A Perfect Cake for All Summer Long

Recently on a favorite French website, I spotted a recipe for a sponge cake scented with ground hazelnuts, and served with strawberries and mascarpone whipped cream. Since local strawberries are omnipresent right now in markets and farmers’ stands in our New England town, I was anxious to try this dessert on my side of the Atlantic.
French recipes are typically abbreviated and often assume that cooks know basic culinary  techniques, so I read up on sponge cakes. Prepared with a minimum of ingredients (usually eggs, sugar, and flour plus seasonings), they can still be challenging to make. The eggs need to be at room temperature for best results, and then are separated. The yolks along with sugar need to be beaten for several minutes until pale yellow and thickened, and the whites should be whipped just until firm and glossy, and stiff enough to form straight peaks when a beater is lifted from them. The whites are what make sponge cakes rise, so most recipes suggest not greasing the baking pan to ease the batter’s rise up its sides.

These simple directions need to be clearly explained so that is how I came to bake this cake five times in the past two weeks! For more info I also relied on some excellent videos, especially one done by Claire Saffitz for the NY Times. She suggested adding some oil to lighten the yolk mixture to loosen it before the whites were incorporated, and I followed that lead.
For my version of the French original, I added some ground almonds in place of hazelnuts. And I included a filling assembled with purchased strawberry preserves, grated orange zest, and a hint of orange liqueur.
Served with a bowl of fresh sliced strawberries and another of crème fraîche-scented whipped cream, this cake has been a huge success with friends and neighbors, all of whom have been willing testers!