Chocolate Strawberry Cake

Normally when I post a recipe, I’d give you the full recipe here. I always give credit for the recipes I use but for this one in particular, it’s so involved (yet easy!) I won’t post the full recipe.

I found the perfect chocolatey-fruity cake on Pinterest from @cambreabakes (who was super kind when I showed her my unprofessional attempt 😭).

Here I’ll just list the main components that were NOT pantry staples or were just a bit more complicated than my average cake:

• Dutch-processed cocoa powder (it really is different)
• Strawberry reduction
• Chocolate ganache
• FRESH strawberries
• Fresh coffee

These are the aspects that really made this my favorite chocolate cake to date. I love strawberries and try to include them in my baking as much as possible, but I feel like most recipes call for freeze-dried strawberries, strawberry extract, or some other form of strawberry that’s not actually strawberry because bakers often find it hard to get the most flavor and color from fresh strawberries alone. However, @cambreabakes got it perfect with delicious buttercream, filling, and toppings all using fresh strawberries. The fresh coffee was also really well done because recipes often call for instant coffee which can throw off the texture and taste, and sometimes fresh coffee makes for a too-liquidy batter that’s hard to get to raise right. But in this recipe, the cake was a perfect height and consistency, super rich and perfectly moist, with a great balance between fluffy and dense.

I wanted y’all to see some in-progress shots to show how much I improvised and it still came out well! People usually use turntables and piping bags for bigger projects like this, along with a cake scraper for the “barely there” icing effect. But for me the microwave plate, ziploc baggie, and offset spatula worked perfectly fine.

This is the final product. I definitely took some liberty with the chocolate and strawberries on top, and my icing skills could use a lot of work, but everyone loved it and thought it was pretty 🙂 There was none left and the chunky strawberry filling was perfectly balanced with the rest of the cake (I typically HATE extra filling in a cake). I’m also not usually a fan of chocolate chunks on/in a cake BUT the super soft and fluffy buttercream really made you want to eat every single bite of everything (people wanted it just for a “dip” by itself!)

Basically, this whole post was just another chance for me to post pictures of this cake because I was so proud :’) it’s not perfe the yummiest and best looking cake I’ve ever made, you should definitely make for any occasion. If you’re skeptical of the difficulty, process, or taste of any of these types of cakes on pinterest, don’t be hesitant like I was to try one!