Strawberry Cream Cake

Bake and cool cake layers. For the strawberries, reserve 6 perfect
berries and leave the hulls intact. Rinse, hull and slice the
remaining berries. Combine them with the sugar and lemon juice in a
bowl and let them macerate for a few hours. When ready to assemble
the cake, drain the berries, reserving the juice. For the whipped
cream, combine all ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer and
whip cream until it holds a firm peak. To assemble, place one of the
cake layers on a platter or cardboard and spread with whipped cream.
Spread with the drained strawberry filling, then with another thin
layer of whipped cream. Place second layer on and mask outside of
cake with whipped cream. Press the sliced almonds against the side of
the cake. To decorate, pipe 12 rosettes of the remaining whipped
cream at the top border of the cake. Decorate each rosette with a
halved strawberry, cut side up. —Chocolate Raspberry Cream Cake
Version—
1 1/2 cups cream 2 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons light corn
syrup 1 pound finely cut chocolate Fresh raspberries Milk chocolate
shavings

Omit whipped cream. Bring cream, butter and light corn syrup to a
boil and remove from heat. Add chocolate and whisk until smooth. Cool
until thickened. Beat on mixer with a paddle and use instead of the
whipped cream. Decorate with raspberries instead of strawberries and
use chocolate shavings instead of almonds.

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