Eggless Sponge Gateau/Cake with Strawberry Cream Icing........and my 150th post!!!

Another milestone post from me,yes it is my 150th post today.

Milestone posts are very close to my heart as I try making something different or exotic to make the post more memorable.Don't assume that I made this cake specially for my 150th post,I made this cake almost 5 months before on the occasion of my birthday and when the beautiful luscious strawberries were in season.Somehow I kept post poing doing this post because of my frequent breaks in blogging and I think now I got the perfect opportunity to showcase my beautiful cake for this special post.

And now to the flash back.......hmmm.....As my In-laws were expected to arrive on my birthday I could not control myself from baking a cake for my own birthday(I really hate to bake a cake for my own birthday,but could not help it) and so I preferred a egg-less version of the basic vanilla sponge cake which I adapted from Nita Mehta's Cake book.More than baking a cake I am very much interested in learning to decorate a cake and I always get excited to see the beautiful cake decorations by our fellow bloggers.One such decoration that sat in my head was this beautiful cake done by Deeba .Eventhough I am just a beginner, I thought of attempting to decorate such a exotic one and to my surprise the outcome was so good that my inlaws were excited and happy to see that cake and showered me with lots of praisings which made me to forget the pain I took in decorating it.

And coming back to the present,I personally thank all my bloggers friends for their constant support which helps me in reaching many more milestones like this.I hope you all enjoy this post.

Ingredients:

For Eggless Sponge Cake:
1 1/4 cups Maida
1/4 cup cornflour
1/2 tin condensed milk
1/2 tsp level soda-bicarb
1 tsp level baking powder
1/2 cup oil
4 tbsp powdered sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence

For Cream Icing:
1 pack whipped cream powder(I used some imported variety available here)
3-4 tbsp powdered sugar
4 tbsp finely chopped fresh strawberries
2 tbsp strawberry crush

for Sugar Syrup:
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
few drops of lemon juice

other Ingredients for decoration:
6-8 strawberries,finely sliced
8-10 Italian finger biscuits

Method:

Eggless Sponge Cake:

• Sift maida with cornflour,soda bicarb and baking powder.Keep aside.
• Beat condensed milk with hand blender and add sugar gradually and beat till fluffy.Add oil to the mixture and beat well.
• Add half the flour mixture and half the quantity of milk and beat well.Add vanilla essence,remaining flour and milk beating well after each addition.Beat well for 3-4mins till the mixture is smooth and light and attains a thick pouring ribbon consistency.
• Pour the mixture into a greased and lined round 7" tin.
• Bake for 30-35 mins in a preheated oven at 150 degrees until the cake is done.Test it by using a toothpick test,if the toothpick comes out clean then the cake is well cooked.
• Remove it from the mould carefully and let it cool completely on the wire rack.It is better to prepare the cake a day before you want to decorate it.

Sugar Syrup:
Boil water along with sugar until it forms a nice syrupy liquid,strain the water and let it cool.Add lemon juice to it and mix and keep it in fridge.

Whipping up the cream to spread and for piping:

• Beat the whipped cream powder on medium speed till thick.
• Only after it turns thick,then add powdered sugar and continue beating on high speed till you get the soft peaks.Chill it for some time.Check the sweetness at this point as some ready mix packets have sugar already in it,so add according to your taste
  
• Divide the mixture into 3 parts.Reserve one major portion for topping the cake.
• Add very finely chopped strawberries to the other portion of the cream and gently fold in.
• In 4-5tbsp of whipped cream add 2 tbsp strawberry crush and gently mix well and pour it into the cone made up of baking paper and tie it with a thread and let it stand in a glass and keep it in the refrigerator until its usage.
• In another piping bag which has star nozzle fitted fill in the 6-8 tbsp plain whipped cream and refrigerate it until its usage.

Assembling and Decorating the Cake:

• Level the cake gently using a knife(to cut) to form a uniform surface.
• Based on the size of your cake cut it into two or three pieces horizontal to form layers.I did mine into two layers. .
• Place one layer on the serving platter
• Pour the lemon-sugar syrup mixture all over the cake to make it enough moist.Do not add much as it makes the cake very soggy later.
• Apply the whipped cream mixed with finely chopped strawberries on the first layer and place the second layer over it and pour again the lemon-sugar syrup mixture all over the cake to make it enough moist.
• Apply the plain whipped cream all over the cake and make sure that it is uniformly applied all over and on the sides using a flat spatula by dipping it in water in between which helps in spreading the cream uniformly.
• Cut the Italian fingers into two equal sized pieces.Slice the strawberries very thin lengthwise and keep them aside.Slice one strawberry with the leaves in tact with the layers of the sliced strawberry which is used for decorating on top.
• Stick the Italian fingers leaving some space in between around the sides of the cake.
• Slowly using the cone make a design of your own with the strawberry flavored cream cone This step is completely of your choice and to your creativity, just do it in the way you want.
• Using the star nozzle cream cone make the straight line and a star down the line in between the two Italian fingers.Please check the pictures for detailed decoration as the pictures themselves explain how it is done.
• Arrange the strawberry slices around the edge of the cake as shown in the picture and gently keep a sliced and layered strawberry in the centre.

Chill it in the refrigerator and slice it gently and serve chilled.