Strawberry & vanilla chiffon cake

The month of April has arrived, and with it, the first strawberries! So here's a very simple and very soft cake to use them and enjoy, without spending too much time in the kitchen 😊

Equipment:
Whisk
Piping bags
Small pastry tip 14mm
Circle 18cm

Ingredients:
I used Madagascar vanilla and Norohy vanilla extract from Valrhona: code ILETAITUNGATEAU for a 20% discount on the entire site (affiliate).

Preparation time: 45 minutes + 30 minutes of baking
For a 18/20cm diameter cake:

Chiffon cake:

I took the recipe for this chiffon cake here.

100g of flour
130g of sugar
3g of baking powder
2g of salt
50g of egg yolks
100g of egg whites
40g of oil
30g of water
1 tsp of vanilla extract

Mix the egg yolks, oil, water, vanilla, salt, and half the sugar with the whisk. Add the sifted flour and baking powder.

Whisk the egg whites with the sugar.

Gently mix the two preparations twice.

Pour into an un-buttered circle of 18 to 20cm side, then bake for about 30 minutes in the preheated oven at 170°C.

Let cool for a few minutes then unmold by running a knife around the edge. Let cool completely. Then cut the top of the cake and "hollow" it a bit as in the photo:

Vanilla diplomat cream:

100g of heavy cream
75g of whole milk
1 vanilla bean
50g of sugar
2 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
30g of cornstarch
2g of gelatin (I hadn't used it, and I advise you to use some to have a slightly firmer cream, especially if you use 30% fat cream instead of 35%)

200g of heavy cream at 35% fat content

Let's start with the pastry cream: soak the gelatin in a bowl of cold water. Mix the milk with the cream. Add the scraped vanilla bean seeds, then bring to a boil, and if you have the time, let it infuse for at least 30 minutes, your cream will have more flavor.
Whisk the eggs, egg yolk, sugar, and cornstarch.

Add half of the hot vanilla milk while stirring continuously, then pour everything back into the pan.
Cook while constantly whisking over medium heat until the cream thickens. Off the heat, add the rehydrated and squeezed gelatin.

Next, pour the cream into another container, cover it with cling film, and cool it in the refrigerator (if you're in a hurry, you can also put an ice pack on the plastic wrap to cool the cream faster). When the pastry cream is cold, whip the heavy cream into a not too firm whipped cream, then take a third of it and mix vigorously with the pastry cream.

Gently add the remaining whipped cream with a spatula, then put the cream into a piping bag fitted with the tip (here, a small pastry tip 14mm) of your choice and proceed to assembly.

Assembly:

300g of strawberries

Cut 200g of strawberries into small cubes. Reserve the rest for the cake decoration.
Fill the cake with a little cream, then cover with the strawberry cubes.

Cover with cream.

Finally, pipe the remaining cream onto the cake and decorate with a few strawberries before enjoying!