A revisited version of the traditional Victoria sponge cake with French twists!

I created this recipe after teaching a vanilla and strawberry macarons baking class. I had some double cream and strawberry jam left so I thought why not doing a light and fluffy cake with this. Marie-Antoinette Cake was born!

For a 20 cm round cake tin with 4cm height

Ingredients

Génoise

• 20g melted butter for the cake tin

• 160g eggs

• 90g caster sugar

• 20g melted butter

  Zesty Strawberry Jam (can also be used for your macarons filling)

• 1kg of strawberry

• peels of 1 unwaxed lemon

• juice of 1 lemon

• 100g sugar

• 8g agar-agar

  Vanilla chantilly

• 150ml double cream

• 1/2 tsp. vanilla powder

• 2 tbsp. icing sugar

  Zesty Lime Syrup

• fresh juice of 1 lime

• zest of 1 unwaxed lime

• 100g caster sugar

• 100g water

Steps

Zesty Strawberry Jam

• Add all ingredients (except agar-argar) into a saucepan and simmer on low heat for 15 min

• Blend it to get a smooth fruit coulis

• Put it back in the saucepan, sprinkle the agar-gar, bring to boil

• Stir for another 5min at medium heat to activate the jellification of the jam

• Pour the jam in a recipient

• Put a clear film over the surface of the filling and keep in the fridge for an hour

• Before using blend it again to get a smooth texture that will be easy to spread on the cake

  Génoise

• Generously brush your cake tin with melted butter

• In a bowl, beat the eggs and the sugar in a bain-marie until obtaining a light cream colored ruban texture. Stay under 45°C and then remove from the bain-marie

• Add the melted butter

• Delicately incorporate the sifted flour

• Pour the mix in the cake tin and bake at 180°C for 20 minutes

• Turn onto a cooling rack and leave to cool completely.

• Half horizontally into two equal round cakes

  Vanilla Chantilly

• While your génoise is cooling down, beat the whipped cream with the icing sugar and the vanilla powder until getting a chantilly texture

• Film to contact in a recipient and keep it in the fridge until using it

  Zesty Lime Syrup

• Add all ingredients in a saucepan

• Bring to boil and keep on the heat until sugar has dissolved

• Remove from heat, let it cool down a bit to room temperature before using

Final steps: Building up your Marie-Antoinette cake

• Use a brush to soak the lime syrup on each halves

• Spread the jam over both halves

• Spread the chantilly on the bottom half

• Sandwich the second sponge on top with the jam at its bottom

• Dust with a little icing sugar before serving

• Keep in an airtight container and eat within 2 days

Tips

• You can replace the zest by vanilla powder if you’re not a fan of citrus

• You can replace 15g of flour by cacao powder for a cacao version of this cake

• Use a smaller 16cm tin if you want your cake to be higher