I wasn't intending to make this cake until strawberries came into season, usually in May. So I planned to make the biscuit moka and the Opera and then move onto the macarons section. However, for the biscuit moka, a quantity of dark rum was needed, and I had a feeling that brushing these delicate cakes with whiskey like I had been using as a rum substitute up until now would not be the best plan. But I also don't really drink dark rum and didn't want to buy a bottle just for the few tablespoons I'd need, here and there. So I called up my friend Kevin, a rum enthusiast that I had not seen for a while, and we met up for dinner (at a delightful Italian restaurant called Bottega that had just opened a week ago on Valencia St). On our way back to his place for me to pick up some rum, we saw the woman who is often at 21st and Capp Streets, on the corner under the light of a streetlamp, selling boxes of fruit.
Among these were boxes of strawberries. Kevin immediately suggested we buy some. "Are her strawberries good?" I asked, skeptical.
He replied, "Her strawberries are the best."
And that's how I ended up with a half cup of rum and a pound of strawberries that evening, and plans to make the fraisier cake the next day.
