Grandma's strawberry cake: A nostalgic delight of spring-summer

This is my grandmother's favourite strawberry cake and her absolute speciality. Sweet fruits bathed in pudding and baked between layers of shortcrust pastry steal the show every year on her name day. A large sheet pan vanishes with the first serving.

Strawberry cake is a real feast for the palate and one of those desserts that must be present on every table during the spring-summer season. The recipe for preparing it is simple. The appearance of this cake is awe-inspiring, and its taste makes it hard to be satisfied with just one piece.

The period when strawberries are most delicious is just around the corner. In just a few weeks, the stalls at local markets will be bursting with these delectable fruits. However, it's worth noting that strawberries can already be found in supermarkets and vegetable and fruit stores. Although they are not as intense in flavour and sweetness as those harvested in June, they are still perfect for making this delicious dessert.

Every year, my grandmother prepares strawberry cake on a shortcrust base with pudding and crumble. Although she knows the recipe by heart and can recite it in her sleep, she always opens her notebook and glances at it to ensure she performs each step correctly. This strawberry cake is like a journey to the past, when one would impatiently wait for Grandma to take the sheet pan out of the oven.

Ingredients:

SHORTCRUST PASTRY:

• 300g all-purpose flour,
• 1.5 tsp baking powder,
• 120g sugar,
• 200g cold butter,
• 1 egg,
• a pinch of salt.

FRUITS:

• 500g strawberries,
• 1.5 tbsp potato starch.

PUDDING:

• 2 packages of vanilla pudding mix without sugar,
• 0.75 litres of cow's milk or coconut milk,
• 50g sugar,
• 1 tbsp vanilla sugar.

Preparation:

1. Mix the flour with salt, baking powder, and chopped cold butter. Crumble the ingredients until a crumbly texture forms.
2. Then add the egg and combine everything into a uniform dough. Shape the dough into a ball and divide it into two parts. Place one part in the refrigerator and press the other onto the bottom of the form (grease it with butter and line it with baking paper).
3. Press the dough with your fingers to cover the sheet pan evenly, then prick it with a fork.
4. Mix the pudding mix in 200ml of milk, and bring the remaining milk to a boil with the addition of sugar and vanilla sugar.
5. When the milk starts boiling, add the dissolved pudding mix and stir the mixture energetically until a smooth mass forms. Cook the mass briefly, then set it aside.
6. Wash and dry the strawberries, cut them into smaller pieces, and sprinkle with potato starch. Then, lay them on the prepared shortcrust base.
7. Pour the hot pudding over the strawberries. Using a coarse grater, grate the shortcrust dough from the refrigerator on top.
8. Bake the cake for 40 minutes at 180°C (Gas Mark 4). Remove from the oven and let it cool.