Chocolate Strawberry Cake
Hello! Today we are making a Chocolate Strawberry Cake recipe! Yay!
I realize I make way too many chocolate recipes. What can I do if I love chocolate that much.
Anyway, who else is here just for the frosting?
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That frosting is what all my chocolate dreams are made of.
This Chocolate Frosting is possibly the most delicious one I’ve ever tasted. I love thick and rich chocolate desserts. And that’s what this Chocolate Strawberry Cake is. All the way. Not for the faint of heart.
And while I understand this is a simple cake. Very simple, can be whipped up in a short amount of time. This Chocolate Strawberry Cake is very easy to put together.
And even though it’s an easy cake, it’s so delicious and rich, and sure to please anyone. Anyone that loves rich and delicious desserts, that is.
I am sure they will all be surprised about this White Fudge Filling.
What exactly is this White Fudge Filling?
If you are Brazilian, you know this as brigadeiro. This is a simple white brigadeiro. But since most of my readers are not Brazilian, I would like to introduce you to this amazing Brazilian staple dessert. So versatile and delicious.
All you need is about 15 minutes of stirring one can of condensed milk, one tablespoon of butter, and the flavorings of your choice, over medium heat. In the case of this White Fudge Filling, I am using some powdered milk.
The traditional brigadeiro takes cocoa powder, or chopped chocolate. As you can see here on my Death by Brigadeiro Cupcakes.
Another famous variation in Brazil is the coconut one, the famous beijinho (translation: little kiss). And it can be found in my Macadamia Coconut Cupcakes.
Of course, I used brigadeiros on yet another Cupcakes recipe, I made almond brigadeiros to top my Almond Cupcakes.
Anyway, this Chocolate Strawberry Cake was a real treat to have this week. I wish I had eaten the whole thing, but I was fine with one piece (a large one).
Seriously, so fudgy, rich, and indulgent!
You can tell I have a huge sweet tooth, which you probably also have if you’re reading this post. So give me five.
I hope you have an awesome day, thank you for being here.
Chocolate Strawberry Cake
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 183 grams, 5.4 oz
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 62 grams, 2.1 oz
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter room temperature (113 grams, 4 oz)
- 1 1/3 cups sugar 266 grams, 9.3 oz
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2/3 cup milk 153 grams, 5.4 oz
- 2/3 cup hot brewed coffee read notes (153 grams, 5.4 oz)
White Fudge Filling
- 1 can condensed milk 397 grams, 14 oz
- 1/4 cup powdered milk
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup chopped strawberries
Chocolate Frosting
- 2/3 cup chopped dark chocolate 113 grams, 4 oz
- 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 78 grams, 2.7 oz
- 2 1/4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup cream cheese softened 226 grams, 8 oz
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter softened (85 grams, 3 oz)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1-2 tablespoons heavy cream
Instructions
Chocolate Cake
- This recipe makes for 4-6” round cakes.
- Pre-heat oven to 350F.
- Butter 4-6″ cake pans and place a parchment paper circle in the bottom of pans. Butter parchment. Set aside.
- Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and espresso powder, if using it instead of coffee. Set aside.
- Cream butter at medium-high speed for 1 minute.
- Add sugar slowly, cream for another 2 minutes.
- Add eggs to the mixture, one at a time, scraping the bowl in between and making sure the first egg is incorporated before adding the second one.
- Add vanilla extract and mix.
- Slowly add milk, mix to combine.
- Pour dry ingredients over wet mixture.
- Fold with a spatula slowly, until ingredients are just combined.
- If you see big clumps of cocoa powder, you can use the whisk to try to gently smooth the batter out.
- Once batter is incorporated, pour hot coffee in the bowl. Whisk until combined.
- Pour batter evenly onto baking pans.
- Bake in pre-heated oven for 10-20 min. After the 10 minute mark, keep checking regularly, because you don’t want to burn your cakes or overbake them. Remove them from the oven once a toothpick comes our clean once inserted in the cake.
- Once you remove it from the oven, wait 10 minutes, flip cakes onto a cookie cooling rack and let cakes cool.
- Once cool, wrap each layer individually in plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use. I like to leave my layers in the fridge for quite a bit so they can firm up and make it easier to assemble and decorate the cake. Specially an oil based cake such as this one, which is a super moist and fluffy cake.
White Fudge Filling
- Start by buttering the bottom and sides of a heat-proof bowl. Set aside.
- Place all ingredients in a small saucepan.
- Bring it to a boil over medium-high heat, while stirring non-stop. You will stir for the entire time, so your fudge doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan and burn. And that will happen in a split second if you don’t watch it.
- Once mixture comes to a boil, reduce heat to medium.
- Basically you will cook this mixture for 10-15 minutes, until it gets very thick and fudgy.
- To know when it’s done cooking, there’s a simple test, scrape the bottom of the pan right down the middle with your spatula or spoon, if you are able to see the bottom of the pan and mixture takes several seconds to cover the whole bottom of the pan again, you are probably done.
- Also, you can tilt your pan to the side, and if the whole mixture starts to slide down together, you are all set to turn the heat off.
- Instantly remove mixture to the prepared bowl.
- Let it cool completely, on the counter.
- You can refrigerate it and finish later if you want to, but you will have to let the mixture come back to room temperature to be able to spread it on the cake.
- While the White Fudge Filling comes to room temperature, you can start to get ready all the ingredients to make the Chocolate Frosting.
Chocolate Frosting
- Start by melting the chopped chocolate in the microwave, or over a double boiler. I usually just microwave the chocolate for 15-30 seconds at a time, always stirring in between to help the chocolate melt evenly and faster, without having to overheat it. You never want to overheat chocolate. Set chocolate aside to cool down.
- Now, sift the cocoa powder and powdered sugar together. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a mixer, combine cream cheese and butter. Cream for 2 minutes, until creamy and fluffy.
- Pour melted and cooled chocolate in the bowl of the mixer. Mix on slow until combined. Scrape the bowl to ensure everything is getting incorporated.
- With the mixer off, add sifted powdered sugar and cocoa powder.
- Mix on low until combined. Raise speed to high and cream for one minute.
- Add vanilla.
- If frosting seems too thick, add 1-2 tablespoons of heavy cream, or as necessary. If frosting is too runny, it might need some more powdered sugar, so sift some and throw in there. Read the post above for some more troubleshooting.
To assemble
- Place one layer of the cake over your cake board or plate.
- On top of the cake, pipe a circle of chocolate frosting around the edges.
- Fill the middle with the cooled down White Fudge Frosting. Add half of the chopped strawberries.
- Top with another cake layer.
- Repeat the same procedure as before.
- Top with the final cake layer.
- Frost cake with a thin layer of frosting. This is called crumb coating, and it helps your cake not have any crumbs in the frosting, which makes the cake more visually appealing, not that there’s anything wrong with cake crumbs.
- After applying a thin layer of frosting to your cake, refrigerate the cake for at least 40 minutes. I like to do this because it will make the final frosting so much easier, the cake will be sturdier and firmer since it will have had time to chill.
- Apply final layer of frosting, make it a thick one.
- Pipe decorations on top of the cake.
- I melted some dark chocolate and dipped my strawberries in, and then drizzled melted white chocolate on top. Nothing too fancy. Super easy. You can use those chocolate coatings too if you want to preserve a nice shine to your strawberry covered chocolate, but don’t want to temper the chocolate.
Receita maravilhosa, quanta gostosura junta num só prato…. parabéns Ca!!!!!!!!!
Obrigada!!!! 🙂
HI is it OK to cover this cake with fondant? Will it hold?
Yes, for sure!! Just make sure the cake is frosted, and the frosting has set before applying the fondant. Also make sure the frosting is even and smooth before applying the fondant.
If I only had 2 pans would this cake hold up to cut each cake in half?
I have made it in 3 pans before. I’ve never made it in only 2 pans, but I guess could be ok. I am just afraid if it’s going to be too much batter for two pans. So what I would do is pour the batter onto the pans and see if the batter goes above 2/3 of the pan. If it does, I wouldn’t bake it because might be too much batter.
Another option, and probably the best one, is to bake the two pans, and then when they are done baking, bake the next two pans.
So, divide the batter into 4, bake 2 pans, remove from the oven once done baking, wait 10 minutes, remove the cakes from the pan, and then divide the remaining batter between the 2 pans, and bake them. Does it make sense? Hope I could help!
Thank you for your question. Have a great day!
Hello Gabriella, I came back to report, because I actually JUST baked this chocolate cake again for a Kinder Bueno chocolate cake I am making today. And I really dont think it’s possible to bake this cake in just 2 6 inch pans. The pans will be way too full. You’d be better off just baking half of the batter split between the two pans, then remove them from the oven, wait 10 minutes, flip the cakes onto a cooling rack, and proceed with baking the remaining half of the batter split between the two pans.
Thank you so much.
Have a great day!!
My grocery store didn’t have powdered milk. Is there anything I can use instead? I’m not sure what to substitute. I have some homemade strawberry jam and regular baking staples, but no powdered milk.
You can use some white chocolate chips instead, that’s another variation of white fudge I love making! If you dont have white chocolate or dont want to use it, simply leave it out and use the recipe normally. That fudge is very easy to work with and can be made into many different flavors and variations. You could even add some chopped soft caramels, or chocolate chips.
Also, if your store has a latin section, you usually can find powdered milk there, the brand you will most commonly find is Nido by Nestle.
Thank you!! and happy baking!
Hello
Do you have a video to make it easy for beginners?