I have been wanting to make one of these for a while but was a little intimidated. It looks super fancy, but despite the assembly it was actually fairly easy.

I did make my own ladyfingers and I was a little nervous about this particular recipe since it was a one-bowl recipe that uses whole eggs. I wasn’t sure they’d puff up the way they should and mine did end up a bit on the flat side, but honestly, they still turned out pretty good.

You start by gently warming the eggs, sugar, and salt over steam, then whip them like crazy until the mixture gets super airy and thick—this step is key. Once it’s holding soft peaks, you fold in flour and cornstarch, pipe out the fingers, dust with powdered sugar, and bake.

Next you’ll make the strawberry purée. Most of the berries go into the blender and you save the prettiest ones for decorating. Some of the purée gets cooked down with sugar and gelatin to thicken it up a bit, then you mix that back in with the rest and let it cool.

Then you’ll create a simple syrup with lime zest to soak the ladyfingers in. This is super simple so I’ll move on to the next part.

The mousse is just whipped cream folded into the purée until it’s light and airy—don’t overmix it or it’ll lose that fluffiness. Again, super simple.

Assembling everything felt a little like building a dessert puzzle. First, just lining my springform pan with parchment paper was difficult because I couldn’t get it to stay. I’m not sure what I ended up doing but I finally got it to work and then started lining the soaked ladyfingers around the edge. This felt a lot like dominos because if one fell then others did too. I got the hang of it though and did the whole outside and the base. From there, you layer in the mousse, a row of halved strawberries, more mousse, and smooth it all out. I didn’t worry too much about getting the top perfect since I knew I’d be piling more strawberries on there later.

It chills in the fridge for a few hours—mine set really nicely, though I did get a little nervous unmolding it. A ribbon around the outside is optional, but kind of adorable, and also helps everything stay put if it’s going to sit out for a bit.

I finished it off with the rest of the strawberries sliced on top, and that was it. Light, fruity, and super summery. It didn’t last long. I would absolutely make this again, though I think I would use a different recipe for the ladyfingers, I’d trim the bottom of those when lining them so they sit flat when going around the edge of the springform pan, and I think I’d make a little more mousse because I felt like it could have used a little more since my ladyfingers were a little tall (or maybe I’ll just do slightly shorter ladyfingers).

Baking Ease	8
Time Spent	8
Taste	10
Visual	10

Recipe Used: Pardon Your French and Serious Eats