Macadamia Gateau with Strawberries and Cream

A gateau is a cake made with some nut meal in the batter. The delicious subtle flavour of macadamias compliments the fruit and cream and makes this cake gluten friendly. It has no butter so it is also low in saturated fats. Serves 8



4 eggs

½ cup castor sugar

½ cup plain flour

1 cup macadamia nut meal (ground nuts)

To decorate:

450ml ( ¾ pint ) thickened cream, lightly whipped

1 tablespoon of strawberry jam

8 large whole strawberries for the top of the cake

5 or 6 strawberries for the middle layer of cake, sliced

1.      Preheat oven to 190°C. ( 370° F ) Grease two round 20cm cake tins and line the bases with baking paper.

2.      Beat the sugar and eggs together until the mixture is pale and about doubled in volume. This will take about 5 minutes or so. Sift in the flour, and gently fold in together with the nut meal. Pour into prepared tins.

3.      Bake for 15 minutes or until well risen. Test with a skewer. Cool in tins for a few minutes then turn out onto wire racks, loosening edges with a knife if necessary. Cool completely.

4.      Place one cake on a serving plate and spread with some jam if desired and half of the cream. Scatter over the sliced strawberries, layer the other cake on top then spread with the remaining cream and top with strawberries.