Chocolate Strawberry Cake

Chocolate and strawberry is such an amazing flavor combination. This cake has a rich and moist chocolate sponge with a dreamy chocolate swiss meringue buttercream and strawberry filling. You have to give this recipe a try! Let's talk about the ingredients first :

• Oil : You can use any flavorless oil like sunflower oil or vegetable oil.

• Buttermilk : If you don't have buttermilk on hand you can use regular whole milk mixed with a teaspoon of vinegar.

• Sour cream : It adds a lot of moisture to the cake. But if you don't have sour cream on hand you can use plain yoghurt instead.

• Coffee : Coffee just deepens the chocolate flavor. You cannot taste the coffee at all. But if you still don't want to use it just use some hot water instead.

• Vanilla : Please don't use artificial vanilla or vanilla essence. I would highly recommend using a good quality vanilla extract. It makes a difference trust me.

• Butter : I prefer using unsalted butter because it allows you to adjust the amount of salt however you like. But if you only have salted butter on hand it's completely fine just skip the 1/4 tsp of salt.

• Dark chocolate : Use a good quality dark chocolate. Around 50-70%. It's going to give you a deep and intense chocolate flavor.

• Strawberries : For the filling, you can use fresh or frozen strawberries.

Servings : 10-12

Ingredients :

For strawberry filling :

• Strawberries - 500g

• Sugar - 130g

• Fresh strawberries - 100g

For chocolate cake :

• Oil - 140ml

• Granulated sugar - 180g

• Eggs - 140g

• Buttermilk - 160ml

• Sour cream - 60ml

• Coffee - 120ml

• Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

• Cocoa powder - 40g

• Flour - 280g

• Baking powder - 1 tsp

• Baking soda - 2 tsp

• Salt - 1/2 tsp

For chocolate swiss meringue buttercream :

• Egg whites - 180g

• Granulated sugar - 150g

• Butter - 195g

• Dark chocolate - 100g

• Salt - 1/4 tsp

  
  
  
  
  
  

Instructions :

For strawberry filling :

1. Roughly chop the strawberries (500g). To a heavy bottom saucepan, add the chopped strawberries along with the sugar.

2. Place the saucepan on medium-high heat and let the strawberries cook for 10-15 minutes. Stir occasionally so that the bottom does not burn and everything cooks evenly. You will notice that the strawberries have released a lot of liquid.

3. Once most of the liquid is cooked off and the mixture is thickened, take it off the heat.

4. Transfer it to a separate bowl and allow it to cool completely till we make our cake.

For chocolate cake :

1. To a large bowl, add in the oil along with the sugar and whisk using a hand whisk till it's well combined.

2. Add in the eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition.

3. Now to a separate bowl, add in the buttermilk, sour cream, coffee, vanilla and cocoa powder. Whisk everything together until it's well combined and smooth.

4. Add this mixture to the oil, sugar and eggs and whisk well.

5. Now, sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

6. Whisk everything together gently until it's just combined and smooth. But be careful not to overmix the batter.

7. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.

8. Butter and flour two 6 inch cake tins. You can also use parchment paper.

9. Divide and pour the batter evenly between the tins. I would recommend using a kitchen scale because it's more precise.

10. Place the tins in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

11. Once the cakes are done, take them out of the oven and let them cool in the tins for 15 minutes. Then run a knife along the sides of the cakes to release them from their tins. Carefully remove the cakes from the tins and place them on a cooling rack to cool completely while we make our swiss meringue buttercream.

For chocolate swiss meringue buttercream :

1. While separating the eggs, make sure that you do not get any yolks in the whites or the meringue won't whip up properly.

2. Add some water to a saucepan and place it on medium-high heat and let it simmer.

3. To a heatproof bowl, add the egg whites and sugar and give it a whisk.

4. Now place this bowl over the saucepan of simmering water to form a double-boiler.

5. Whisk continuously so that the egg whites don't cook.

6. Let the mixture heat till it reaches 71°C/160°F. Use a digital thermometer to check the temperature. And do not stop whisking.

7. Once it reaches 71°C/160°F, take the bowl off the heat and using a hand mixer or a stand mixer, whip the mixture until it reaches stiff peaks and is completely cool.

8. Make sure that the meringue is completely cool before adding in the butter.

9. Cut the butter into small cubes and make sure that it is at room temperature and soft before adding it to the meringue.

10. Once the meringue is completely cool, while whipping, add in the butter one cube at a time. Mix well after each addition. Do not add in the butter all at once.

11. You will notice that the buttercream is spilt or looks soupy but don't worry it will all come together in the end. Once all the butter is mixed in with the meringue keep whipping until you get a stable buttercream.

12. Now, melt and cool the dark chocolate and add it to the buttercream along with the salt and mix well. Make sure that the chocolate is not hot at all before adding to the buttercream or it will melt the buttercream.

13. Our buttercream is ready so let's start assembling the cake.

For assembly :

1. Finely dice up the fresh strawberries (100g) to add in between the cake layers. This is optional but it adds another wonderful texture to the cake.

2. Using a serrated knife, trim off the tops of the cakes to make the tops flat which makes it easier to stack them. Now, divide each cake into 2 equal layers. You should get a total of 4 cake layers.

3. Fill a piping bag with the buttercream and snip the tip off.

4. Place a cake board or a plate on a turntable and apply a little bit of buttercream in the middle so that the first cake layer sticks to it and stays in place. If you do not a have a turntable it's fine. It just makes frosting the cake a lot easier.

5. Place your first cake layer and add buttercream on top and spread it out evenly using an offset spatula.

6. Now with the filled piping bag, pipe a border around the edge of the cake. This will act as a dam for the strawberry filling so that the filling stays inside the cake and does not ooze out.

7. Now fill the inside of the border with the prepared strawberry filling and spread it out evenly.

8. Add the diced strawberries on top.

9. Place the next cake layer on top and repeat the process two more times.

10. Now, place the final cake layer on top and apply a crumb coat on the entire cake.

11. Place the cake in the refrigerator for 30 minutes so that the crumb coat sets.

12. Once it's set, apply a thick coat of buttercream on the entire cake and smooth it out using a bench scraper or an offset spatula.

13. You can decorate the top however you like. I have piped a border of buttercream and placed a few strawberries on top.

14. The cake is ready to enjoy!

15. Store it in the refrigerator.