I hope you're all healthy and doing great 😁

Last Sunday, I prepared a delicious and easy to make marquise cake with Marie biscuits, fresh strawberries and chocolate. It was for my sister who was turning some age 🤣

Ideally, a marquise is refrigerated for several hours and then unmolded. To do this, use plastic wrap on the base--there are other methods--. I rarely do this; instead, I leave it on the tray, as on this occasion.

When it comes to Marie biscuits (galletas María), my favorite brand is Puig; if I can't find Puig Marie biscuits, I buy sponge fingers instead.

These crunchy biscuits have been around since the end of the 19th century, giving people something to talk about--snf chew on 😁

Like everywhere else, the center of their top surface is embossed with the name María (Marie, Mariebon, or Marietta) and the name of the city where they are made; ours say Caracas (capital of Venezuela).

I keep dear memories of my childhood where these biscuits made my day. Currently, there are other good brands in the market, but none of these take me back to my school days.

Ingredients for the Strawberry Pudding

• 1/2 kg fresh strawberries
• 1/2 cups condensed milk (sweeetened)
• 1/2 cups evaporated milk
• 1 tablespoon margarine (salted)
• 1/2 cups egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1/2 cups water
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch

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Ingredients for the Chocolate Pudding

• 150 gr dark chocolate
• 1/4 cups gr condensed milk (sweetened)
• 1/4 cups evaporated milk
• 1/4 cups egg yolks
• 1/4 cups water
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons coconut oil

Ingredients for the Cake

• 60 Marie biscuits (enough for 4 layers: 15 units per layer)
• 500 ml of condensed milk (200 ml) + evaporated milk (200 ml) + 100 ml water + 1 teaspoon vanilla essence to soak the cookies
• Enough condensed milk to drizzle between layers

Ingredients for the Decoration

• chocolate pudding
• strawberries
• grated coconut (if you have a food art critic at home, sticking his nose in)

The process is simple. I started with the strawberry pudding.

First of all, I soaked the strawberries to be able to wash them well. As usual, I put a drop of bleach and then rinsed them in a water-vinegar solution. After that, I classified the strawberries; the prettier ones I saved for decoration.

I removed the calyces and chopped the strawberries for the pudding.

I poured the condensed milk, evaporated milk, and water into a small pot. I let them cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, while stirring with a pastry spoon. Then I added the strawberries and let them cook for 5 more minutes, stirring constantly to keep it homogeneous and creamy.

I added the margarine and vanilla essence and mixed. I turned off the heat and took the pudding to the blender and processed it for a couple of minutes.

Once back in the pot, I heated it a little, added the egg yolks, mixed well, and reserved.

As soon as I was done with the strawberry pudding, I mixed condensed milk, evaporated milk, water, and vanilla essence to soak the biscuits.

I looked for my favorite pyrex tray; it has a capacity of 2.0 litres and measures 30 x 21 x 7cm. Big enough.

I arranged rows of Marie biscuits across the pyrex base and sprinkled the mix of milks to soak them.

I added a generous layer of strawberry pudding between layers of soaked cookies. It was a total of four layers.

I arranged slices of strawberry on top of the last layer and took the cake to the freezer while I made the chocolate pudding for the cover.

To prepare this simple and lustrous chocolate pudding for a smooth and shiny cover, I added all the ingredients in a pot, except the coconut oil. I let it cook over medium heat while stirring constantly, to keep it from sticking to the bottom--I don't use a double boiler if I can help it.

After 3 minutes, when it had the right consistency, I removed the pot from the fire and added the coconut oil (which makes the pudding shine). The smell was incredible. I took the cake out of the freezer and covered it with the aromatic hot chocolate pudding.

All the flavors were just fantastic. I was sure the cake was going to be a success. Happy as I was, took the pretty strawberries I'd saved and did my best to make a decent decoration. I'm not too skilled for that, so I try hard. This time it looked a lot like the picture on my mind. But guess what?

My husband, whose existence I had forgotten about for a couple of hours, passed by and saw the cake. He stood next to me, sticking his nose between me and my beautiful cake and, as usual, he said, "It lacks color." Ugh! Why, dear Lord?! He does this every time.

I had some grated coconut.

It wasn't bad at all. Although it was perfect for me. Perhaps my idea of decoration is less happy than the average.

I put the cake back in the freezer and took it to my sister's house a couple of hours later. We sang happy birthday and ate it. Everyone was happy.

As for me, I still don't know how the cake was prettier. What do you think: with or without grated coconut?

All text and images are my own. I have taken the pictures with my Redmi 9T cell phone. And if any GIFs here, I've used GIPHY for all them.

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