Lina Takahashi Eats
On Christmas Eve in Japan, people wait in long LONGGGG lines to buy a beautiful Christmas cake that can range from $20 to sometimes even over $100 depending on the cake. For a country that has pretty affordable desserts everywhere, people are willing to splurge on a good Christmas cake for the sake of keeping up with tradition.
There are several theories on why the Christmas cake tradition started, but apparently the owner of the famous western-style confectionery shop in Japan called Fujiya (who also created the famous Milky candies) took the classic American strawberry shortcake and changed it into a cake that Japanese people would like. Instead of the biscuit/scone with cream and strawberries, the Japanese strawberry shortcake is a fluffy genoise sponge with layers of lightly sweetened whipped cream, a kirsch-based sugar syrup and layers of fresh Japanese strawberries stacked in a perfect ratio that makes this a popular birthday cake as well.
The Japanese strawberry shortcake has always been one of my absolute favorite cakes, especially the ones my mom would make for my birthday because I did not like buttercream cakes growing up. The combination of the cream, fluffy sponge and the tart strawberries is actually a match made in heaven.
This was the cake I made for my grandmother’s 90th birthday this year, and it’s become a foolproof recipe at this point for me! I hope it’s a cake I can make my future kids for their birthdays, too 🙂
The ingredients for this cake are pretty simple, but the techniques might be a little bit tricky — but feel free to watch my video to see how I like to assemble the cake!
The classic ingredients when making a cake! Be sure to beat your eggs and sugar together to form the fluffiest cake batter — this is what will ensure you have a the bounciest genoise sponge cake! The rule of thumb is to be gentle with your batter and DON’T OVERMIX! Stop mixing just as the dry ingredients are mixed in and if you can, use cake flour.
Decorating the cake is another process that I recommend you to pick your end picture of what you want your cake to look like before you begin. There are SO many different ways you can decorate a strawberry shortcake and you can make it as simple or as complex as you want.
I personally always recommend starting simple — maybe a simple star tip or just strawberries on top — but either way, be very patient!
I would recommend making this cake the night before to really let all of the flavors settle into the sponge. I make a simple sugar and Kirsch syrup that I paint onto the cake before adding the cream and strawberry, and this really helps make this cake moist and adds a slight fruity cherry scent to the cake (subtle enough that you barely taste it but it really adds a great accent to the cake! See the end for alternative ideas if you can’t/don’t want to include alcohol in this cake).
FLOUR: If you only have all-purpose flour, I highly recommend you replace 1 tbsp of the AP flour with 1 tbsp of corn starch or potato starch to help ensure the fluffy texture. The best option would be to use cake flour but I know that’s not always an option!
LIQUOR: If you want an alcohol free cake, feel free to only use the sugar syrup and mix it with vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste.
As always, tag me @takahasheats on socials if you make it! I’d love to see it and hear about what you think! 🙂
