Strawberry and Almond Frangipane Cakes

Frangipane pronounced:FRAN-jup-payn or FRAWN-zhee-pan is a rich pastry cream flavored with ground almonds and used to fill or top pastries and cakes. The name has a very unusual origin. In the 16th century an Italian nobleman, Marquis Muzio Frangipani, created a perfume for scenting gloves. It was popular in Paris, and pastry cooks tried to capture this popular scent in desserts; hence the birth of frangipane. Later, when the perfume was added to an almond cream dessert, the resulting delicacy was also dubbed frangipane.

This buttery little treats is idle for high tea gathering and tastes yummy in ones mouth!!The idle fruit would be ripe sweet raspberries ,but since it was not available here, I have used strawberries .You can also use ripe peaches, apricots or plums.But my personal opinion is the cake was tasty itself without the fruits. I did make half the batch without the fruits.