Baking Recipe: Strawberry Lemonade Charlotte Cakes

It's MONDAY and I thought what would be more fun to do than kick start the week off right? Lets start the week or what is perhaps the last of summer or winter days with this tangy light STRAWBERRY LEMONADE CHARLOTTE CAKES.

The cake is almost like a pound cake texture, ultra moist and dense as there is sour cream and lemon zest incorporated to the batter. This is really simple to make and delicious. There is no need to cream butter and sugar, like the butter cake in some of my recipes that I have been making.

The Charlotte Cake is then, taken up a notch where White Chocolate Strawberry Ganache is added and lightly swirled into the batter, before being baked off in the oven. After the Charlotte Cakes were cooled, they were then taken apart, filled with some fresh strawberries, and a small dollop of fresh whipped cream is added [No! this is not a strawberry shortcake, and is just not it at all]. I had always been a huge fan of balancing anything sweet with either something dark and rich like dark chocolate, coffee or with something tangy, like a citrus glaze in this case. Very much like Yin & Yang. To make the cakes fit for any summer day, it wouldn't be a regular lemon glaze. It has to be Pink Lemonade Glaze. Don't you just love it? Is this Strawberry Lemonade Charlotte Cake 'drool worthy'?

Things will start to change gradually in Chic & Gorgeous Treats as you can see. To your right, you will be able to see my floating ribbon of buttons.I know that I have tons to share, but never really had the time to record or photo everything around me. So to share with you on what I am up to, or some photos that didn't make it to my blog, follow me on INSTAGRAM, or  if you like to see what I dream almost daily about, follow me on PINTEREST or if you are like me, feeling bored, where I sometimes take a moment to read through tweets, and respond to what I think interests me, follow me on TWITTER too.

What other changes? For starters, I will aim to post 2-3 times a week. Say every alternate day. For example; Monday-Wednesday and Friday. There will be at least a TGIF photo post when I can squeeze in something. A couple more exciting projects I have lined up for you, perhaps more Guest Posts? If you like what I do, feel free to buzz me at chicgorgeoustreats [at] gmail [dot] com, as I like nothing more than taking part in all the food blogging events out there.

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Strawberry Lemonade Charlotte Cakes

by Chic & Gorgeous Treats

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*makes 1 dozen (medium) sized cakelets
*cakes can be stored in a container, in a fridge up to 3 days without strawberry and cream filling.

^INGREDIENTS

Strawberry White Chocolate Ganache ½ cup heavy cream 1 cup white chocolate buttons ¼ teaspoon strawberry essence ¼ cup strawberry puree Charlotte Cakes 220g unsalted butter, melted 2 eggs 2 cups cake flour, sifted 1 ½ cups caster sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 2 tablespoons lemon zest ¾ cups sour cream Filling & Glaze 1 pack (125g) strawberries, cut in cubes ½ cup heavy whipping cream, whipped soft peaks 3-4 cups powdered sugar, sifted 2 tablespoons lemon juice 5 tablespoons Country Farm’s Pink Lemonade Mix ⅔ cups hot water

DIRECTIONS 1. In a medium deep saucepan, heat cream until you see some bubbles forms at the side but not boiled over. Turn heat off, and pour over white chocolate buttons. Using a spatula, stir to help white chocolate melt. Add strawberry essence, and fold in strawberry puree creating swirls with the spatula. (*To make strawberry puree: Blitz ½ cup of fresh/frozen strawberries with 2-3 tablespoons of caster sugar.) Cover with a cling film and chill in the fridge for 2 hours or until ganache hardens slightly. 2. Preheat oven to 160°C, and grease medium sized fluted cake pans with some butter. In a mixing bowl, on medium low speed beat melted butter, caster sugar, lemon zest, eggs, pure vanilla extract and sour cream until well combined. Sift flour and baking powder together and add to the wet mixture in 2 batches beating after each addition. Beat for another 3 minutes until flour and wet mixture has fully combined. Pour batter slightly less than a ¼ cup full, and bake for 5 minutes. Take out from oven, then scoop a small dollop of strawberry white chocolate ganache into each charlotte cake. Top with remainder charlotte cake batter until ¾ cup full and bake for another 10-15 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Set aside to cool before removing it out of the moulds and transfer it to a wire rack to let it cool completely. 3. Meanwhile, whip heavy whipping cream until soft peaks, and cut strawberries into small cubes. Prepare glaze by mixing powdered sugar, lemon juice and pink lemonade mix all together with boiling hot water. 4. To assemble, slice charlotte cakes into half, taking off a little cake from the base. Scoop some strawberries and top it off with dollop of fresh whipped cream. Cover charlotte cake with its’ own lid. Pour lemonade glaze over each cake, and chill in the fridge close to 1 hour. Thaw 10 minutes before serving. Serve with a glass of cold milk, latter, or warm English tea. ENJOY!                                                *loosely adapted from Donna Hay

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Have a good week everyone!!

xx