Swedish Strawberry Cake with Elderflower Cream

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source: Personal recipe (see below)

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Simple and summery! The elderflower cream pairs beautifully with fresh strawberries, and the cake itself is very light. There's no butter in it at all, so you don't have to hold back on the cream!

Recipe

Ingredients

For the cakes:

• 4 large eggs
• 200g caster sugar
• 50g plain flour
• 80g potato flour or cornflour
• 2 tsp baking powder

For the filling:

• 250g strawberries
• 300ml heavy cream
• 2 Tbsp elderflower cordial, storebought or see here
• 1 Tbsp icing sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• + more elderflower cordial for brushing the cakes

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180.
2. Line two 20cm round cake tins with baking paper, and grease the sides with butter.
3. Mix together flour, cornflour, and baking powder in a bowl and set aside.
4. In a separate large bowl, beat eggs and sugar together until pale and super fluffy (see here).
5. Gently fold the flour into the egg mixture using a rubber spatula.
6. Divide the mixture between the two cake tins then bake on a lower rung in the oven for 25m or until they're coming away from the sides of the pan, and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
7. When the cakes are done, leave it for two or three minutes then flip them onto a wire rack and leave them to cool completely out of their tins.
8. For the filling, use a hand whisk to whisk together the egg yolk, icing sugar and cordial in a medium bowl.
9. Then, in a large mixing bowl whip the cream into stiff peaks with an electric whisk.
10. Gently fold the egg mixture into the whipped cream.
11. Put the biggest sponge flat side (i.e. the bottom side) facing up on the base of your cake stand. Use a pastry brush to brush it all over with elderflower cordial. Then spread with cream.
12. Set aside some of the most attractive strawberries for decorating the top of the cake, then slice the remaining strawberries lengthwise into thin pieces and put them on top of the cream, making a double layer if you can (depending on how many strawberries you have).
13. Brush elderflower cordial over the flat (bottom) side of the remaining sponge cake, then put it on top of the cream.
14. Cover the whole cake with remaining cream and smooth it off. You don't have to do a very good job.
15. If you have time, put the cake in the fridge at this point to give the elderflower cordial a chance to soak through the sponge, and the cream a chance to set, then it's ready to serve.