White Chocolate and Strawberry Cake

This cake is not what I expected it to be.

All the components individually were wonderful.  The white chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream, the soft but dense vanilla sponge, the layer of fresh strawberries and jam.

Everything tasted delicious and it was very well received by family and friends who were suitably impressed.

But for some reason I didn’t like the whole once the components were put together.  I thought this flavour combination is a classic and works very well – but maybe I didn’t get to experience it at its best as by the time I tasted it, it was a couple of days old and straight from the fridge.

What I did discover was that I very much enjoyed the process of making a layer cake, although, with full-time work in the office, it did take me two whole days to make this.

I made the vanilla cake first and this really is a firm favourite that I have made numerous times since I discovered it almost a year ago on this youtube channel.  I then refrigerated it overnight and made the butter cream the next day and put it all together.

I haven’t made a layer cake in a while.  They’re not really what I enjoy about baking.  Or so I thought.

The construction, so to speak, was what I liked – the building, layering, plastering on buttercream and lastly, the decorating.

While I do love my more ‘rustic’ cakes and while I still believe most cakes really don’t need an icing or topping to be enjoyed, once in a while making the more fancy cakes can be very satisfying indeed.

White Chocolate and Strawberry Cake

This makes a very soft, springy cake, with a lovely dense, but light texture, tight crumb and great taste.  Its great for carving as it doesn't crumble but for some reason it doesn't translate very well to the more normal sized cupcakes - although the cake was good with a great taste, the top of the cupcakes almost caramelised and darkened considerably.  However, it definitely is a great recipe for layered cakes and stacking cakes.  It also keeps very well in the fridge (kept for a week in clingfilm and was completely like new) and suspect that it will also freeze well.  
Vanilla Sponge Cake:

·         4 eggs

·         400g sugar

·         1 tsp vanilla paste

·         250ml milk

·         115g butter, melted

·         300g plain flour

·         2tsp baking powder

·         ¼ tsp salt

Preheat oven to 180C Gas4 and prepare two 8" cake tins.

Whip the eggs in a stand mixer for at least 5 minutes to make them light and fluffy and very aerated.

Gradually add the sugar in small amounts so as not to deflate the eggs by adding too much 'weight'.

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt and gradually add this to the mixture to make a batter.

Melt the butter and milk in a bowl then take some of the batter and mix it with the butter/milk.  This will create a 'liaison', making the liquid a little thicker before adding it to the batter - if you just add the liquid straight to the batter mixture it will thin the batter down too much.  This way the batter will keep its thickness and lightness.

Pour into the two cake tins and bake until light and springy to the touch. 

White Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream

·         1 batch Swiss Meringue Buttercream (from this recipe)

·         100ml double or single cream

·         150g white chocolate, broken into very small pieces

Make up the batch of buttercream as shown in this previous post. 

Heat up the cream on medium heat, making sure not to scald it. Pour on top of the white chocolate pieces and leave alone for about a minute to let the hot cream melt the white chocolate.

Mix the cream and chocolate together well to make a white chocolate ganache and allow it to cool.

Add in gradually to the batch of buttercream and mix in thoroughly after each addition.  Taste as you go along and you might decide not to use all of the white chocolate ganache.

Assembly

Take about half the contents of the jam jar and heat a little in the microwave so that it becomes a little easier to spread.

Slice about half the punnet of strawberries fairly thinly (thick pieces will make the cake you place on top more liable to move around), making sure you’ve kept aside the visually best looking ones for the decoration on top.  I kept the ones that had the most obvious strawberry shape and that were roughly the same size.

Once the cakes have cooled down completely, take one and ice it completely on top with the buttercream.  Leave the sides of the cake free of buttercream for now.  I always use the cake that looks slightly thicker to me as the bottom one.

Place the strawberries on top of the iced cake, trying to fit them in on every available surface but also trying not to make them overlap.  Cut them up further if needed.

Take some softened jam on a spoon and carefully spread over the strawberries making sure to not dislodge them.

Place the second cake on top and carefully align.  Ice the whole of the cake completely.

Take the strawberries you have set aside for the top and slice each of them thinly, starting from the stalk end but not quite reaching the bottom.  In this way you should be able to fan them open.  Place evenly on top of the cake and add some strategically placed silver dragees.