2 1/8 cups sifted cake flour
1 2/3 cups sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup butter
1 cup milk
1 tsp lemon extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 egg yolks
4 cups strawberries
2 cups heavy cream, whipped with 1/4 cup sugar and
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/8 cup red currant jelly
Sift together the cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a mixing
bowl. Add the butter and half the milk. Beat with an electric mixer at medium
speed for two minutes, scraping the bowl occasionally. Add the remaining milk,
the lemon extract, the vanilla extract and the egg yolks. Beat with the
electric mixer for another two minutes. Pour the batter into two buttered
layer-cake pans that have been lined with parchment paper. Bake in a preheated
3500F oven for 30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the centers of
the layers comes out clean.
While the cake is cooling, wash and hull the strawberries. Chop enough
strawberries to make one cup; reserve the remaining berries. Fold the chopped
strawberries into one cup of the whipped cream. Place one cake layer, top side
down, on a serving plate. Spread it with the strawberry-cream filling. Top
with the second cake layer, top side up (I'd put the bottom side up myself, in
order to make a flat surface).
Slice the reserved strawberries lengthwise. Arrange the sliced straberries on
top of the cake, starting at the outer edge and placing the slices with their
pointed ends toward the edge of the cake. After the first circle of berries is
complete, continue placing the berries in this manner until the top is
covered. Refrigerate the cake for
10 minutes. Melt the red currant jelly in a small saucepan over low heat,
stirring constantly. Carefully spoon or brush the hot jelly over the
strawberries. Spread some of the remaining whipped cream around the sides of
the cake. Spoon the rest of the whipped cream into a pastry bag fitted with a
No. 190 drop flower tube.
Pipe rosettes between the strawberry points around the rim of the cake. Then
change to a No. 24 star tube and fill in the spaces. Finally, change to a No.
71 leaf tube, and pipe a border around the bottom edge of the cake. If you do
not wish to decorate the cake with decorating tips, spoon the remaining cream
in small puffs on the top of the cake between the strawberries. Refrigerate
the cake until time to serve it.