Yes, this is a strawberry mirror cake. No, I’m not a member of the Daring Bakers clique - but read on…
Whilst I bake cakes fairly often (there is a new cake on the kitchen bench on average once a fortnight), I generally go for plain cakes that don’t require any fancing piping or icing - not as a personal choice, but because my family tend to prefer simple cakes for everyday consumption, and an iced cake is just a tad more difficult to pack for lunch than an cake that has not been gussied up.
What does this mean for me? Well, generally speaking, I have to restrain myself from making fancier cakes, bookmarking the recipes and gazing at them wistfully, the longing in my glances so keen that they could cut glass. The exception to this is when I bake for a birthday, and I tend to go…well, a bit mad with birthday cakes, as there’s nothing better than to see the look of delighted surprise on the birthday person’s face when you present them with a gorgeous cake that you’ve slaved over for hours. When I see that look on their face…well, suddenly all my tiredness and achiness fade away to a little euphoric buzz running through my bones.
AAAAAAAnyway (yes yes, I’m getting to the cake!), when I saw the strawberry mirror cake that Anh posted as last month’s Daring Bakers challenge, I immediately knew that it had to be made for my sister’s 21st birthday the next week. Talk about perfect, my sister’s favourite berries are strawberries, and with this cake taking approximately 1kg of strawberries, how could she not love it? I have to admit that I was slightly hesitant about how much strawberry flavour would shine through with winter berries, but after chatting to Anh and with her urging of how much of a wonderful cake it was, I decided to give it a whirl!
My dearest darling little sister who’s now 21. Sigh, they grow up so quickly!
Thankfully, my sister went out clubbing on Saturday night, which gave me lots of time to make the cake without the threat of her walking in on her surprise cake. After getting back from the supermarket with 4 punnets of berries in hand, I eagerly rubbed my hands together before setting into the process.
Freakin’ hell. Talk about multi-step - you’d best reserve an entire day to make this cake so that you can take your time and go slow, otherwise you’ll be running around like a headless chook whilst trying to make this!
I read through the two pages of instructions, trying to decide a starting point. Since the sponge is the base of this cake, I decided to whip it up, being careful to remove it from the oven as soon as it went golden on top (overbaked sponge = chewing on leather). Once the cake was out, the strawberries went into the pot in order to try and entice every last drop of strawberry juice out. Within half an hour, the entire kitchen smelt like a strawberry patch, and my mother followed her nose to my work bench.
“What are you making?”
“Boe’s birthday cake…” I answered, wary whilst watching her roving eyes and wandering hands.
“You don’t need ALL the strawberries…do -”
“HANDS OFF!” I barked, and grabbed a hold of my punnets whilst growling. “No thievery allowed till the creation is complete!”
I could feel my ma sizing me up with her glance, seeing whether I was kidding around, but once she saw that I was dead serious about my berries, she grumbled and retired back to her room, leaving me to continue the berry exhaustive cake-making (aaaaa-hahaha, I made a funny. Ok, shaddup - my brain is dedicated to media analysis at the moment and that’s the most cleverness I can muster).
Four hours after I’d started, I had bits of strawberry puree all over the kitchen (don’t ask. Actually, just don’t REMOVE the stick blender from the jug of strawberries before turning it off - you’d think that would be common sense, huh?), a few burns from forgetting how hot the pots were, a diced finger from careless berry massacre and a dead shoulder (which, admittedly, was half dead from before the cake making started thanks to Thursday’s kimchi-making session). I felt like I’d just emerged from the kitchen wars of ‘88*, but the satisfaction of seeing my setting cake in the fridge led me to have a quick giggle of excitement before I promptly passed out on the floor.
After which I got up and went straight to bed.
I didn’t take a picture of Sunday’s birthday feast, but all I’ll say is that my sister and the rest of the family loved the cake, which just about made my weekend! And, since I know that Boe reads this blog - happy 21st birthday, bucko 
I luvs ya, and your birthday present is late, but on its way!
Now, on an aside - I’ll apologize beforehand but I’m probably going to be a bit quiet on the food blogging circut for awhile. I’ve just had my first week back at uni (for my final semester ever) and it’s looking utterly craptacular in terms of the work I’ve got to do. To put it bluntly, I’m barely going to have enough time to cook and blog a few entries a week, and the few leisurely hours to browse the wonderful food blogs of others are going to be very difficult to scrounge for. 
* There actually wasn’t an infamous kitchen war in ‘88 that I know of, but if anyone knows of one and can pass the info on so I can claim some credulity to this statement, it would be very much appreciated.
Strawberry Mirror Cake
(Adapted from Cakes and Pastries At The Academy by the California Culinary Academy 1993)
Cake Ingredients
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
2 tbsp sugar
2/3 cup sifted cake flour
1/2 cup water
1/3 cups sugar
2 tbsp kirsch or strawberry liqueur
Strawberry Bavarian Cream
2 1/2 tbsp unflavored gelatin
1 1/2 cups strained strawberry puree (approx. 1 1/2 punnets)
5 egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tbsp lemon juice
several drops of red food coloring
1 3/4 cups whipping cream
Strawberry Mirror
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp kirsch
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp unflavored gelatin
Few drops of red food coloring
Strawberry Juice
510 g strawberries (approx 1 1/2 punnets)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
1. Preheat oven to 230 C. Butter and flour the sides of an 25 x 40 cm jelly roll pan (rimmed baking sheet). Line bottom of pan with a sheet of parchment paper cut to fit bottom pan exactly.
2. Beat eggs, egg yolks and 3/4 cup sugar together in a medium bowl until thick and light. Beat in the vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy, ad cream of tartar and beat until whites begin to form peaks. Add the 2 tbsp sugar and beat until the whites hold stiff, glossy peaks (do not over beat).
4. Sift flour over the egg yolk mixture and fold in . Stir in one fourth of the whites. Then carefully fold in the remaining whites.
5. Spread batter evenly in pan. Bake until light brown and springy to touch (7 to 10 minutes). Cool in pan 5 minutes. Run a knife along edge to loosen. Invert cake tin to cut out 2 x 20 cm circles of cake. Wrap the cake layers, separated with waxed paper, and set aside. Cake may be frozen at this point.
6. To make soaking syrup: Combine water and the 1/3 cup sugar in saucepan; bring to a boil to dissolve sugar. Cool to room temperature; flavor with liqueur. Set aside or refrigerate in glass jar until ready to use.
7. To assemble cake: Brush sides of 10-inch springform pan lightly with flavorless salad oil or almond oil. Cut out a cardboard circle that is exactly the same size as the bottom inside of the pan; cover cardboard with aluminum foil and fit into bottom of pan. Center one layer of the cake bottom of pan. Brush the cake with some of the soaking syrup to just moisten(not drench) the cake; set aside.
8. Prepare Strawberry Bavarian Cream. Immediately pour about half of the Bavarian Cream over the first layer of cake in the pan. Set the next layer of cake on top of the cream. Pour remaining Bavarian Cream over cake and smooth top of the cream with spatula. Refrigerate until the cream sets (1 to 2 hours).
9. Prepare the Strawberry Mirror.
10. To serve - wrap a hot towel around the outside of springform pan for a few minutes. Run a small sharp knife tip around the edge of the Strawberry Mirror to separate it form the sides of pan. Mirror will tear when sides are unlatched if it is stuck at ANY point. Slowly unlatch the pan and slide it off the cake. Slice cake in wedges and serve in upright slices.
Prep Work
Strawberry Bavarian Cream
1. Sprinkle the gelatin over the strawberry puree in a small bowl and set aside until spongy. (Note - this didn’t work for me, so I slowly brought my strawberry puree to a boil before quickly whisking through the gelatin and setting it over a bowl of hot water to keep it liquid.)
2. Combine egg yolks and sugar in a bowl’ beat until light. Bring milk to a boil in sauce pan. Pour hot milk into yolk mixture and stir with a wooden spoon (it doesn’t say so but I would temper the egg mixture first to be safe). Return this mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until your finger leaves a clear trail in sauce when drawn across the back of the spoon. (Do not boil or mixture will curdle.) Immediately remove from heat and stir in softened gelatin mixture. Pour into a stainless steel bowl places over a bowl of ice water. Stir in lemon juice and a few drops of red food coloring. Cool over ice water, stirring occasionally, until mixture thickens to the consistency of softly whipped cream.
3. White gelatin mixture is cooling, whip the whipping cream until it holds soft peaks. When the gelatin mixture resembles softly whipped cream, fold the whipped cream into the gelatin mixture.
Strawberry Mirror
1. Prepare strawberry juice.
2. Place lemon juice, kirsch, and water in a small bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over this mixture; set aside until spongy and soft.
3. Measure 1 1/2 cups Strawberry juice into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer; pour over gelatin mixture and stir to dissolve gelatin. Tint to desired color with red food coloring. Place bowl over bowl of ice water and stir occasionally until the mixture is syrupy and just beings to thicken(do not let jell); remove from ice water.
4. When mixture is syrupy, pour a 3-4 mm layer over the top of cake. Refrigerate until set.
Strawberry Juice
Wash and hull strawberries; coarsely chop. Place strawberries in saucepan; crush to start juices flowing. Place over low heat; add sugar and water; simmer slowly 10 minutes. Pour juice and pulp through damp jelly bag or cheesecloth-lined colander and drain into a bowl for 15 minutes (do not press down on fruit).
Technorati Tags: Strawberry mirror cake, strawberries, fruit, cakes, baking, recipes, sweets
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Comments
Kat what an awesome job you did making this cake! good luck with school, will be waiting for your return to blogging
Belinda Ellie! You little baking whirlwind! I read lots and lots of those Daring Baker Mirror Cake posts, and it seems that most bakers took more than one day to make the cake, in steps…but not Wild Child Ellie! It turned out so beautifully…like something in a fancy pastry shop! I bet your sister was just thrilled. I am so sad to hear that you won’t be able to blog as much for a while. I am a huge fan of your writing and your recipes, your posts always make me smile…and inspire me to go grocery shopping!
And guess what I just had for breakfast, with a cup of tea? Hint…little round, green citrus fruits are involved…lol
Mona Afzal Hussain hello Ellie, this is the first time i’m visiting ur blog and i loved it. Ur cake also looks vvvvv pretty indeed. will try it out very soon, as i’m one of the persons who love to bake cake very often
Mandy wow, this cake is so impressive! Like one of those you pay lots of $$$$$$ to get from a fancy pastry shop! Well done, Ellie. I wish someone would make me this cake for my coming birthday.
eat me, delicious your cake looks great. it was worth all the effort! good luck with your last semester!
Deborah Your cake is gorgeous!! Much prettier than mine was. I’m so glad you and your family enjoyed the cake.
Anh Ellie, you have done an amazing job! The cake looks so lovely, you should be so proud! And happy belated birthday to your sister!
And all the best with your final semester. I am feeling the dead-weight of academic life everyday now. *sigh* But do baking/cooking when you can, you will feel more relieved!
Lynn Lovely job on the cake, Ellie! Your sister is so lucky to have you to shower her with love and cake, too.
I don’t envy you that final semester at all. I hope it goes smoothly and quickly so you can get back to what makes your heart sing.
Forrest Rivers Love this site! That strawberry mirror cake is making me want to pop outta the office to get a slice of cake, mmmm. The food you present on this site is spot on in what I like, a good mix of east and west. Sometimes myself and other people think it’s funny that I’m so into western cooking even though I’m the son of Asian immigrants. Actually it’s not that strange living in this great country of ours, but now I know I’m not the only Asian foodie who has an eclectic palate. Thanks for the great posts, you’ve got me hooked!
Ellie Peabody - Thanks, hon It was a very good pick!
Kat - Hopefully I’ll still keep up the posting, but my reading/commenting on other blogs will probably fall behind a bit >_< Belinda - LOL! Thanks hon, but the reason I had to get it done in one hit was because I had to take advantage of my sisters absence so I could make it without her watching the magic in process 
And I just saw your little lime cakes, they look fabbo!
Mona - Thank you, hon
Mandy - Cheers It’s not a difficult cake, so I’m sure you could wrangle someone to spend a few hours in the kitchen proving their love for you 
EMD - Thanks, hon! Very much appreciated!
Deborah - Awww, shucks, thanks hon 
Strawberries and cream always help dress up a dessert, in my opinion anyway
Anh - Thanks hon, and thank you for talking me into it Hope all is going well with you! And good advice about the baking and cooking, I will try and keep it up to retain my sanity
Lynn - Thanks, hon Hopefully it all goes quickly and painlessly, I can’t wait to leave academia behind!
Forrest - Thanks, hon I don’t think it’s strange at all - with the eclectic nature of Australia’s cultural landscape, it’s only fair that my blog reflects that Hope you enjoy reading!
Patricia Scarpin Sweetie, I tried commenting this yesterday but the computer wasn’t much helpful… :S
I’m thrilled with your cake! It looks flawless, really Daring!
Mandi Awesome! I had checked out a bunch of the daring baker’s creations and yours in right up there - well done, Ellie.
BTW - there was indeed a kitchen war of ‘88. I was in Yr 12 and my parents had gone away leaving me at home with my best friend for company. A best friend who thought she could cook. I refused to eat her ‘creation’ and insulted both her intelligence and cooking skills. She was mortally offended and took herself off home, leaving me on my own for another three-and-a-half-weeks! Among my friends this came to be known as the Kitchen War of ‘88!
Tanna Ellie your cake is fantastic. I’ll vote for you being a Daring Baker when you finish your uni. Best wishes for the last semester
Ellie Patricia - Hehehe, thanks hon There were a few muck-ups, but thankfully they didn’t show in the photos
Mandi - Thanks, hon And you crack me up - that’s an awesome story about your kitchen wars! Well, not the fact that you fought with your friend, but that the incident was so named
Tanna - Thanks, hon
Cate - Thank you!
Jerry - LOL! I dunno about that, but I do think that fresh strawberries and cream can do marvels for a dish
Lisa Ellie muh luv!!! You so rocked the mirror cake! It’s gorgeous =))
I second Tanna’s vote for you becoming a DB’er whenever you think you’d have the time - we’d love to have you!!
Well done, my friend.
xoxo
Ellie Moon - it’s a saying, to run around like a headless chook is to run around a bit directionless and in a bit of a flurry
Lis - Thanks, hon
Tartelette Nothing to add except that a/you would make a fine Daring Baker and 2/your cake is gorgeous!
ilingc Omgosh this looks superb. A great effort Ellie, I wish I had a sister who’d make me something like this. Although, I would settle for it if my little bro made it for me. Good luck with the last semester. Most importantly, don’t stress and if you do, you know you can always head to the kitchen to work it all off!
So glad everyone liked the cake(it was my pick for the Daring Bakers you know). You did an absolutely lovely job on it.