Mike Van de Elzen: Christmas Strawberry Sponge

Cook time: 10mins

Prep time: 30mins

Serves 6 people

INGREDIENTS: 

6 eggs
pinch of salt
250 gm caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla paste
10 tbsp plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
50 gm melted butter

2 punnets strawberries
300 gm fresh cream
1 tsp vanilla paste
2 tbsp icing sugar

METHOD:

For the Sponge:
Whisk the eggs and salt until well combined, add the sugar and vanilla paste and turn up to high. 
Continue to beat until the thick.

Sift flour and baking powder together. 
Fold lightly into egg mixture. Fold in butter. Pour equally into two 20cm greased spring-form cake tins. 

Bake at 200 for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned, turn out onto racks and allow to cool. 

Whisk the cream, vanilla and 1/2 the icing sugar, whisk until firm and set aside. 

Take the strawberries and remove the green top and cut the large ones in half. 

To make the cake. Place one cake as a bottom onto a platter, then cover with 1/2 the whipped cream and 1/2 the strawberries. Place the top cake on and then the remaining cream, strawberries and finish with a dusting of remaining icing sugar. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News talks'b Mike.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Van de Alsen, our resident chef, is with us.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
Now, good morning, Good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
How are we? I am very good, Thank you. I'm
on the countdown. Yeah, so close, Mike. But today, over
the last few weeks, you've been helping us out with
our Christmas menu, and you've we've finally got to one
of my favorite parts of the meal, which is dessert.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
What war would be on your Christmas Day table?

Speaker 2 (00:36):
I'll take anything.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
I'll take anything.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Really, I'm not really into I don't eat Christmas cakes
or Christmas puddings or anything like that. I'm a bit
boring when it comes to the Christmasy stuff. But I
have a very good sweet tooth. I have a sweet tooth.
I'm pretty open to everything. And then after dessert, I
love I love a bowl of chocolates on the table.
You're lovely, Yeah, yeah, you know. Will you leave it

(00:58):
a little bit? And then someone brings out some chocolates
and and everyone goes to them because it's not something
we normally do throughout the year.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Is it?

Speaker 3 (01:05):
That's it? We're not We're not into Christmas mince pies
or Christmas cakes either. So I don't know, it's just
not part of our not part of our upbringing. I
guess our upbringing was always cheesecake. We always had cheesecake
on the Christmas table.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
My partner right now, be going, let's do it, let's
go my My mother always used to make a ritz alimon,
which was a Danish dessert, because we when we were young,
we used to have Christmas with a Danish family, so
we that we You know, you create, you create your
own traditions, don't you.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
A lot of time? Yeah, I don't know where cheesecake
came from with in regards to our family, it was
back then like it was the Crofter's cheesecake. We wouldn't
make it, world buy it generally, and that would be
front and center, and it was this tiny, little Crofter's cheesecake.
I don't know whether they've shrunken in time. I don't know,
but it seems so much bigger than what they do now,

(01:57):
not that we buy them anymore, but you know, it
was like, wow, that little cheesecake spread out throughout our
family or fight.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
I love it. What have you got for us today?
What are your suggestions today.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
So we're not going cheesecake. We're going to go It's
something I've been actually making all of Christmas for a
lot of the parties have been coming through here. So
it's a Christmas strawberry sponge cake, and I figured sponge
cake as well. It has been. It's been an amazing
way to finish the meal because it's super light, it's sweet,

(02:28):
and you've got those all important strawberries, which is you know,
not only are they Christmasy and color that Christmasy and
flavor that Christmasy and appearance Christmas e and they kind
of give you a little bit of acid at the
end of the meal. So the perfect for cutting through
all that rich meal that we're about to eat.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Excellent.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
And the recipe so for the sponge take, I've got
six whole eggs, pinch of salt. Chuck that into a
mixer and just whist that until it's just combined, and
then add in two hundred and fifty grams of caster sugar, teaspoon,
a vanilla paste if you can get your hands on
some middle of paste, if not, just some vanilla essence,
and then crank up your mixer and beat that until

(03:09):
it becomes thick, super light, doubled in size and volume.
And then you want to take ten tablespoons of flour
and two teaspoons of baking powder. Just run that through
a sieve just to sive that out and lighten up,
and then fold that through your egg mixture. And then
I've got fifty grams of butter that I've just slightly melted,

(03:30):
and then just fold the butter through. Right at the end,
I've got two tins. Say, as you're having to cut it,
I find it's just far, so take two centimeter tins.
Spread your mix between both of them. Make sure he
agrees at first. Fire them into a oven super hot
two hundred degrees. They're going to take about eight to
ten minutes. And what you want is for them to
be lovely light and brown on the top. Take them out,

(03:53):
crank open your tins, fold them out onto like a
rat to set aside, just to cool down. While they're cooling.
I've got three hundred grams of three hundred meals of
fresh cream, teaspoon of vanilla paste, two tablespoons sugar. Where
that until it becomes semi firm. You don't want to
go too far. And then take your sponges back. First,

(04:14):
layer down cream, all important punnets of strawberries. So I've
got two punnets, so basically one in the middle and
one on top. Cut your punnets, cut your strawberries in half,
put your top on, cream on top, and then go
strawberries on top. And you've got a little bit of
icing sugar left dust that and it's as simple as that.
You could probably potentially make this cake in about fifteen

(04:35):
to twenty minutes.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
I love it. That sounds beautiful, nice and light, and
you've got the strawberries in there. What's vanilla pakes by the.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
Way, vanilla pases, it's basically the extract, so when they
scrape out the pods, so it's all the whole pods.
It's the little pods, it's the seeds and everything, and
they just kind of set it with a little bit
of like a gum, and it's just a truer vanilla
because you get the little seeds in the pods, then
just essence, which is just liquid.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Thank you so much, Mike, Thank you so much for
your contribution throughout the year. Very much appreciate it. Love
to the whole family. Hope you have a wonderful Christmas
together and we're back on the eighteenth of jan Love
to see.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
You in Absolutely everyone enjoy your Christmas and they have
a great time.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
Thanks so much, Mike. You can get Mike Van der
Elsen's recipe at good from scratch dot co dot inz,
or we'll get that up on our website. Today, News
Talks it'db dot co dot inz.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Forward slash Sunday for more from the Sunday session with
Francesca Rudkin. Listen live to News Talks it'd be from
nine am Sunday, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio