Strawberry Mousse Cake

Went to the market the other day and there were strawberries on sale. I was looking through my recipe file to see what I can do with the strawberries. I didn't have too much time on hand, so I wanted to make something simple. I made a Strawberry Mousse Cake. The original recipe is from Eupho Cafe. The cake from Eupho cafe is a lot prettier, I only had about one pound of strawberries so I wasn't able to do the strawberry decorations that Eupho cafe did. I will try it next time though. This cake is really light and I love the texture of it. It's really refreshing for a hot summer day. I think I will try it with mango next time.

Strawberry Mousse Cake

adapted from Eupho Cafe

Cake:
3 eggs
100g castor sugar
1/4 tbsp of vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
20g cake flour
50g corn starch

Mousse:
1/2 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
400g fresh strawberries
90g castor sugar
1 envelope of unflavored gelatin
2 yolks
2 tbsp lemon juice

Cake:

1. Preheat oven at 300 F.

2. Separate egg whites and yolks. Beat yolks with sugar until fluffy and the color turns to a pale yellow. Add vanilla extract and mix well. Preheat oven at 300 F.

3. In a clean and grease-free mixing bowl, beat egg whites until it becomes frothy. Add the cream of tartar and continue to beat egg whites until soft peaks form. In a small bowl, sift together cake flour and cornstarch. Add the flour mixture to the yolk mixture until just incorporated. Add about 1/3 of the egg white mixture to the egg yolk mixture and stir until batter is incorporated. Fold in the rest of the egg whites. Bake in an 8" round pan for about 25 to 30 minutes until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from oven, let cool, cut it to two slices.

Mousse:

1. Remove stems and rinse strawberries. Blend 400g of strawberries into puree.

2. Place the milk and gelatin in a heatproof bowl over barely simmering water, stir until the gelatin has dissolved. Add sugar to the gelatin mixture, then add in two blended egg yolks, and lemon juice. Whip heavy cream till thick (still looks like liquid, but much thicker), and then pour the strawberry puree and gelatin mixture into the whipped cream. Mix well.

3. Remove the bottom of the spring form pan and put the ring on a plate or a cake circle. Line the bottom with a layer of cake, pour in the mousse, cover with another layer of cake, press the top a little bit to make sure there is no bubbles inside. Transfer to refrigerator to chill at least 3 hours.

Notes:

• To make your own castor sugar, put granulated sugar in a food processor for a few pulses.
  
• When whipping cream, make sure your whisk and your bowl is cold, it will produce better results. I normally put some ice cubes and ice water in my mixing bowl with the whisk attachment. I let it sit for about 10 minutes and then dry the bowl and the whisk. In this recipe, the cream should not reach the soft peak stage.
  
• For the egg whites, they should be at room temperature. If you don't have time to wait for the egg whites to reach room temperature, but the bowl of egg whites in another bowl of warm water.
• When mixing the cake, make sure you don't over mix it, or gluten will form and your cake will be too sticky, instead of light and soft.