How to make a delicious fraisier recipe as beautiful and delicious as my no-bake strawberry cheesecake recipe with this easy recipe made with fresh strawberries, and a creamy and lightly vanilla diplomat cream.
Jump to:
What is Fraisier?
Fraisier cake is a must-have dessert, a classic French dessert hat everyone loves when the first strawberries come along with the delicious recipe for strawberry custard tart.
This French dessert is very popular for its creamy texture and fruity flavor, composed of a soft and airy genoise sponge cake, filled with a diplomat cream to replace the regular mousseline cream (creme mousseline) used in the classic fraisier recipe and flavorful fresh fruit.
Why you'll love this recipe
Craving for more French desserts? Give these a try, French strawberry tart, French apple tart, strawberry mascarpone tart and French King Cake.
Ingredient Notes
You need these ingredients to make this French strawberry cake:
- Genoise biscuit sponge: A simple sponge cake with eggs, fine sugar and cake flour or all-purpose flour or a mixture of flour and cornstarch.
- Diplomate cream filling: Diplomat cream is the combination of classic pastry cream with whipped cream but here to have a firmer and smoother texture I made a mixture of whipped cream and mascarpone cheese.
How to make French Fraisier Cake
Here are some quick visual instructions. Don't forget that full recipe instructions with exact ingredients can be found in the recipe card below!
- Preheat oven to 329°F / 165°C and line an 8 inches 20 cm round cake pan with parchment paper.
- In the large bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, place the room-temperature eggs and sugar.
- Beat on medium-high speed for about 10 - 12 minutes until the mixture triples in volume.
- Pour the cake flour through a fine sieve and fold in with a spatula until smooth and creamy.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes until lightly browned.
- Remove the sponge cake from the oven and allow it to cool slightly before carefully removing it from the pan and letting it cool completely on a cake rack.
- When cool, cut in 2 layers of genoise sponge using a cake leveler or a large serrated knife (if possible, cut a layer of genoise sponge in order to have one layer of 6 inches / 16 cm in diameter and one of 8 inches/20 cm diameter).
- Heat the milk with your vanilla extract (you can use a vanilla pod or vanilla bean paste) until it boils, then let it infuse for 10 minutes.
- In the meantime, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar and the cornstarch until the mixture is smooth and white.
- Pour the warm milk over the egg mixture and sugar mixture and whisk to incorporate.
- Transfer the mixture to the saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat while whisking constantly until you have a thick, smooth pastry cream.
- Remove from the heat and add the gelatin leaves, then the unsalted butter, and mix vigorously with a hand whisk to incorporate them.
- Pour the pastry cream into a rectangular dish and cover with a plastic wrap.
- Then let the pastry cream cool completely in the refrigerator.
- Place the cold heavy cream with the cold mascarpone cheese in a large mixing bowl.
- Mix with an electric mixer at medium speed for about 3 minutes until you have a firm mascarpone frosting.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, place the cold pastry cream and whisk on medium-high speed for 1-2 minutes to soften the mixture.
- Add the whipped mascarpone frosting to the pastry cream and gently fold in with a spatula until you have a smooth, creamy diplomat cream.
- Set aside in the refrigerator until ready to assemble.
- Place a cake ring or a springform pan on a cake board or large serving plate and add an acetate strip for easy unmolding.
- Start by placing fresh strawberry halves around the edge of the pastry ring, sticking together without leaving any space.
- Then place the first sponge layer cut to 6 inches / 16 cm in diameter and soak it with sugar syrup or strawberry syrup using a pastry brush.
- Using a pastry bag filled with diplomatic cream, fill a layer of whipped cream until it completely covers the fresh strawberries, leaving a hollow in the center.
- Add chopped strawberries in the center.
- Fill with a layer of diplomat whipped cream to cover the strawberries.
- Then place the second sponge cake of 8 inches / 20 cm diameter to enclose the whole.
- Apply another layer of sugar syrup to the sponge cake, then cover with a layer of whipped cream and smooth it with an angled spatula.
- Place the fraisier in the refrigerator for about 1 hour before unmolding and decorating.
- Whip the remaining diplomat cream whipped cream again with an electric mixer just until smooth and creamy.
- Decorate the edge of the strawberry cake with a piping bag and a star tip (1B here).
- Decorate the top of the cake with fresh strawberry slices and serve immediately or keep it in the fridge.
Tips for this recipe
Storage instructions
In the fridge: Keep this strawberry diplomat cake only in the fridge for about 2 days max under plastic wrap or in an airtight container.
Freezing: Strawberries do not thaw well and you may end up with a waterlogged cake, so freezing is not recommended.
Variations & Substitutions
More Strawberry Desserts
I hope you love this easy French fraisier cake recipe. If you make it, be sure to leave a comment and a rating so I know how you liked it. Happy Baking!
Print
Fraisier Cake with diplomat cream
- Total Time: 0 hours
- Yield: 8 slices
Description
Delicious traditional French fraisier with diplomat cream, light and delicious for an 8 inches 20 cm cake (8-10 slices)
Ingredients
Genoise
- 3 eggs - large at room temperature
- 90 g (½ cup) Sugar - granulated
- 90 g (¾ cup) Flour - Cake Flour
Diplomat cream filling
- 4 Sheets of gelatin - about 8 g
- 400 ml ( 1 ⅔ cups) Milk - semi-skimmed or whole
- 1 Vanilla bean
- 64 g (4) Egg yolks
- 90 g (½ cup)Sugar - granulated
- 30 g (¼ cup) Cornstarch
- 35 g (2 ½ tbsp) Butter - unsalted and soft
- 160 g (⅔ cup) Heavy cream - full fat and cold
- 120 g (½ cup) Mascarpone cheese - cold
Decoration
- 500 g ( 2 ½ cups) Fresh strawberries
- Soaking syrup - optional (see notes)
Instructions
Genoise
- Preheat oven to 329°F / 165°C and line the bottom of a 8 inches / 20 cm round cake pan with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs and sugar at medium-high speed for 10 - 12 minutes until the mixture triples in volume.
- Stop the mixer and pour the cake flour through a fine sieve and gently fold in with an angled spatula until the mixture is smooth and homogeneous (without making the batter fall apart).
- Pour the genoise batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 20 minutes until golden on top (check for baking by plunging a toothpick into the center, it should come out clean without crumbs).
- Let the sponge cool a bit in its pan before unmolding it carefully by running a knife around the edge of the pan, then let it cool completely on a cake rack.
- Cut the sponge cake into 2 layers of about 1 cm thick with a cake leveler or a large serrated knife.
- Cover with a cloth and keep at room temperature for the rest of the preparation.
Diplomat cream filling
- Rehydrate the gelatin leaves in a bowl of cold water for 10 minutes.
- Bring the milk and vanilla bean to a boil, previously split in two and scraped to remove the seeds, then leave to infuse for 10 minutes if possible.
- Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar and cornstarch in a large bowl until the mixture is whitened.
- Pour the hot milk through a sieve over the yolk mixture and whisk until smooth.
- Transfer the mixture to the saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat until the pastry cream thickens, stirring constantly with a hand whisk.
- As soon as it starts to boil, continue to cook the pastry cream for another 2 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and add the gelatin sheets first and mix vigorously to incorporate them, then add the softened butter and mix again.
- Pour the pastry cream into a rectangular dish and cover with plastic wrap.
- Place the pastry cream in the refrigerator until it is completely chilled.
- When the pastry cream is cold, put it in the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment and mix on medium-high speed for 1-2 minutes to relax it.
- In a separate bowl, whip the cold heavy cream with the cold mascarpone cheese with an electric mixer at medium speed for 3 minutes until you have a firm whipped cream.
- Add the whipped cream to the pastry cream with a spatula until you have a smooth, unctuous diplomat cream.
- Cover and store in the fridge until ready to assemble.
Set up
- Place a pastry ring on a cake board or in a large serving dish.
- Place halved strawberries around the edge of the circle, making sure not to leave any space between the strawberries.
- Place first re-cut sponge cake about 6 inches/ 16 cm in diameter (use a plate or tart circle to cut out the bottom layer of genoise).
- Apply the soaking syrup with a pastry brush over the entire surface of the genoise.
- Then cover the entire genoise and fresh strawberries with the diplomat cream until completely covered.
- In the center, add some strawberry chunks and cover again with a layer of diplomat cream.
- Place the second genoise of 8 inches / 20 cm in diameter and soak it with sugar syrup.
- Cover completely with the filling and smooth with an angled spatula.
- Place the strawberry cake in the refrigerator for about 1 hour before unmolding.
Decoration
- Whip the remaining diplomat cream filling with an electric whisk to give it a fluffy texture.
- Decorate the top with a piping bag and the filling, then decorate the center with fresh strawberry slices.
- Enjoy the cake.
Notes
Conservation: Up to 2 days in the refrigerator under a plastic film or in a conservation box.
Soaking syrup: Mix 50 g of water with 50 g of caster sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat until you have a fluid texture like sugar syrup. (You can add a few strawberries to flavor the strawberry syrup.
- Prep Time: 1 houre
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: cake,pastries
- Cuisine: French
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 410
- Sugar: 30.8 g
- Sodium: 70.3 mg
- Fat: 22 g
- Carbohydrates: 45.2 g
- Protein: 9.5 g
- Cholesterol: 208.9 mg
Beautiful strawberry cake!