Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake
This Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake has soft, chocolate cake layers filled with a strawberry chocolate ganache, frosted with strawberry buttercream, and finished with chocolate ganache and chocolate covered strawberries. A chocolate covered strawberry turned into a cake!
Servings: 16 pieces
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup boiling water
- 1/2 cup brewed coffee very warm
- 1 cup buttermilk
Strawberry Chocolate Ganache Filling
- 1/2 cup fresh strawberries chopped (about 3-4 large strawberries)
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp water
- 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
- 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1/2 cup shortening *see note below
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup fresh strawberries chopped (about 3 large strawberries)
- ½ cup crushed freeze dried strawberries
- 4 cups powdered sugar
Ganache and Dipped Strawberries
- 1/2 tbsp light corn syrup
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
- 8 whole strawberries
Instructions
Chocolate Cake
- Preheat over to 350 degrees. Line 3, 8" pans with parchment paper. Flour & butter sides of pans (I use baking Pam to do this).
- In the base of a stand mixer, whisk together sugar, flour, cornstarch, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in mixing bowl.
- Add eggs, egg yolk, oil, vanilla extract and buttermilk. Starting on low speed and gradually increasing speed to medium, beat until all ingredients well combined. Then, with mixer on low speed, gradually mix in boiling water and coffee until well combined.
- Divide batter evenly among the three prepared pans.
- Place cakes in the preheated oven and bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs.
- Let cake layers cool in pans for at least 5-10 minutes. Then, transfer to cooling rack. Let cool completely before frosting.
Strawberry Chocolate Ganache Filling
- Chop strawberries very finely with a knife, or pulse in a food processor a few times.
- In a small sauce pan over medium low heat, add chopped strawberries, 1 tbsp sugar and 1 tbsp water. Stir constantly until sugar is dissolved and mixture begins to boil. Remove from heat.
- Place the cooked strawberry mixture along with the 6 ounces of chocolate in a heat safe bowl.
- Pour heavy whipping cream in a microwave safe bowl and heat until boiling, about 60 seconds.
- Pour heated whipping cream over chocolate strawberry mixture and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit for 5 minutes.
- Remove plastic wrap and whisk until chocolate is completely melted. Let sit for at least 5 minutes before using to assemble cake.
Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
- Chop the strawberries very finely with a knife.
- Crush the freeze dried strawberries. You can do this by placing the strawberries in a food processor, or putting them in a Ziploc bag and crushing them with a meat mallet.
- In base of a stand mixer, use paddle attachment to beat together butter and shortening until light in color. Add in salt and vanilla and beat until well combined. Next, beat in the crushed freeze dried strawberries.
- Alternate mixing in the chopped strawberries and powdered sugar, scraping down sides as needed, until well combined and desired consistency is reached. Once combined, turn mixer on high for about 30-60 seconds.
Assembly and Ganache Topping
- Level cakes with a cake leveler or knife. Then, use strawberry buttercream frosting to pipe a border on the outside of two of the cake layers. Fill inside of each border with half of the chocolate strawberry ganache (you may not use all of the ganache filling). Let layers sit until ganache has firmed up a bit before stacking (you can also place the layers in the freezer for a few minutes to speed up the firming).
- Stack the two filled cake layers on top of one another. Then, place the final cake layer, level side down, on top.
- Set aside about 2/3 cup of frosting for decorating the top of the cake. Then, apply a thin layer of the strawberry buttercream that will serve as the crumb layer. After this, transfer cake to refrigerator or freezer for about 10 minutes. Finally, finish frosting with remaining frosting.
- To make ganache topping, place chocolate chips and corn syrup in a heat safe bowl. Put heavy cream in a microwave safe dish and heat until boiling, about 60 seconds.
- Pour cream over chocolate chips. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for 5 minutes.
- Remove plastic and whisk until smooth.
- Immediately dip about 4 of the strawberries into the ganache and set them on parchment paper to try.
- Pour remaining ganache into squeeze bottle. Squeeze ganache so that it drips down the sides of the cake. Fill top of cake with remaining ganache and smooth with offset spatula. Let chocolate firm for about 5 minutes before proceeding to next step.
- Use pasty bag to pipe strawberry buttercream into 8 circles on top of cake. Top each buttercream circle with a strawberry, alternating back and forth between dipped and undipped strawberries.
Notes
Trouble Shooting Note:
- If your ganache topping firms up while you’re working with it, place in a microwave safe bowl and put in back the microwave for 10 seconds. Stir, and if needed, microwave an additional 10 seconds.
- I prefer buttercream with half shortening and half butter as it holds up well. However, if you aren't going to have your cake outside or in a warm room, you can make the frosting with all butter for a richer taste.