Recettear: Shortcake

In many games you take the role of the hero. There are always plenty of characters that are willing to help you out by joining you in the front lines or just selling you items to make you stronger. Did you ever wonder how these shops keep a supply in order to get you prepared for battle? Well, let’s reverse the roles. You play the shopkeeper and the AI will be the heroes adventuring in the world. As you ponder how to keep your shop in the positive  you realize the best place to get stuff is in dungeons. Unfortunately, your stats are not suited for combat. Seems you need to hire some muscle in order to clear the dungeons. The big question is how will you convince them to give you the items while they do all the work?

Recettear is exactly what I just described. You play the role of a store owner that needs to sell items in order to stay in business. In the game you manage to find a few heroes willing to help you out in order to keep your store afloat. Half of the game is a dungeon crawler where you explore and collect items while the other half is you trying to sell these items for the biggest profit. As you adventure in the dungeons you will fight harder and harder bosses for better rewards. You then have to make decisions. Do you give this item to your hero or sell it to make money? Of course there is a reason to make money. You have rent to pay and if you miss a payment it is game over for you. Throughout the game you have to balance your heroes’ strength and the amount of coin in your pocket.

Of course any adventurer would need some nourishment in order to fight through perilous dungeons. Throughout the game, you can find little treats or buy them at the other local shops. Many of these food items help replenish your hero’s health. While adventuring, you will take a lot of damage and require these items in order to spend long periods of times in the dungeon. One of the treats that caught my eye was the strawberry shortcake. I love this stuff and finally found a balanced recipe for it. I believe I went through three iterations of this until I was completely happy with it. The first time I made it, the cake completely fell apart and I learned that you have to let the cakes completely cool otherwise disaster happens. The second time the cakes were just too dense. Finally after a few modifications to the numbers, I found the balance of light and delicious. When making this recipe I highly recommend that you give yourself a good amount of buffer time because you need the cakes to cool and I recommend letting it sit in the refrigerator for a bit before serving.

Required Equipment: Stand Mixer (hand mixer works also), 2 9 inch circular baking pans, 2 bowls, spoon
Servings: 8 Slices
Ingredients:
For Cake:
– 6 Eggs
– 1 cup Sugar
– ¼ cup Water
– 1 ½ tsp Vanilla Extract
– 1 cup Cake Flour
– ½ tsp cream of tartar
– ¼ tsp salt

For Frosting:
-16 oz Cream Cheese
– 3 cups Heavy Cream
– ½ cup sugar
– 2 tsp Vanilla Extract

– 1 lb of Strawberries

Pre-heat the oven to 325°F. Begin by separating the egg whites and yolks into two separate bowls.

Place the egg yolks in your stand mixer and beat until they appear to have thickened.

Add the sugar and mix until it is combined. Once that is combined, add the water and allow that to mix.

Slowly add the flour to this mixture. If you are using a stand mixer, move the mixture into another large bowl and thoroughly clean out your stand mixer bowl. Make sure it is completely clean because for working the egg whites we want to make sure there is no extra oil in the bowl to affect it.

Place the egg whites in the bowl and give them a light mix until they begin to froth. Once they are frothy, add the cream of tartar. Cream of tartar is added in order to help prevent the egg whites from collapsing and keeps them stable.

Whip the eggs until they form stiff peaks.

Once the egg whites have reached the desired stiffness, begin to fold it in to the yolk mixture. Use a folding action. The most important thing is to not overwork it so the egg whites keep the air in them.

After folding in the egg whites, separate the batter into two baking pans.

Place in the oven and allow it to cook for about 45 minutes or until when you poke the cake with a toothpick it comes out clean. This cake might cook quicker than expected so keep an eye on it and if it begins to smell like cake it might already be done. Once the cake has finished cooking, place both pans on a cooling rake upside down. I placed a cook sheet on my cooling rake to avoid the cake getting stuck. This will allow the cake to come out easily once it has cooled.

While the cake cools, begin cutting the strawberries. Select the eight best looking strawberries and remove the tops. Set these strawberries aside because they will be used for the top of the cake.

Slice the rest of the strawberries.

Time to start working on the frosting for the cake! Begin by placing the cream cheese in a bowl (or your stand mixer) and mix until it completely softens. Add the sugar and vanilla extract and mix until it is fully combined.

Slowly add the heavy cream to the mixture. The frosting will be creamy and light once everything is combined together.

After you have allowed the cakes to completely cool, you can begin to construct the shortcake. Place one of the cakes on a serving plate (I used a cake carrier). Frost the top of the cake portion.

Add a layer of the sliced strawberries. Add more frosting on top of the strawberries.

Next place the second layer of the cake. Finally frost the entire thing.

Lastly place the strawberries you saved for the top. If you aren’t going to serve the cake immediately I would recommend placing it in the refrigerator for until you will serve it. This will help solidify the cake and keep it looking awesome! One word of warning this cake taste very light so you’ll want to eat more than you probably should, haha!