Cream cake with strawberries and hazelnut cake plates

As part of my birthday celebration for family and friends I made this cream cake with strawberries and hazelnut cake plates using a recipe as recipe from the magazine Isabellas issue 03/2014. The original recipe is on a strawberry ice cream cake, which I turned in a more traditional cream cake using gelatine sheets in the cream filling.

This cake is not quick thing to do, as you have to bake the hazelnut cake plates as the very first step. And when you need to have time enough for the cream filling to gel in the refrigerator after putting the entire cake together.

The use of mashed strawberries into the cream cake filling is giving a excellent fruity and refreshing taste to balance all the whipped cream.

Cream cake with strawberries and hazelnut cake plates: - 10-12 servings

Hazelnut cake plates:

• 4½ pasteurised egg white
• 125 g sugar
• 15 g (cake) wheat flour
• 125 g hazelnuts - finely blended

Cream cake filling:

• 350 g strawberries - use 50 g for cake decoration
• 6 pasteurised 6 egg yolks
• 100 g sugar
• 1 vanilla pod - only the corns
• 5 dl dairy whipping cream
• 5 leaves of gelatine

Hazelnut cake plates:

1. Heat up the (conventional) oven to 185'C.
2. Start by drawing around the bottom plate of a spring form (22 cm) on baking paper, 3 circles in total.
3. Whip the egg whites on a stand-alone mixer, until they almost firm.
4. Add the sugar into the egg white, continue to whip, until the mass has a chewy consistency.
5. Gently stir in the blended hazelnut and wheat flour.
6. Divide the mass between the three circles.
7. Bake the cake plates at 185'C in the middle of the oven for 25-35 minutes, until the cake plates are golden in colour.
8. Cool down the cake plates.

Cream cake filling:

1. Place the gelatine sheets in a bowl with cold water for approx. 10 minutes.
2. Mash the strawberries with a fork.
3. Whip egg yolks, sugar and vanilla corns into a foamy mass using an electrical beater.
4. Whip the dairy cream in whipped cream.
5. Gently stir the whipped cream together with the egg yolk and sugar and mashed strawberries.
6. Remove the gelatine sheets from the water.
7. Place the gelatine sheets in a bowl placed in cooking pot with boiling water. Let the gelatine sheets melt.
8. Remove the melted gelatine sheets from the water bath.
9. Stir in a small amount of the cream cake filling into the melted gelatine, while you stir well. Afterwards you stir the gelatine mass into the rest of the cream cake filling, stirring well.

Cream cake:

1. Coat the spring form with cling film.
2. Place a hazelnut cake plate in the bottom of the spring form.
3. Fill ½ the cream cake filling on top of this cake plate.
4. Place another cake plate on top on top of the cream cake filling.
5. Fill the remaining cream cake filling on top of the second cake plate.
6. Put the third and final cake plate on top of the cream cake filling.
7. Place the entire cream cake in the refrigerator for min. 5 hours, so the cream cake filling has time to gel.
8. Before serving the cream cake, remove the cake from the spring form.
9. Decorate the top cake plate with strawberries or other fresh Summer fruit.