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Happy birthday to me! Since it’s my birthday today, I thought it would be the perfect excuse to treat you to a virtual slice of cake. And not just any cake – this rich, indulgent chocolate cake with strawberries is my idea of the ultimate celebration cake.
Every month, a fellow blogger and I do what we lovingly call a blog shoot. We each come up with a few recipe ideas, cook everything, and photograph it all in one go. Sounds simple, right? In reality, we tend to aim a little too high and choose recipes that are… ambitious. This chocolate cake with strawberries is a perfect example: slightly time-consuming, but 100% worth it.
Table of contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
This chocolate cake with strawberries looks impressive but is really totally do-able. Chocolate and strawberries are always a good combination and that white chocolate buttercream is dangerously delicious (I also used it on the red velvet cupcakes!)
Recipe Ingredients
You don’t need a lot of special ingredients to make this strawberry chocolate cake, but I’ll highlight a few below:
- for the cake – to make the chocolate layers you will need all-purpose flour, sugar, cacao powder, chocolate and the usual ingredients which you can find in the recipe card below.
- filling – for the filling we made white chocolate buttercream. You will need icing sugar, white chocolate, butter and a bit of vanilla extract for making it
- topping – for the topping we used fresh strawberries and a few mint sprigs. The mint is purely for looks and color. It does taste good too, but you can easily leave it out.
How To Make Chocolate Cake With Strawberries
For making this layered chocolate cake you start with making the chocolate layers in a large mixing bowl. It’s easiest if you have two separate springform tins so you can bake them at the same time, but baking them one after the other is fine too.
While the cake layers are cooling down on a wire rack you can make the white chocolate buttercream. Add the chocolate to a double boiler and melt it slowly that way. Add the butter, icing sugar and vanilla to a food processor and whip til it is light and fluffy. Once the white chocolate has cooled down enough you add it slowly to the butter and whip it till it is light and airy.
Assembling the chocolate cake
Place the first layer of the chocolate cake with the flat side pointing upwards on your kitchen counter or a cake plate. If you need to you can slice of some of the cake to make it flatter and easier to spread the buttercream.
Make the first layer by spreading a generous amount of the chocolate buttercream on top of the first chocolate cake layer. Add some strawberries and cover the strawberries with a bit of cream.
For the second cake layer which is also the final layer, you repeat the process and finish with a generous amount of sweet strawberries on top of the frosting.
You can even spread the buttercream on the outside of the cake but we chose to not do that. It’s already a rich chocolate cake and more buttercream would make it even more so. You can also change it a bit by changing the top layer to heavy cream. That will make the final cake layer somewhat less heavy.
You can also use a bit of chocolate ganache if you prefer. The chocolate strawberry cake is pretty flexible.
FAQ Chocolate Cake with Strawberries
Yes! You can bake the cake layers a day in advance and store them well wrapped at room temperature. Assemble the cake on the day you plan to serve it for the freshest result.
Because of the buttercream and fresh strawberries, store the cake in the refrigerator. Take it out about 30 minutes before serving so the buttercream can soften slightly.
Yes, the cake layers freeze very well. Wrap them tightly in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw completely before filling and decorating.
Fresh strawberries are best for texture and appearance. Frozen strawberries release a lot of moisture and can make the cake soggy once thawed.
You can swap it for dark chocolate buttercream, milk chocolate buttercream, or even a lightly sweetened whipped cream frosting if you prefer a lighter cake.
The assembled chocolate cake with strawberries keeps well in the fridge for up to 2 days. After that, the strawberries may start to soften and release juices.
More chocolate cake recipes
Chocolate Cake With Strawberries
Ingredients
- 175 gr all-purpose flour
- 250 gr sugar
- 75 gr cacao powder
- 1 tsp espresso powder optional
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 eggs medium
- 200 gr full fat milk
- 75 gr sun flower oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 75 gr chocolate chopped
White chocolate buttercream
- 200 gr white chocolate
- 350 gr unsalted butter at room temperature
- 100 gr icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
To decorate
- 200 gr strawberries
- mint
Equipment
- 2 18 cm baking tin/ 7 inch
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 175˚C/350˚ F
- Take a large bowl and add the flour, sugar, cacao, espresso powder, baking powder and baking soda. Mix it together and while mixing add the milk.
- Whisk it through and than add the eggs one by one. After each egg is added whisk through to make sure they are incorporated.
- Finish by adding the sunflower oil and the vanilla and mix to a smooth batter. Add the pieces of chocolate with a spoon.
- Cover your baking tin with baking paper and brush the sides with oil. Divide the batter into two equal parts. If you have two tins you can bake them at the same time. If not you can bake one after the other. It just takes a little longer.
- Place half of the batter in each tin, smooth the surface and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes or until cooked through. Test this by inserting a wooden skewer.
- Take out of the oven and leave to cool upside down. That way the top with flatten making it easier to fill later. Leave to cool to roomtemperature
- While the cakes are cooling down, make the buttercream. Melt the white chocolate au bain marie. Leave this to cool to room temperature.
- Add the soft butter, icing sugar and vanilla into the bowl of your food processor and whisk to a light and fluffy buttercream. Leave to whisk for about 10 minutes.
- Add the cooled down chocolate and whisk it through. You're now ready to assemble the chocolate cake.
- Place the first half on the counter with the flat side on top. Spread a generous layer of the buttercream on. Divide strawberries over the cream and add a small layer of cream on top of the strawberries. Place the second cake on top.
- Cover the top of the cake with more buttercream and finish with some strawberries. Add some mint leaves to finish it off and keep in the fridge until eating.
Nutrition Information per portion:
Disclaimer:
The nutritional values above are calculated per portion. The details are based on standard nutritional tables and do not constitute a professional nutritional advice.
