The ''fraisier'' is a strawberry cake made of an almond

sponge cake Sponge cake is a light cake made with egg whites, flour and sugar, sometimes leavened with baking powder. Some sponge cakes do not contain egg yolks, like angel food cake, but most of them do. Sponge cakes, leavened with beaten eggs, originated ...

meringue Meringue (, ; ) is a type of dessert or candy, often associated with Swiss, French, Polish and Italian cuisines, traditionally made from whipped egg whites and sugar, and occasionally an acidic ingredient such as lemon, vinegar, or cream o ...

, pastry cream, and strawberries. The pastry is typically made during strawberry season, as the crucial ingredient is the strawberries. The name derives from the French word for strawberries, ''fraises''. It is a classic among French desserts. According to the ''New York Times'' the required construction is often elaborate. The cake's origin dates back to a cake created by

Auguste Escoffier Georges Auguste Escoffier (; 28 October 1846 – 12 February 1935) was a French chef, restaurateur and culinary writer who popularized and updated traditional French cooking methods. Much of Escoffier's technique was based on that of Marie-Antoi ...

at the end of the 19th century that included fresh strawberries. The recipe appears in his ''

Guide Culinaire ''Le Guide Culinaire'' () is Georges Auguste Escoffier, Escoffier's 1903 French cuisine, French restaurant cuisine cookbook, his first. It is a classic and still in print. Escoffier developed the recipes while working at the Savoy, Ritz and Carlto ...

''. The initial version evolved as Pierre Lacam designed a strawberry cake with a

and a touch of

kirsch Kirschwasser (, ; , German for "cherry water") or kirsch is a clear, colorless brandy traditionally made from double distillation of morello cherries, a dark-colored cultivar of the sour cherry. It is now also made from other kinds of cherrie ...

in the 1900s. The ''fraisier'' as we know it today was created only in 1966 by

Gaston Lenôtre Gaston Lenôtre (, born 28 May 1920, died 8 January 2009) was a French pastry chef. He is known as a possible creator of the opera cake (''gâteau opéra''), the founder of Lenôtre a culinary empire, whose brand includes restaurants, catering serv ...

. He made a strawberry cake with a sponge cake punched with kirsch,

buttercream Buttercream, also referred to as butter icing or frosting, is used for either filling, coating or decorating cakes. The main ingredients are butter and some type of sugar. Buttercream is commonly flavored with vanilla. Other common flavors a ...

, and fresh strawberries, then called ''Bagatelle'', in reference to the gardens of Bagatelle located close to Paris.

References

Desserts Strawberry dishes French cakes {{France-dessert-stub

See also

References