Steps

• Preheat the oven to 355°F (static), and butter and flour a springform pan (Ø 9 inches) and set aside.

  

• Put the sugar in your blender and pulverize it. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

  In a bowl, put the egg whites and salt and whip them to stiff peaks, and set aside.

  

• Let’s move on to the chocolate: Put the chocolate pieces in the blender or chopper and chop it finely.
  

  

• Transfer it to a large glass bowl, along with the butter and sunflower oil, then melt in the microwave or in a double boiler.

  

• As soon as the mixture has melted, add the reserved powdered sugar, the vanilla sugar, and the egg yolks, and mix with the whisks. As soon as the mixture is homogeneous, add the sifted all-purpose flour and baking powder, and mix: 10 more.

  

• Gradually incorporate the whipped egg whites, gently to avoid deflating, using a pastry spatula with motions from bottom to top. Transfer everything into the prepared cake pan and bake in the hot oven for 30-35 minutes (355°F).

  

• Remove the cake pan from the oven, unmold the sponge cake onto a wire rack, and let cool completely.

  

• Only when it has cooled can you cut it with a long, smooth-bladed knife.

  

• Follow my recipe here click here

  

• In a small saucepan, heat the water with the sugar, stirring until the sugar has dissolved and the water has become clear. Let it cool, and only then add the chosen liqueur.

  If you want to make a non-alcoholic syrup, you can omit the liqueur or even soak the sponge cake with just milk.

  

• Now I’ll show you the procedure with the Thermomix

  

• Put the sugar in the Thermomix bowl, and pulverize: 20 sec./speed 10. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

  Now place the butterfly in the bowl, and put the egg whites and salt inside.

  Whip to stiff peaks: 4 min./speed 3.5.

  

• As soon as the egg whites are whipped to stiff peaks, remove the butterfly, and transfer the whipped egg whites to a bowl and set aside.

  Let’s move on to the chocolate: Put the chocolate pieces in the bowl, chop: 10 sec./speed 7. Gather to the bottom with the spatula, and add the butter and sunflower oil, then melt: 5 min./122°F/speed 1 with the measuring cup.

  

• Now remove the bowl from its base and combine the chocolate mixture with the egg whites, gently to avoid deflating, using a pastry spatula with motions from bottom to top.

• Transfer everything into the prepared cake pan and bake in the hot oven for 30-35 minutes (355°F).

  

• Remove the cake pan from the oven, unmold the sponge cake onto a wire rack, and let cool completely.

  

• Follow the recipe on my blog click here

  

• Put the water with the sugar in the Thermomix bowl, mix for 3 min at 98°F/speed 2 with the measuring cup

  Let it cool, and only then add the chosen liqueur and mix for 1 min. with the measuring cup speed 2.

• If you want to make a non-alcoholic syrup, you can omit the liqueur or even soak the sponge cake with just milk.

  

• Remove the sponge cake from the pan only when it is cold, cut the top part of it, which usually has an irregular shape. Set aside the remnants that we will use for decoration.

  Now divide the rest of the sponge cake into 2 disks.

  

• Brush the 2 disks with the syrup we made.

  Spread a layer of cream on the first one, about half, and sprinkle with almond crumbs using less than half of what you have available.

  

• Cover with the second sponge cake disk and spread another layer of cream on the top and sides of the cake. Don’t worry if there are irregularities, because we will cover them with the sponge cake scraps.

• Indeed, cut the scraps into squares, and “stick” them with the cream around and on top of the cake, finish with the almond crumbs and strawberries both on the edges and on the surface.