How to Make: Japanese Style-Christmas Cake (クリスマスケーキ) Kurisumasukeki

Today is my birthday!  Yeah... So I made myself a cake.  Since it was close to Christmas or X-mas, I made a Japanese style X-mas cake, which is not too hard to make, and very yummy.  It's usually whipped cream and strawberry in a Asian style sponge cake.  It's also sold in Vancouver from many Asian bakeries most notably is the Chinese-Canadian supermarket chain T&T. This kind of cake, from what I hear, is almost like a tradition in Japan along with eating KFC (fried chicken).  This type of cake is sold at bakeries before Christmas and eaten on or before Christmas.  Strawberries are very expensive at this time of year, which make this cake even more special than a summer Strawberry Shortcake.  My decorating skills are not perfected yet by any means, but it turned out okay.  Try it out, it is very easy to make!  The sponge cake is a very good recipe, very light and fluffy.  It's another not too sweet cake, but be careful not to eat it all at once, I ate half in one sitting, but it's my birthday.

 

Japanese Style-Christmas Cake (クリスマスケーキ) Kurisumasukeki

Yields: One 12 cm (5 inch) cake

Servings: 4 servings

Time: 3 hours

Ingredients:

Sponge Cake:

• 2 eggs (room temperature)
• 63 gm of cake flour (50 gm of all purpose flour + 13 gm of potato starch or corn starch)
• 63 gm of sugar
• 25 gm of melted butter or oil
• 15 mL of water

Whipped Cream Frosting

• 200 mL of heavy cream
• 5 mL of vanilla extract (1 tsp)
• 10 gm of powdered sugar (or 5 gm of granulated sugar)
• 200 gm of strawberries plus extra for decoration.

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 170 C (340 F).
• Beat the two eggs and sugar in a bowl with a wire whisk until the mixture becomes foamy and has doubled in volume.  The colour should be pale yellow.
• Fold in the flour and potato starch/corn starch until well combined.  Add in the melted butter/oil until well combined. 
• Transfer the batter to a 15 cm cake tin, and bang it on a hard surface about 4-5 times to remove the air bubbles.
• Put it in the oven to bake for 20-30 min, until when a knife or toothpick inserted, it comes out clean.  Bang it on a hard surface again about 4-5 times to remove air bubbles.  This will prevent it from shrinking.
• Let it cool.
• Using a hand whisk or electric whisk/beater, whisk the cream and sugar until it reaches soft peaks.  Continue beating until it is medium-firm peaks.
• Cut the cake into two.  Brush sugar/water/vanilla on the first layer.  Put 2 tbsp of the whipped cream on to the first layer.  Add in sliced strawberries.  Cover with another 2-3 tbsp of Whipped cream.  Put the remaining layer on top of the sliced strawberries.
• Here comes the tricky part.  Use all but about 4 tbsp of the remaining whipped cream.  Frost the entire cake with the cream.  This usually takes practice, but do the best as you can.  I had some trouble with it too.  
• Take the remaining cream and put into a piping bag.  Pipe the remaining cream on top of the cake to your liking.  Top with strawberries and ornaments.
• Cut and serve! Merry Christmas! (You've just made a Kurisumasukeki! (クリスマスケーキ)

Tips and Suggestions:

• For the cake: to whip the eggs faster, place the bowl of eggs in warm water while whipping it.
• Keep the whipped cream cold by chilling the bowl before whipping it.
• Don't worry if your cake doesn't turn out as beautiful, you can decorate it all you want after.  It takes a lot of practice to make it really perfect.
• Use an off set spatula if you have one to frost the cake. If not use a long butter knife.
• Top it with chocolate, and other decorations for fun.
• If you're planning to serve this cake later (not within 24 hours), add in some dissolved gelatin to the whipped cream frosting.