Strawberry cake

Now that recipe I mentioned last Monday.

In my recipe book it is called ‘Danish’ strawberry cake but as it is a ‘Cordon Bleu’ cookbook I don’t know how authentically Danish it is.

As we were going to be five for lunch that day, I decided that I needed to make double quantities as I wasn’t sure that the normal quantity would be enough.

So I will give the recipe with the quantities that I used but give the ‘normal’ half quantities in brackets.

First of all you need to gather the ingredients for the shortbread.

For this you need. 8oz (4oz) flour, 6oz (3oz) butter, 2.5oz (1.25oz) icing sugar, 2 (1) egg yolks and a few drops of vanilla essence or small amount of vanilla paste that I used.

You measure out the flour and icing sugar and place them in a bowl, then add the softened butter cut in chunks, egg yolks and vanilla. You mix all these up with a wooden spoon, until well blended. This then goes in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

After this you roll out the shortbread to a circle about a quarter inch thick and place on some greaseproof or baking parchment paper on a baking sheet, pricking it well. I use the paper so you can lift it up easily when cooked as the shortbread can be a bit fragile.

This goes into an oven at about 170 deg C (or equivalent for your oven) for about 15-20 minutes.

Here is mine, cooling on a rack.As you can see my oven does not seem to heat evenly. (Maybe I should have turned it round half-way!)

This is going to be topped with strawberries with a glaze of redcurrant jelly. I think I used about 300g of strawberries but you need enough to cover the shortbread.So while the shortbread cools, hull the strawberries and wash if necessary.

The redcurrant jelly needs to be runny enough to brush on, so put a few tablespoons full in a bowl over some hot water and stir till it produces a smooth, runny version. Arrange the strawberries on the shortbread. Then brush with the softened redcurrant jelly. This can be left in the fridge until needed.

Serve as it is or with whipped or pouring cream if you prefer.