Strawberry cake

Method

• step 1

  Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Line a 27 × 37cm swiss roll tin with non-stick baking parchment. Whisk the eggs and sugar together until they are really light and fluffy – this can take about 5 minutes. Fold in the flour, then gradually fold in the butter and vanilla. Spoon the mix into the tin, level and bake for 12-15 minutes until pale but springy and cooked in the middle. Leave to cool.

• step 2

  To make the filling, finely chop 300g of the largest strawberries and sprinkle over the caster sugar. Leave for 1 hour for the strawberries to give up their juice. Drain off and keep the juice, squashing the strawberries lightly against the sieve. Stir the mascarpone, condensed milk and strawberry pulp together. Line a 24 × 11 × 7cm loaf tin with baking parchment. Lay the loaf tin on the sponge and cut a strip just wide enough to fit in the tin, the length should fit as the sponge will have shrunk, but trim it if not. Put this in the base of the tin and brush the top with the strawberry juice. Add half the filling. Cut another strip of sponge a little wider than the last and add this, brush on the remaining juice and the remaining filling. Add the last piece of sponge and freeze the cake for an hour.

• step 3

  To make the frosting, put the sugar and 4 tbsp water in a pan. Slowly increase the heat and boil until you have a thick, clear syrup. Meanwhile, beat the egg whites until stiff, then pour in the hot sugar syrup in a steady stream, beating until the mixture is fluffy and thick and the frosting is cool. Stir in the vanilla. Turn the cake carefully out onto a plate and remove the paper, cover it with the frosting and decorate with the remaining strawberries.