There are many different types of "Christmas cakes" around the world. Most people in the Western part of the world are familiar with the traditional fruitcake. But the Japanese Christmas cake is far more iconic (and, let's be honest, a lot tastier!)

A typical Japanese Christmas cake consists of a sponge cake frosted with whipped cream, topped with strawberries, and decorated with Christmas chocolates or other seasonal fruit. It's easy to make one with store-bought sponge cake mix. However, one of our ArcaMax editors has decided to share her favorite made-from-scratch recipe, so you can add something a little different to your Christmas dinner.

Ingredients

Cake:
* 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/3 cup sugar
* 1/4 tsp baking powder
* 3 eggs
* 1 1/2 tbsp butter

Frosting:
* 2 cups heavy cream
* 4 tbsps sugar

Decoration:
* 10 fresh* strawberries
* Decorating icing -- white and any other desired color
* Christmas chocolates, fresh fruit, or whatever you like

* From the editor's personal experience, only fresh strawberries work -- frozen ones are a disaster! Make sure to pick some up while they're in season.

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Whisk eggs and sugar together in a bowl. Place this bowl over a second filled with hot water and continue to whisk until the mixture turns white.

Sift together flour and baking powder and add to the egg mixture.

Melt the butter and add to the mixture, mixing carefully.

Grease an 8-inch round cake pan and pour in the batter. Bake for 25-35 minutes.

Once the cake is cooled, cut it in half horizontally -- you should be left with two large, round slices. Whip together the cream and sugar. Slice four of the strawberries into thin pieces and mix with half the whipped cream.

Spread the strawberry-and-cream mixture on top of the bottom cake slice, then place the top slice over that. Frost the cake with the rest of the whipped cream.

Now it's time to decorate! Most commonly, you'll see the top edge of the cake lined with icing, with the remaining strawberries placed at intervals around the edge of the circle. You can decorate however you like, though. It's not unheard of for the tops of Christmas cakes to get fairly crowded -- so have fun with it!