Strawberry sparkling wine cake

Ingredients for 12 servings:

• 50 g dark chocolate
• 50 g butter
• 4 eggs
• 120 g sugar
• 100 g flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 800 g strawberries
• 10 sheets of white gelatin
• 4 tbsp milk
• 100 g sugar
• 3 eggs, including the yolk
• ½ lemon(s), juice
• 375 ml sparkling wine
• 450 ml whipped cream
• 3 sheets of red gelatin
• 2 tbsp almonds (flakes)

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour 30 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 30 minutes

Line the bottom of a 26 cm diameter springform pan with baking paper. Preheat oven to 175°C. Melt chocolate and butter. Allow to cool slightly. Separate eggs. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Beat egg yolks with sugar and 3 tablespoons of lukewarm water until creamy. Mix flour with baking powder and sift onto the egg custard. Do not stir. Add the melted lukewarm butter chocolate and one-third of the beaten egg whites. Carefully mix everything together. Then loosely fold in the remaining beaten egg whites. Pour the sponge mixture into the pan and bake for about 30 minutes. Allow to cool. For the filling, wash and hull the strawberries. Puree 300g, then cut 300g into pieces. Soak 4 sheets of white gelatine and 6 sheets separately in cold water. Bring the milk and 90g of sugar to a boil, remove the pan from the heat, and stir in the egg yolks. Slowly whisk in the juice of 1/2 lemon and 125 ml of sparkling wine. Take a quarter of the mixture and mix it with the pureed strawberries. Remove the gelatin from the water and dissolve it separately at a low temperature. Stir 4 leaves into the strawberry puree mixture, 6 leaves into the white mixture, then fold in the strawberry pieces. Whip 250 ml of cream until stiff peaks form. As soon as the creams begin to set, fold in the cream: one quarter into the pink strawberry puree mixture, three quarters into the other. Cut the sponge cake crosswise. Place a cake ring (or a springform pan) around the sponge cake base. Spread the cream with the strawberry pieces on top, place the second sponge cake layer on top, spread the pink cream on top, and chill. Soak the red gelatin in 1/8 l of cold water and dissolve at a low temperature. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1/8 l of sparkling wine. Allow to cool, but do not set, then spread evenly over the pink cream on the cake. Refrigerate for 3 hours. Shortly before serving, whip the remaining cream until stiff peaks form. Remove the cake ring and spread the cream around the edges of the cake. Transfer the remaining cream to a piping bag and pipe designs onto the cake. Garnish with strawberries. Decorate the edges of the cake with flaked almonds.