Strawberry Banana Sponge Cake

One of the best cakes I've ever made. The sponge was super light, soft and fluffy. The pastry cream gave sweetness and richness while the cream gave some lightness. Strawberries and bananas made it completely perfect. It is a real summer-must-make-cake! I have eaten many cakes like this - sponge, berries or fruits and cream. And I never was a big fan of them until I made my own version. It tastes a million times better than a store-bought cake. And it's much easier than it looks like. You can make the pastry cream and the sponge in advance. (Actually I highly recommend making the sponge cake the day before to cool it completely).
I hope I've convinced you to make this. Believe me, you won't regret it!

Strawberry Banana Sponge Cake

Pastry Cream
4 egg yolks
130g sugar
400ml milk
40g cornstarch
50g butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Sponge Cake (recipe from here)
4 large eggs, separated
120g sugar
3 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
120g cake flour, sifted
20g butter, melted

1 large banana, sliced
1 - 1,5 cup strawberries, halved
1 tbsp orange juice

200ml whipping cream
2-3 tbsp powdered sugar

Make the pastry cream:
1) In a heavy bottom pot, beat together the yolks, sugar and cornstarch until light and fluffy.
2) In a medium pot, bring milk to boil. Once it boils, add a little to the yolk mixture. Always keep whisking as fast as you can! Gradually pour all the milk into the yolk mixture. Do not stop whisking. Bring the pot over medium-low heat and whisk until the mixture thickens. If it starts bubbling too much, lower the heat. The pastry cream has to drop off the spoon very slowly but there musn't be any lumps. When you reach that consistency, remove from heat and let stand for 2 minutes.
3) Add the vanilla extract and butter. Mix until incorporated.
4) If there are some lumps, you can strain the pastry cream. However, I did not have any lumps because I was whisking it constantly.
5) Let cool. Cover with plastic wrap and place into the fridge.

Make the sponge Cake:
1) Beat the egg whites until stiff, gradually adding sugar. When it is incorporated, stir in the egg yolks. Stir in the milk, vanilla extract, cake flour and butter.
2) Preheat oven to 180C. Line 2 springform pans with parchment paper. Divide the batter into the pans. Bake for 15-25 minutes or until it is golden brown and springs back when pressed.
3) Cool completely.

Assembly:
1) Whip the whipping cream with powdered sugar until stiff.
2) Dip banana slices into orange juice and shake excess liquid.
3) Place one layer of cake onto a plate. Spread half of the pastry cream. Place some strawberries iver it. Cover with half of the whipping cream. Place the second cake layer on top. Cover with pastry cream, then the whipping cream and decoreate with strawberries and bananas.
4) Chill for at least 30 minutes.

Enjoy!!!

*If you use a 17cm springform pan, you will get thicker cake. You may slice it and have 4 layers instead of 2. I baked mine in a 23cm pan so my layers were quite thin.

Recipe by collecting memories