MARCO CHENG | 鄭展朝

1. Make the light syrup first: measure 1:1 ratio of sugar and water, depending on how many ladyfingers you need to dip. Bring the water and sugar to a boil and then remove from heat. Keep stirring.

 

2. Leave syrup to cool. Add 800g of strawberries (cut halved) and place in saucepan. Then add 300g of caster sugar and bring them a boil. Again keep stirring - then simmer in low heat until strawberries are cooked. Leave it to cool afterwards.

 

3. Dip ladyfingers into cooled syrup (leave it there for 30 seconds - 1 minute) and take them out; cut ends of ladyfingers and place the ends in the cake tin. Place the ladyfingers on top of the ends. Keep adding them until the bottom of the cake tin is filled with ladyfingers. Make sure that the ladyfingers have the same length.

 

4. Whip the double cream with an electric whisk (if you don't have one, just use an egg whisk). Add 1 tbsp of vanilla essence and continue whisking until the double cream becomes slightly firm.

 

5. Pour 9 satchets of gelatine (or veg gelatine) in 300g of cold water. 1:3 ratio. Stir and leave it to set for about 5-10 minutes.

 

6. Blend the strawberry compote (or mixture) once cooled. Pour the mixture in a sieve so as to separate the seeds from the strawberry mixture (do this when cooled only). Add the gelatine mixture then stir. Then gradually add the whipped double cream and continue mixing until the mixture becomes lighter in colour. At this stage, make sure that the cream and the strawberry mixture is mixed well.

 

7. Pour the mixture into the cake tin (given that you have already stacked the ladyfingers). Alternatively you can add a few biscuit crumbs (or more ladyfingers) and berries and then continue pouring the mixture until it has been used up.

 

8. Place the cake in the fridge for a minimum 6 hours. I suggest placing the cake overnight though - just to make sure that the mixture has set.

 

9. Once the cake is set, add the berries on top and some icing sugar.