Filling
1 cup crushed strawberries 1/2 cup heavy cream Sugar to taste Whip the cream and fold it into the sweetened crushed berries. Canned berries may be used for this, in which case the juice is drained from the berries, and thickened with one tablespoon of cornstarch to the cup of juice. The berries are then added to the juice, and the cream is whipped and added to them. Diced oranges may be used instead of berries.
A whipped-cream and fruit filling for layer cakes, shortcakes or cream puffs, given in two versions: fresh berries folded straight in, and canned berries whose syrup is first thickened.
- YieldHalf a cup of heavy cream whips to roughly a cup, so the finished filling is about two cups. That fills and tops one 8-inch two-layer cake or four to six individual shortcakes.
- Cook the cornstarch, then chill itThe canned-fruit version only works if the thickened juice is simmered a full minute to cook out the raw starch, then cooled completely. Warm starch will melt whipped cream on contact and the filling will weep.
- Heavy creamModern heavy or whipping cream runs at 36 percent fat, which is likely close to what was intended here, though period cream varied. Chill the bowl and the cream well; ultra-pasteurized cream whips more slowly and holds slightly less air.
- Sugar to tasteTwo to three tablespoons for a cup of berries is typical. Sweeten the crushed fruit rather than the cream, as the original directs, and let it stand ten minutes so the sugar dissolves before folding.
- Drain the fresh berries tooCrushed fresh strawberries throw off a surprising amount of juice. Drain them briefly in a sieve, or the filling will slump and soak the cake within an hour.
- Holding timeUnstabilized whipped cream folded with acidic fruit begins to separate after two or three hours. Assemble close to serving, and keep it refrigerated until then.
- The orange variationDiced oranges must be cut free of membrane and drained hard; segments carry more liquid than crushed berries and will thin the cream noticeably.