Pre-heat oven to 180°C/356°F.

Coat the inside of an 18cm/7" cake tin with butter, dust with flour, then shake off the excess flour.

Put the egg yolks in a bowl, add ⅔ of the sugar and beat until whitish and thick.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until small bubbles form and volume doubles, then add remaining sugar in batches and beat to make meringue.

Once meringue forms stiff peaks, fold in sifted flour to the egg yolk mixture.

Mix ⅓ of meringue into batter until smooth, then fold in remaining meringue in batches.

Pour in melted butter and fold several times.

Pour batter into cake tin and drop tin to settle the batter.

Cook for 25 minutes, checking with skewer for doneness.

Remove from oven, drop tin to detach cake and cool upside down on a rack.

If making syrup, combine water and sugar in a saucepan, bring to boil, and cool.

Whip cream until soft peaks form, prepare strawberries by washing and halving 10 of them.

Slice the cake horizontally in half, set the top half aside.

Brush syrup gently onto the cut surfaces of both cake halves.

Spread whipped cream on the bottom half and cover with halved strawberries.

Cover strawberries with more whipped cream and place the top half of the cake on it, pressing gently.

(Optional) Thinly coat top and sides of the cake with whipped cream.

Completely cover cake with remaining cream and use piping bag for decoration.

Place strawberries on top of cream mounds for decoration.