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Fraisier (French strawberry cake)

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This classic French patisserie is a delicious assembly of 2 layers of genoa sponge filled with strawberries and crème mousseline (confectioner's custard with butter). The sponge is soaked in strawberry syrup and the cake is topped with a thin layer of marzipan.

144,4974.3/5 for 21 ratings

Grade this recipe:

54321

Last modified on: September 18^th 2011

For 1 Fraisier (French strawberry cake), you will need:

• 0 300 g strawberries
• 1 100 g caster sugar
• 2 350 g Confectioner's custard (Crème pâtissière, or French pastry cream)
• 3 150 g butter
• 4 1 Génoise (Genoa sponge)
• 5 500 g strawberries
• 6 150 g Marzipan (almond paste)
• 7 30 g apricot glaze (optional)
• Total weight: 2,080 grams

Change these quantities to make: 1 Fraisier (French strawberry cake) 2 Fraisiers (French strawberry cake) 3 Fraisiers (French strawberry cake)

Change measures: Metric Metric weight Metric volumes

How long does it take?

Time required for this recipe:

Preparation	Cooking	Start to finish
1 hour 43 min.	1 hour	2 hours 43 min.

At what time:

• When will I finish if I start the recipe at ... ?
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Step by step recipe

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Stage 1 - 1 hour

Begin by preparing the strawberry syrup:

Put 300 g strawberries, cut into pieces, in a bowl which can be used in a bain-marie. Add 100 g caster sugar.

Cover with stretch cooking film to seal the container well and place in a bain-marie over very low heat for one hour.

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Stage 2 - 3 min.

At the end of this time, you will have a delicious strawberry syrup. Strain through a sieve.

The pieces of strawberry left will not have much flavour, so you can either eat them or throw them away.

Note: French chefs call this "clarified strawberries", rather than a syrup.

Set aside.

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Stage 3 - 30 min.

Prepare 350 g Confectioner's custard (Crème pâtissière, or French pastry cream). When it is made and has cooled a little (wait 15 minutes), incorporate 150 g butter very cold and cut into small pieces, beating thoroughly until the butter is well mixed in.

This cream is a "crème mousseline".

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Stage 4 - 5 min.

Prepare 1 Génoise (Genoa sponge). When cooked and cooled, cut this to the shape of your cake, round or square.

You can see that here I have cut it round using a dessert ring. If you do not have one, you can cut round a small plate laid on the sponge.

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Stage 5 - 5 min.

Split the genoa sponge in two through the middle.

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Stage 6 - 2 min.

Place one circle of sponge on the serving plate and place a dessert ring over it.

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Stage 7 - 5 min.

Soak the the top of this sponge circle with half the strawberry syrup.

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Stage 8 - 5 min.

Spread a thin layer of crème mousseline over the sponge.

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Stage 9 - 5 min.

Arrange straberries cut in half around the circle with the cut side towards the outside.

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Stage 10 - 10 min.

Then fill the circle with whole strawberries, placed upright.

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Stage 11 - 5 min.

Spread the remaining crème mousseline over the strawberries; ideally, they should be completely covered.

Tap the plate gently on the worktop to settle the cream.

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Stage 12 - 5 min.

Lay the other circle of genoa sponge on a wire rack and soak with the remaining strawberry syrup, using a brush.

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Stage 13 - 5 min.

Then turn this over onto the dessert inside the ring.

This is a tricky operation, so I advise you to turn it over smartly onto a baking sheet to (along with the rack), then slide it onto the top of the cake.

Press gently on the top to make sure it is flat and even.

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Stage 14 - 10 min.

Roll out 150 g Marzipan (almond paste) thinly (see this page on the subject), then use it to cover the top of the strawberry cake and trim off any excess.

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Stage 15 - 5 min.

Decorate with a half strawberry and brush with an apricot glaze. This is not essential, but adds an attractive finish and prevents the marzipan from drying out.

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Stage 16 - 3 min.

At the last minute, gently remove the cake from the dessert ring. Your "fraisier" is ready to be served and enjoyed.

Remarks

If you do not have a dessert ring, use a circle of strong card, lined with a piece of stretch plastic film, held in place with a paper clip.

For a quicker finish, you can simply sprinkle the top of the cake with icing sugar in place of the marzipan.

For Gaston Lenôtre, a strawberry cake should be made with butter cream rather than mousseline, and he called it a "Bagatelle".

Keeping:

A day or two in the fridge.

Nutritional information

Whole recipe
Energetic value	Proteins	Carbohydrates	Fats
4,305 Kcal or 18,024 Kj	80 gr	542 gr	261 gr
215 %	31 %	51 %	40 %

Per 100 g
Energetic value	Proteins	Carbohydrates	Fats
207 Kcal or 867 Kj	4 gr	26 gr	13 gr
10 %	1 %	2 %	2 %

% are calculated relative to a Recommended Dietary Intake or RDI of 2000 k-calories or 8400 k-joules by day for a woman (change to a man).

How much will it cost?

• For 1 Fraisier (French strawberry cake) : 10.53 €

Change currency:

Note : These prices are only approximate.

Source

Home made, with Catherine as tester. Her portion is shown in the photo.

More recipes?

This recipe uses (among others)

	Confectioner's custard (Crème pâtissière, or French pastry cream): You can get more informations, or check-out other recipes which use it, for example: Almond cream or frangipane, Pains briochés aux raisins, Puits d'amour, Strawberry Verveine Tart , Chinois, ... All
	Strawberries: You can check-out other recipes which use it, like for example: Strawberries in a thyme and lemon-flavoured red wine reduction, Strawberry-mint sorbet, Strawberry tart, Strawberry and kiwi fruit salad, Strawberry, kiwi and mascarpone verrines, ... All
	Butter: You can get more informations, or check-out other recipes which use it, for example: Little chocolate and hazelnut fondants, Caramelized apple and walnut cake, Hazelnut and orange cake, Coconut sweetcrust pastry, Melting Epoisses on toast , ... All
	Marzipan (almond paste): You can get more informations, or check-out other recipes which use it, for example: Piped petits-fours, How to make marzipan decorations, Little Christmas biscuits, Agen prune cake, Provençal colombier for Pentecost, ... All

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