not.pretty.but.tasty

!!!japanese strawberry shortcake!!!
we have visitors from germany over the weekend.

while hubby takes care of the menu of the dinner, i take care of the dessert.  i know strawberry is not in season but we just fancy the japanese style strawberry shortcake

this is not a chiffon cake although i used the tube spring form to bake because my conventional round cake form is too large...
the sponge cake recipe works similar as the chiffon version except the order of mixing is a little different...

i baked the cake on friday's night and only assembly it on saturday morning, slicing the cake  into half, splash with syrup water so that it remains moist and follow by a dollop of whipped cream and arranged the lightly gelatined strawberry slices and cover with more cream, then the next layer of cake...and frost the whole cake with cream...

and finally decorate with the additional strawberry.... not very pretty, i could have use a little bit of imagination and creativity to beautify the cake, but i didn't and at least i am not satisfied with the end result. i have no hand for precision and therefore it's a challenge to really make this into a piece of art.... plus i ran out of cream at the final frosting, i have to make another batch of whipped cream using un-chilled box of cream and the cream doesn't come out as stiff as my first batch, even after i add the gelatine to stabilize the cream, so i gave up the idea of piping for additional decoration...

this is how the innards of japanese strawberry shortcake looks like...
taste wise, the cake is spongy although a tad heavier than the normal chiffon cake but it is needed to support the weight of the fruit... the dutch strawberry is a little watery in texture although it has not damage my cake as i gelatined the strawberry before hand...
the guests like it especially the little boy actually had two helpings and hub says although the cake is not photogenic but it tastes exactly the same as the ones that he tasted in japan...

i guess the next time i make this again will be in spring/summer when the strawberry is in abundance...