The delicious strawberry cake palace style revisited by Eddie Benghanem and served at the Trianon Palace
Ah, I promised you we would move on to fruit recipes soon! Besides, I don't know if you noticed, but I changed the site's navigation. It's meant to be clearer and should allow you to find a recipe more easily. On that occasion, I realized I had published many chocolate cakes recently, so expect fruit and citrus recipes in the coming weeks. But today, we're going to fill a new recipe in the "entremets" category: the strawberry cake with hazelnut and white chocolate.
It's been ages since I made a strawberry cake, I think my last one was from my CAP training. I don't particularly like it (I prefer a good box of fresh strawberries) and it's a bit fragile to transport, so it's not my favorite dessert. Still, a few days ago, I wanted to make a strawberry cake but not necessarily a classic CAP-style strawberry cake (but I'll detail the recipe for you one day).
I'm not comfortable with the subject of revisiting recipes (that and photography are areas where I'll try to improve in the coming months). I never know how to go about it and how to revisit a recipe. So I trusted the Fou de Pâtisserie magazine from May-June to guide me and I finally opted for Eddie Benghanem's version. Yes, I'm giving you a palace version (it's the recipe served at the Trianon Palace), you could say I went all out for you ^^. I think I was especially drawn to the square aesthetic and the strawberries arranged with the tip of the strawberry facing outward, I find that really modern.
The recipe isn't very complicated and really accessible as long as you have a bit of time. You'll simply need a 20×20 cm pastry frame. You can use an expandable frame but it has the disadvantage of leaving marks on the cake at the hinge level. It comes in handy when you make large cakes to cut into very small squares, but I find a 20×20 cm very useful daily (I own both: an expandable one and a 20 x 20). I also recommend investing in a 30 cm offset spatula, it's really super practical and will save you from many disasters.
In this strawberry cake, the traditional sponge cake is replaced by a less traditional but no less delicious dacquoise that adds some texture to the cake. The mousseline cream (which is usually made by adding butter to warm pastry cream) is replaced in this recipe by a whipped ganache with white chocolate and lime zest. The ganache gives the strawberry cake a certain lightness that mousseline cream cannot boast. Of course, I recommend using good strawberries (Plougastel ones for me).
Even though I only managed to save a small portion, I really enjoyed this strawberry cake revisit. I'm not very satisfied with my decoration and I think my almond paste heated a bit during shooting. Still, I think it really looks good and I would do it again without hesitation.
For assembly, it's not very complicated but you have to be neat. The dacquoise (which is simply a mixture of meringue, hazelnut powder and almonds) should be spread evenly so you can cut 2 squares to the size of the frame. The ganache that we'll add after the strawberries will help smooth out some imperfections, but the cleaner you are at each step, the more successful the final result will be.
Besides, the ganache is nothing complicated. We make a classic ganache with white chocolate and lime zest (which we bind a bit with a gelatin leaf) and when it's lukewarm we slowly add whipped cream to it.
For the strawberries, I removed the stems and laid them on the dacquoise like Eddie Benghanem does (whereas usually we cut them in half and put the inside of the strawberry half facing the outside of the cake). I cheated a bit on the corners, I cut slices that I alternated between two strawberries (because at the corners the 2 strawberries are perpendicular and leave an ugly hole). I find this assembly really nice and modern.
By the way, a tip after removing the frame (or rather the frame in this case), take a large knife to "pare" the cake (that is, cut a very thin slice so it's perfectly straight), this will allow you to see the strawberries well and remove the ganache that may have gotten stuck. In the end, we have a really tasty strawberry cake, light and truly aesthetic.
And you, does this hazelnut and white chocolate strawberry cake palace style inspire you?
