A springtime cake with strawberries that you must try.
Ingredients
- 50 g fresh yeast
- 200 ml milk
- 3 eggs + an additional 3 egg yolks
- 100 g caster sugar
- 500 g plain flour
- 100 g butter
- 400 g strawberries
Crumble
- 100 g plain flour
- 60 g cold butter
- 4 tablespoons icing sugar
Lemon glaze
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/2 cup icing sugar
Preparation
Prepare the sponge: crumble the yeast into a bowl, add a teaspoon of sugar and a teaspoon of flour. Pour in warm (not hot!) milk and mix thoroughly. Leave in a warm place for about 25 minutes, until it doubles or triples in volume (if it doesn’t rise enough, repeat the sponge preparation process).
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and egg yolks with the caster sugar until well mixed.
In a larger bowl (preferably a stand mixer bowl), sift the flour. Make a well in the center and pour in the risen sponge. Using a larger spoon, gradually incorporate the flour into the sponge mixture. After a while, begin to add the beaten eggs gradually, mixing continuously and incorporating the flour.
Continue kneading the preliminary mixture with a dough hook (or by hand) for about 10-15 minutes. After this time, still kneading, add the melted and cooled butter gradually in batches. Knead for another 5 minutes.
Cover the kneaded dough with a cloth and let it rest in a warm place for about 1.5 hours. During this time, it should significantly increase in volume (about 2-3 times).
Prepare the crumble: place the flour in a bowl, add finely chopped cold butter, and rub with your fingers until small crumbs form. Then combine the ingredients into a uniform dough.
Grease a baking tin measuring 25×35 cm with butter. Transfer the risen dough from the bowl to the tin using a spatula, gently stretching and flattening it to fill the tin to the edges.
Evenly arrange quartered strawberries on top of the dough. Sprinkle with the crumble mixture, crumbling it with your fingers. Leave the prepared cake in the tin to rise for another 25 minutes (during this time, it should double in height).
Preheat the oven to 180°C (top and bottom heat, no fan). Place the cake in the oven and bake for 35 minutes.
After cooling, optionally drizzle the cake with the lemon glaze (heat the lemon juice in a small saucepan, once hot, remove from heat and gradually add icing sugar while stirring until a smooth glaze forms).
