Recipe: Fluffy, Japanese shortcake

Fluffy, Japanese shortcake (or shorto-cakey as we say) 

With strawberries in season and tasting so good right now, I thought I'd bake a Japanese short cake as my sister and her (new!) hubby were coming over for dinner. I don't get to bake as often as I'd like, but I really enjoy zoning out listening to sets on @SoundCloud and baking away! 

Here's my recipe:

Cake:
3 eggs
90g flour
90g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
30g melted butter

Sugar syrup:
20g sugar
40ml boiling water

Cream:
300ml cream
30g sugar

+ around 200g sliced strawberries 
Middle of the cake: thick cut
On top: thinly sliced

1 -- preheat the oven to 180c

2 -- line a cake tin with baking parchment by rubbing butter on the surface then sticking down your measured and cut parchment

3 -- melt the butter in microwave or over a bowl of boiling water

4 -- whisk 3 eggs with 90g sugar; carry on whisking over a tray of boiling hot water to a foamy texture that's slightly stiff so that you can draw a swirl and see it (key point!)

5 -- add a teaspoon of vanilla extract and sift the flour in, folding and incorporating without losing that fluffy airyness

6 -- in the melted butter bowl, add some of the cake mix and once it's mixed in, add that back into the main cake mix bowl and fold it in

7 -- pour the whole mix into your tin and pop into the oven for 20 mins. Let it then cool on a rack after taking it out of the tin

8 -- while that's cooling, slice your strawberries and whisk your cream until it's a thick-but-not-too-thick texture

9 -- lastly, build your cake! Slice your cake into two, drizzle on the sugar syrup, then sandwich a lathered layer of cream and strawberries; cream all over then using thinly sliced strawberries, layer them like scales

10 -- chill before cutting then serving

I promise it's so easy to make and it tastes delicious. Subscribe if you want to see more Japanese recipes like this!