Strawberry Shortcake with Borage Flowers
April 14, 2018
“strawberryshortcake and Borage flowers not perfect but cute”
A small, tall strawberry shortcake built from chiffon layers and piped cream, topped with long slices of strawberry arranged like a star, blue borage flowers and a little gold leaf. Not perfect, but cute.
Borage is an herb with star-shaped blue flowers that taste faintly of cucumber. It grows like a weed in a California garden. The cake is the Japanese-style strawberry shortcake, light sponge and whipped cream, not the American biscuit version. I left the sides unfrosted so the layers and berries show, which is known as a naked cake finish.
This article is written in Corey’s voice for this tribute site, based on his captions and blog. His own words are the quotes above.
Classic Chiffon Cake
Chiffon cake was invented in Los Angeles in 1927 by Harry Baker, an insurance salesman turned caterer who kept his method secret for two decades. He sold the recipe to General Mills in 1947, and the company revealed the secret ingredient the following year: vegetable oil in place of butter. The result has the richness of a butter cake and the lift of an angel food cake.
Ingredients
Chiffon cake
- 270 g cake flour (2 1/4 cups), sifted
- 300 g granulated sugar (1 1/2 cups), divided
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp fine salt
- 120 g neutral oil (1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp)
- 6 large egg yolks, at room temperature
- 180 g cold water (3/4 cup)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
- 240 g egg whites (8 large, 1 cup), at room temperature
- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
Peaches and cream variation
- 600 g ripe peaches, peeled and sliced (4 medium)
- 30 g granulated sugar (2 1/2 Tbsp)
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 480 g heavy cream, cold (2 cups)
- 40 g powdered sugar (1/3 cup)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Strawberry shortcake variation
- 700 g strawberries, hulled and sliced (1 1/2 lb)
- 50 g granulated sugar (1/4 cup)
- 480 g heavy cream, cold (2 cups)
- 40 g powdered sugar (1/3 cup)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Method
- Heat the oven to 325°F (165°C) with a rack in the lower third. Have a 10-inch (25 cm) two-piece tube pan ready, completely ungreased and not nonstick.
- Whisk the flour, 200 g of the sugar, the baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Make a well and add the oil, yolks, water, vanilla and zest, and whisk until perfectly smooth.
- Whip the whites with the cream of tartar to soft peaks, add the remaining 100 g sugar gradually, and whip to firm, glossy peaks that stand with only a slight bend.
- Stir a quarter of the meringue into the batter to lighten it, then fold in the rest in two additions until no white streaks remain. Pour into the pan and run a knife through the batter to break large air pockets.
- Bake 55-65 minutes, until the top springs back and a skewer comes out clean. Do not open the oven for the first 40 minutes.
- Invert the pan immediately onto its feet or over the neck of a bottle and let the cake hang until completely cool, about 2 hours.
- Run a thin knife around the sides and the tube, lift out the center, then free the base. Slice with a serrated knife using a gentle sawing motion.
- For peaches and cream, toss the peaches with the sugar and lemon juice and rest 20 minutes. Whip the cream with the powdered sugar and vanilla to soft peaks, split the cake into two layers, and fill and top with cream and peaches, spooning the juices over the cut cake.
- For strawberry shortcake, macerate the strawberries with the sugar for 30 minutes. Split the cake into three layers and stack with whipped cream and berries, letting the juices soak into each layer. Serve within a few hours.
Chef’s notes
- A chiffon that falls out of the pan or collapses was baked in a greased or nonstick pan. The batter has to cling to bare metal to climb and to hang upside down.
- A dense, wet band at the base is unmixed yolk batter that sank. Fold right down to the bottom of the bowl, and make sure the meringue is firm enough to hold the batter up.
- Any trace of yolk or grease keeps the whites from whipping. Use a metal or glass bowl wiped with a little lemon juice or vinegar.
- Unfilled chiffon stays moist for 3 days at room temperature, well wrapped, and does not harden in the refrigerator the way butter cakes do, which makes it ideal under cold cream and fruit.
Drawn from the methods of
- Harry Baker's chiffon cake, as published by General Mills and Betty Crocker (1948)
- Rose Levy Beranbaum, The Cake Bible (1988)
- Tish Boyle, The Cake Book (2006)
- King Arthur Baking Company
Corey has not published his own formula for this piece. This reference recipe is compiled from the published methods of the chefs and bakers listed above, written in our own words.
