Strawberry midsummer cake

Prepare the strawberry jam. Rinse and hull the strawberries. Slice or liquidise them, and place in a saucepan with the jam sugar. Bring to the boil and simmer for 3-4 minutes.

Remove from the heat and carefully skim off the scum. Pour the jam into a warm, sterilised jar and store in the fridge.

Then make the cake base. Preheat the oven to 175 °C.

Beat the eggs and sugar until fluffy, for at least 3-4 minutes. Mix the remaining ingredients together in a bowl and fold into the egg mixture.

Grease a spring form cake tin, 24 cm in diameter. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake at the bottom of the oven for 35-40 minutes. Use a cake pin test to see if the cake is dry in the middle. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

In the meantime, make the vanilla cream. Scrape out the vanilla pod and bring to the boil together with the cream. Remove the pod.

Beat the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla sugar and cornflour until fluffy. Pour the cream over the egg mixture while whisking. Pour back into the pan and bring to boil while whisking constantly.

Remove from the heat when the cream has thickened. Pour the cream into a bowl and add the butter a little at a time while whisking. Refrigerate.

Assemble the cake: Cut 1/3 of the strawberries into slices; put aside the best for decoration.

When the cake base has cooled completely, cut it into three bottoms using a sharp bread knife. Place the bottom layer on a serving plate, spread over a layer of vanilla cream. Place the next layer on top and spread over a layer of jam sugar and a layer of sliced strawberries. 

Place the last layer on top and cover the entire cake with whipped cream. Put some of the cream in a piping bag and pipe patterns on top of the cake. Decorate with strawberries.