and the living is easy

Strawberry Shortcake

Soft, moist, fine-textured sponge cake that dissipates with a tinge of graininess, a thin layer of rich chiboust cream, vanilla scented whipped cream, slightly tart strawberries and a sprinkling of crisp dried madeleine biscuit.

Chiboust Cream (from Beranbaum’s Rose’s Heavenly Cakes)

Scrape the seeds of half a vanilla bean into 131g of full cream milk. Heat the milk until boiling point; cover and keep hot. Whisk 37g of egg yolks with 50g of sugar until pale yellow and fluffy. Add 1 tbsp of cornstarch and 0.75 tsp of powdered gelatin into the egg yolk mixture. Mix until well blended. Pour the hot milk into the yolk mixture slowly while whisking to combine.

Return the mixture to the saucepan and bring it to a boil whilst whisking constantly. Once it reaches a boil, bring the heat and let it simmer for 1 minute while whisking. Pour the mixture into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let this cool to room temperature (try to let it cool outside of the refridgerator to prevent it from setting around the edges).

When the pastry cream is cooled, whisk 174g if heavy cream (at least 35% fat) until soft peaks form. Fold in the pastry cream. Use at once or cover and chill for up to 3 days.