Strawberry Fraisier Cake

How to make a delicious strawberry fraisier cake 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.

this recipe

When the strawberry season starts it's also the season of the Fraisier cake, this delicious traditional French strawberry cake with its crown of fresh strawberries and its creamy filling.

Fraisier cake is a must-have dessert that everyone loves when the first strawberries come along with the delicious recipe for strawberry custard tart.

This 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 (crème mousseline) used in the traditional fraisier cake recipe and flavorful fresh strawberries.

Why we love this dessert

• Easy and simple recipe with my detailed step-by-step preparation.
• Tasty and fruity with fresh strawberries for all strawberry lovers.
• Greedy and lighter at the same time both the pastry cream and mascarpone frosting.
• Beautiful dessert perfect for special occasions, Mother's Day, birthdays, etc.

>> See all the pastry and entremets recipes from the blog

Composition of this dessert

Here is an overview of the composition and ingredients needed to make the French fraisier cake at home, scroll down the page to see the quantities in the recipe card.

Genoise biscuit sponge

• Eggs: Use room temperature eggs, dip them in hot water for a few minutes if you haven't had time to take them out in advance.
• Sugar: Use extra fine granulated sugar if possible and not flavored.
• Flour: Wheat cake flour or a mixture of half flour and half cornstarch.

Materials: You will need an 8 inches / 20 cm diameter by 4.5 cm high pastry circle, an electric mixer, and a stand mixer.

Diplomate cream filling

In the traditional French fraisier recipe, we use a mousseline cream, but here I chose to make it lighter with a mascarpone diplomat cream.

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.

>> You can also simply use a mousseline cream as in the classic French cake fraisier which is a blend of pastry cream with buttercream.

⚠️ You will find the quantities and complete instructions in the recipe card at the end of the page.

How to make French Strawberry Cake

Make the genoise sponge

1. Preheat oven to 329°F / 165°C and line an 8 inches 20 cm round cake pan with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of your mixer or stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, place the room-temperature eggs and sugar.
3. Beat on medium-high speed for about 10 - 12 minutes until the mixture triples in volume.
4. Pour the cake flour through a fine sieve and fold in with a spatula until smooth and creamy.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes until lightly browned.
6. 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.
7. 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).

Tip: You can also remove the crust of the sponge cake delicately with a knife when it is still a little warm to have a very white cake.

Make the pastry cream

1. Heat the milk with the vanilla bean (or vanilla bean paste), split in half and scraped out, until it boils, then let it infuse for 10 minutes.  
2. In the meantime, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar and the cornstarch until the mixture is smooth and white.
3. Pour the warm milk over the egg mixture and sugar mixture and whisk to incorporate.
4. 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.
5. Remove from the heat and add the gelatin leaves, then the unsalted butter, and mix vigorously with a hand whisk to incorporate them.
6. Pour the pastry cream into a rectangular dish and cover with a plastic wrap.
7. Then let the pastry cream cool completely in the refrigerator.

Tip: Mix vigorously the pastry cream during cooking to avoid the bottom sticking and to make the pastry cream runny.

Diplomat cream

1. Place the cold heavy cream with the cold mascarpone cheese in a large mixing bowl.
2. Mix with an electric mixer at medium speed for about 3 minutes until you have a firm mascarpone frosting.
3. 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.
4. Add the whipped mascarpone frosting to the pastry cream and gently fold in with a spatula until you have a smooth, creamy diplomat cream.
5. Set aside in the refrigerator until ready to assemble.

Tip: Whip up the diplomatic cream at the last moment if possible, just before assembling the strawberry fraisier cake.

Assembly

• Place a cake ring or a springform pan on a cake board or large serving plate and add cake collar tape 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.

Decoration

1. Whip the remaining diplomat cream whipped cream again with an electric mixer just until smooth and creamy.
2. Decorate the edge of the strawberry fraisier with a piping bag and a star tip (1B here).
3. Decorate the top of the cake with fresh strawberry slices and serve immediately or keep it in the fridge.

Tip: You can also make a simple mascarpone whipped cream frosting with heavy cream, powdered sugar, and mascarpone cheese to decorate the top of the cake by following my complete recipe: Mascarpone frosting

Conservation and variations

In the fridge: Keep this strawberry fraisier 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.

Marzipan decoration: You can replace the whipped cream decoration with a ready-made marzipan disk that you can find in stores.

Other fruits: Replace the fresh strawberries inside with a blend of red fruits, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, exotic fruits, etc.

Other flavors: Add pistachio spread to flavor the diplomat cream frosting, lemon curd, lemon juice or strawberry, mango, or raspberry curd.

Use agar agar: Replace the 4 gelatin sheets with 2 g of agar agar (about 1 tsp). Bring the agar-agar mixed with 2 tablespoons of water to a boil in a saucepan, then add it to the hot pastry cream.

More pastries and entremets

• Chocolate yule log with chocolate rocher glaze
• Chocolate hazelnut yule log
• Pavlova recipe
• Mini pavlova with strawberry

More strawberry desserts

• Strawberry tart classic French recipe
• Strawberry layer cake
• Strawberry swirl cheesecake
• Strawberry galette
• Strawberry milkshake
• Strawberry whipped cream cake
• Strawberry banana smoothie
• Strawberry macarons
• Strawberry coffee cake

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