place in separate bowls. Sift flour twice and put aside. Prepare pan by placing cooking paper.

(2) Beat egg whites with a handmixer on high speed and add sugar in three lots. Beat eggs until stiff and forms high peaks.

(3) Add egg yolks to the mixture one by one and beat together until mixed well. Then add the oil slowly and beat.

(4) Sift flour into the mixture and mix using a spatula. Mix quickly by folding the flour.

(5) Pour mixture into the tin and tap the tin 4 times to pop the air bubbles. Finally flick some water on the top to avoid the top getting burnt.

(6) Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. To check if it is done use a toothpick and poke the middle of the cake and see if it comes out clean. Try 2 more spots.

(7) Once done take the cake out of the tin and place of rack to cool.

And we are done!!

Decoration
I sliced the sponge cake in half and brushed some maple syrup on both sides. Also I place up some chopped up strawberries and kiwifruit  with some whipped cream and put the top back on.

Then I covered the cake with whipped cream and topped it up with some strawberries. I slightly over-whipped the cream but other then that I am very happy with how it turned out. We had cake for dinner and cake for breakfast. Will be making more cake! Yum!