Pre-heat oven to 180°C.

Coat the inside of an 18cm cake tin with butter, dust with flour, and shake off excess flour.

In a bowl, beat the egg yolks with ⅔ of the sugar until whitish and thick.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until small bubbles form and the volume doubles, then add the remaining sugar in 2-3 batches to make meringue.

When meringue is firm and can hold a peak, add sifted flour to the beaten egg yolk and fold in.

Mix ⅓ of the meringue into the batter until smooth.

Fold in the remaining meringue in 2-3 batches.

Pour in the melted butter and fold several times; it's okay if not completely mixed.

Pour the batter into the cake tin and drop it onto the workbench to settle.

Bake for 25 minutes; check with a skewer to see if it comes out dry; if wet, bake an additional 5 minutes.

Once baked, drop the tin onto the workbench to detach the cake, remove from the tin, and let cool upside down on a rack.

For syrup (if desired), boil syrup ingredients in a saucepan until sugar dissolves, then let cool.

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

Slice the cooled sponge cake horizontally in half and place the cut sides up.

Brush the cut surfaces with syrup.

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

Cover the strawberries with whipped cream and place the top half of the cake on it, syrup side down.

Align the cakes and fill any gaps with whipped cream.

Optionally, thinly coat the cake with whipped cream and refrigerate for 10 minutes.

Fully cover the cake with the remaining whipped cream, leaving some for piping.

Pipe cream into 8 mounds around the edge of the cake and place a strawberry on each mound.