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September 4, 2025

Fraisier Gâteau (Strawberry Cake)

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Fraisier Gâteau (Strawberry Cake)

Light, rich and decadently delicious Strawberry Fraisier features a silky soft Almond-genoise sponge soaked in a delicious spiked strawberry punch, covered in a creamy and buttery toasted pistachio Mousseline and delicious fresh strawberries. This elegant dessert is from an archived Bruno Albouze Youtube Video from 2016. Adaptations have been made to fit a 9" Cake tin
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Prep Time 1 day
Cook Time 35 minutes
Servings 12 –

Ingredients
  

Almond Genoise

  • 60 g almonds (2 oz) skin on or off
  • 60 6 powdered (icing) sugar (2 oz)
  • 70 g caster sugar 1/3 cup
  • 250 g eggs 5 large (5 ea.)
  • 150 g all-purpose flour sifted (1 cup)
  • 8 g baking powder sifted (1.5 tsp)
  • 60 g unsalted butter melted (4 Tbsp / 2 oz)

Pistachio Paste

  • 150 g pistachios, de-shelled 5 oz
  • 15 ml peanut or grapeseed oil 1 Tbsp (I used light tase Olive Oil but Bruno Albouze would use peanut or grapeseed in his recipe).

Strawberry Punch

  • 50 g caster sugar 1/4 cup
  • 50 g water 1/4 cup
  • 1 vanilla bean seeds scraped (or 1 tsp extract)
  • 250 g strawberries 8 oz
  • Juice of 1/2 lemon ~15 ml (1 Tbsp)
  • 15 ml Kirsch optional (1 Tbsp). Note 1
  • Water as needed to adjust consistency

Mousseline Cream (scaled for 9″ cake tin)

  • 542 g whole milk 2 1/4 cups
  • 120 g sugar divided
  • 4 egg yolks ~70–80 g (4 ea.)
  • 18 g flour 1 1/2 Tbsp
  • 18 g cornstarch 1 1/2 Tbsp
  • 300 g unsalted butter divided (21 Tbsp / 10.5 oz). One half kept ROOM TEMPERATURE.
  • Pistachio paste from earlier

To Finish

  • 1.5-2 kg strawberries ~4 lbs
  • Fresh mint leaves pistachios for decoration

Instructions
 

Nuts

  • In a pot of boiling water, blanch the shelled pistachios for no more than 1 minute before placing into cold water to prevent from going soggy. The brown/dark skin should be much easier to peel, but it may take you some time depending on skill and speed. Leaving the skins will make your pistachio paste an unfavorable colour.
  • In 175°C (347°F) oven, toast the almonds and the pistachios (seperated) for 10m until a beautiful nutty aroma fills the room and they have been gently toasted.
  • In a blender or food processor blend the almonds with icing sugar until it becomes a meal (floury texture).

Pistachio Paste

  • Toast pistachios at 150 °C / 300 °F for 10 minutes.
  • While warm, blend with oil until smooth. Set aside. (Note 2)

Almond Genoise

  • In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle, beat almond paste + sugar on medium speed until combined. Gradually add a couple of eggs before increasing to high speed.
  • Once incorporated, switch to whisk attachment and add the remaining eggs. Beat on high speed for 10 minutes until the batter has tripled in size and become fluffy and aerated.
  • Temper the melted butter with about 1 cup of the batter mixture, set aside. Do not add the batter on to PIPING hot butter, let the melted butter cool slightly first.
  • Fold sifted flour + baking powder gently into the egg mixture, then incorporate the butter mixture. Be sure to gently fold as you do not want to deflate the genoise batter.
  • Pour into greased 8-inch round cake pan.
  • Bake at 180 °C / 350 °F for ~35 minutes, until a knife comes out clean.
  • Cool 10 minutes, unmold onto parchment-lined rack. When fully cool, trim top and slice 1 cm discs. Freeze extras.

Strawberry Punch

  • To make the simple syrup, boil sugar, water and vanilla pod or extract, then set aside to cool slightly. Remove vanilla bean.
  • Blend symple syrup with strawberries, lemon juice, Kirsch (optional). Add water to adjust the consistency if needed, it should be loose not thick like a smoothie/slushie.
  • Use at room temp, it can be refrigerated for 3-4 days or frozen for up to two months.

Pistachio Mousseline Cream

  • Bring milk, half the sugar, and vanilla to simmer.
  • In another bowl, whisk egg yolks along with the rest of sugar, then add the flour and cornstarch. Whisk thoroughly until smooth and light in colour.
  • Slowly temper the yolk mixture with hot milk whilst whisking, then return mixture to the saucepan over a mesh strainer.
  • Bring back on to the heat and cook over medium-high, whisking constantly, until it boils and thickens. Should take about 2-5 minutes.
  • Remove from heat, whisk in half the butter (≈150 g) until smooth. NOTE 3
  • Transfer to a shallow dish to cool, cover with cling film touching surface to prevent a film from forming over the custard, and chill completely.
  • Once cool place the custard back into a stand mixer or bowl and whip the custard until smooth, then gradually add the remaining butter (≈150 g, must be very soft, room temp), beating until glossy and fluffy. Do not use COLD custard and soft butter otherwise you will find a grainy texture. Note 4
  • Add the pistachio paste and beat until incorporated and place into a very large piping bad.

Assembly (Upside down)

  • Place a pastry ring or a spring form pan (without the bottom) over a sheet of baking paper (Bruno uses a large plastic ziplock bag). Assemble the halved strawberries cut side down.
  • Add a generous layer of mousseline cream and use a spatula to press into the strawberries and edges,
  • Soak one side of your genoise disc in strawberry punch, flip and place on top, so that the soaked side is facing the ceiling, pressing gently to seal in the first layer of mousseline.
  • Arrange more strawberry halves on the circumference of the ring, fill gaps with cream.
  • Add more strawberries + cream, then finish with a second soaked genoise disc.
  • Smooth the surface with a spatula.
  • Refrigerate until fully set, overnight preferable otherwise 2-3 hours minimum.
  • Flip onto a flat surface, preferably a serving dish or cutting board. Remove ziplock bag or baking paper along with the cake ring.
  • Decorate with fresh sliced strawberries, pistachios, mint leaves or heavy cream. I left mine similar to Bruno's final presentation.
  • Let sit 30 minutes at room temp before serving.

Notes

Note 1: I used Heering Cherry liquor as Kirsch is impossible to get your hands on in Australia, and the stuff we DO have has horrendous reviews. You can purchase Kirsch online, but I used what I had available.
Note 2: Bruno says you can refrigerate for up to two weeks.
Note 3: Typically Bruno instructs to remove from the heat immediately, however should you encounter an issue with having an extremely runny texture in the later stages, it’s due to  the pastry cream not being cooked long enough to deactivate the alpha-amylase (enzime in the eggs) that breaks down the starch in the cream whilst it’s cooling. You should continue cooking for 1-2 minutes after the bubbles appear, the pastry cream will look thick – then it will loosen slightly and appear much smoother. 
Note 4: If your custard splits (from over cooking after adding the butter), or your custard is too cold when you add the room temp butter and you find a grainy texture from the solidified butter – you can use a stand mixer to bring it back to a smooth consistency.

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