Strawberry cake with pistachio diplomat cream

A few days ago, it was my sister's birthday, a great strawberry lover, and for the occasion, I prepared this pistachio fraisier. It's neither long nor complicated to prepare, so don't be afraid to try, especially since you can adapt the decoration of the dessert to your tastes/time available. To have a really light cake, I replaced the traditional mousseline cream (with butter) with a diplomat cream (with whipped cream). It held up, but not super well, so as I tell you below in the recipe, I recommend increasing the amount of gelatin a bit and preparing the fraisier well in advance so it has plenty of time to set in the refrigerator. You can, for example, prepare the pastry cream the day before so it has the night to cool down, and then do the assembly the next morning after baking the dacquoise discs for an evening tasting. If you don't like pistachios, you can of course make this fraisier with a vanilla diplomat cream. There you go, you know everything! All that's left to do is get started!

Preparation time: about 1 hour of preparation + 20 to 30 minutes of baking + chilling time

For a 22cm diameter by 6cm high fraisier:

Pistachio Dacquoise:

25g pistachio powder
135g powdered sugar
115g almond powder
150g egg whites
50g granulated sugar
20g pistachio paste (I use Jean Hervé, found in organic stores)

Mix the almond and pistachio powders with the powdered sugar.

Whip the egg whites until stiff, then tighten them with granulated sugar. Once they are very firm, add the pistachio paste, followed by the powders delicately with a spatula.

Put the mixture in a piping bag fitted with a plain tip. Pipe two circles of approximately 23cm diameter onto baking trays lined with parchment paper, then bake at 180°C for about ten minutes (a bit more depending on your oven, the biscuit should be cooked but still soft).

Pastry Cream:

250g milk
250g heavy cream
½ teaspoon vanilla
100g sugar
80g egg yolks
25g flour
30g cornstarch
50g butter
10g gelatin (I used 7g, but my cream wasn't holding very well, additionally with the heat, if I did it again, I would use a bit more gelatin)
45g pistachio praline
30g pistachio paste

Soak the gelatin sheets in a large bowl of cold water.
Place the milk, cream, and vanilla in a saucepan and bring to a boil.

Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar, then with the flour and cornstarch, and pour the hot liquid over, mixing well.

Pour everything back into the saucepan and cook for a few minutes, stirring constantly, until you get a fairly thick pastry cream.

Next, add the rehydrated and wrung out gelatin and the butter in small pieces, mixing well to have a homogeneous cream.

Incorporate the praline and pistachio paste, then transfer the pastry cream into a gratin dish and cover with plastic wrap in contact before chilling.

Diplomat Cream:

The well-chilled pastry cream
400g heavy cream

Only prepare the diplomat cream at the time of assembly.

Whip the heavy cream into whipped cream, then add the cold pistachio pastry cream.

Put the resulting diplomat cream in a piping bag.

Assembly:

About 800g strawberries (I used charlotte for the edging and maras des bois for the interior)
400g full-fat cream
40g mascarpone
60g powdered sugar
As needed, crushed pistachios

Place the ring on a golden cardboard or a serving plate, then place acetate inside the ring.

Sort the strawberries to get the most uniform ones and cut them in half. Arrange the halved strawberries inside the ring.

Trim the dacquoise discs so they fit inside the ring lined with halved strawberries. Place a dacquoise at the bottom of the ring and cover with diplomat cream. Also pipe diplomat cream around the edge of the ring and between the strawberries.

Cut the strawberries into small cubes, and pour them over the diplomat cream.

Cover again with cream, then place the second dacquoise disc. Finish with the remaining cream and smooth to the height of the ring.

Place the fraisier in the refrigerator for several hours (or even overnight). Once set, and shortly before serving, whip some cream with heavy cream, mascarpone, and powdered sugar, then place it in a piping bag fitted with a st. honoré tip (or one of your choice) and pipe it on the fraisier starting from the inside. Finally, place strawberries and crushed pistachios around the whipped cream, and enjoy!! ;-)