Strawberry Paddy Cakes

Most of the strawberry cakes that I tried lacked the richness that I was looking for. With Paddy Cakes, I've added FE Sweet Rice to help fill out and lift the FW Yellow Cake to get a rich, moist yellow cake base; I love the way that the Yellow Cake and Sweet Rice dance and embrace each other. A little FA Meringue rounds out the cake and completes it.

I borrowed a technique @Shyndo used in his Mango Sticky Rice...the CAP Super Sweet is meant to tame the slight bitterness that Sweet Rice tends toward, rather than provide sweetness to the recipe, and it works very well, here.

I prefer the classic TFA Strawberry Ripe/TFA Strawberry combination, over CAP Sweet Strawberry/Shisha Strawberry mix, as I feel it works better in bakery recipes. The latter seems to sit on top, while the former seems to blend into the recipe better, and the TFA combo does not disappoint, here. A little lemon zest brings just a tad of brightness to the fruit.

I recommend an overnight steep, before the initial taste, to let the Sweet Rice calm down a bit. After 3 days, the recipe is very good, but if you can wait 14 days or more, Strawberry Paddy Cakes becomes amazing. Give this recipe a try, and let me know what you think. Enjoy!