Eggless Fraisier

Jana of Cherry Tea Cakes challenged the Daring Bakers to prepare French Fraisier. Fraisier consists of a sponge cake split into two, moistened with simple syrup, filled with strawberry and pastry cream and covered with almond paste and is decorated with strawberries. In Madurai, I can never expect to get strawberries. So I used glazed cherries. The cake is an eggless sponge cake and the pastry cream is also eggless. I used almond paste for topping and decorated it with glazed cherries. I filled the centre with more cherries and cut fruits. The Fraisier has to be arranged in a spring form pan. But as I didn't have one, I used my cake tin to arrange the layers. I arranged it so that the top layer was first kept inside the tin and the lower layer came on top. By this way, when flipped I got the perfect layering. On the day of serving, I removed the cake from tin and applied the almond paste layer and decorated the fraisier. The Fraisier had lot of flavors in it. And they went well together. The lemony pastry cream, rose flavored cake and the almond paste blended well and we had a nice time.

Ingredients:
For The Sponge Cake:
Flour-1cup
Curd-1/2cup
Castor Sugar-1/2cup
Baking Powder-1tsp
Baking Soda-1/2tsp
Milk-1/4cup
Low Fat Cream-1/4cup
Butter-1/4cup
Rose Essence-1tsp
For The Pastry Cream:
Flour-1/2cup
Milk-2cups
Low Fat Cream-1/4cup
Sugar-1/2cup
Salt-a pinch
Lemon Juice-1/4cup
Lemon Zest-1tsp
Vanilla Essence-1/2tsp
For The Simple Syrup:
Sugar 1/4cup
Water-1/4cup
For The Eggless Almond Paste:
Almond-100gm
Castor Sugar-1/2cup
Almond Essence-1/2tsp
Water-1tbs
For The Fraisier:
Glazed Cherries-100gm
Cut Fruits-1/4cup


Procedure:
Pastry Cream:
1. Mix 1/2cup milk with flour and prepare a smooth paste.
2. Boil remaining milk and add the paste along with sugar and salt.
3. Stir it continuous to avoid formation of lumps. 
4. Let the mixture cook on low flame for 5 minutes.
5. Add lemon juice and lemon zest and cook for another minute.
6. Allow the mixture to cool. Add the cream and blend with a hand mixer.
7. Store in a plastic box until further use.


Simple Syrup:
1. Boil sugar and water until sticky.
2. Allow it to cool.


Sponge Cake:
1. Preheat oven to 175C.
2. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
3. Add curd, rose essence and mix well.
4. Sift flour with baking powder and baking soda.
5. Add milk and flour alternately to form the cake batter.
6. At last add in the cream and mix well.
7. Pour the batter in a greased and dusted cake tin.
8. Bake for 25-30minutes or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
9. Invert the cake on a wire rack and allow it to cool.


Almond Paste:
1. Blanch the almonds and remove skin.
2. Make a fine powder in a mixer grinder or food processor.
3. Add the sugar and grind well.
4. Take this mixture in a bowl and add the essence and water.
5. Knead to form a slightly sticky dough.
6. Place it in a wrap and cover.
7. Refrigerate until further use.


Arranging The Fraisier:
1. Grease the tin with butter.
2. Line the sides with a butter paper overlapping the edges of the paper strip.
3. Cut the cake into two.
4. Keep the portion which has to come at the top inside the tin.
5. Soak it with the simple syrup.
6. Apply a coat of the pastry cream.
7. Cut the cherries into two.
8. Arrange each half along the circumference on the cream layer as shown in the picture.
9. Apply the cream so that the cherries stick to the wall of the tin.
10. Fill the centre with cut fruits and more cherries.
11. Fill cream to cover up the cherries.
12. Keep the other cake on top and soak it with the syrup.
13. Cover with foil and refrigerate over night.
14. The next day, invert the tin on the plate and tap it gently to remove the assembled fraisier from the tin.
15. Roll out the almond paste to the size of the cake and place it on top. 
16. Decorate with glazed Cherries.
17. Cut and serve.

Grease the tin and line the sides with butter paper.

Cut the cake into two

Place the cake, apply a layer of cream and keep the cherries around the circumference

Fill the centre with cut fruits and cherries

Cover everything with a pastry cream layer

Top it with another cake and soak it with syrup.

Remove it from tin carefully and top it with almond paste and decorate with glazed cherries

Look at the wonderful layers

Serve it with Love