Neapolitan Rose Cake With Chocolate, Vanilla, And Strawberry Layers

Chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry have been good friends since the dawn of time, and this trio of flavors makes for a heavenly combination, not just in Neapolitan ice cream, but also in the following floral creation. With this recipe, you can set a buttercream cake decorated with roses on the table, and it'll be so beautiful that you won't even need any other decorations!

You'll Need: 

For the strawberry purée:

  • 9 oz strawberries
  • 1 oz sugar
  • juice of 1 orange

For the cake batter:

  • 10 oz soft butter
  • 16 oz flour
  • 6 eggs
  • 14 oz sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2½ tsp baking powder
  • 5 oz cream cheese
  • 1 oz cocoa powder
  • 1 oz strawberry purée 

For the buttercream frosting:

  • 32 oz butter
  • 2 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 24⅔ oz powdered sugar
  • 5⅓ oz cream cheese
  • 3 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 3 tbsp strawberry purée

Here's How:

1. First take care of the strawberry purée, as it is one of the foundations for the next steps. For this, quarter the strawberries, put them in a pan with a sugar and squeeze the juice from an orange over them. Let everything boil together, until it takes on a syrupy consistency. Then purée the strawberries and pour them through a sieve. It's best to do this with a spoon so that as much of the purée as possible passes through the sieve.

2. Next, prepare the batter. Put the butter, flour, eggs, sugar, vanilla flavoring, baking powder and cream cheese in a bowl and mix everything into a batter with an electric whisk. Divide the mixture equally between three bowls. Stir the cocoa into one of them, and half the strawberry purée into another.

3. Put each portion of batter into a greased springform pan with a diameter of 8 inches. Then bake all three for 40 minutes at 350°F with the heat coming from above and below. Let all of the cakes cool before removing them from the pans.

4. Now it's time for the buttercream: for this, beat the butter with the vanilla extract and the powdered sugar until it's fluffy, then stir in the cream cheese when the mixture turns white. As with the batter before, divide the cream between three bowls into equal portions. Stir the rest of the strawberry purée into one, and more cocoa powder into another.

5. Now place the chocolate cake layer on a cake plate and cover the top and all round the edge with two thirds of the chocolate buttercream. Place the strawberry cake layer on top and cover it with two thirds of the pink strawberry buttercream. For the uppermost layer, place the third cake on top of the other two. Cover it on top and round the edge with the white buttercream, but only use about half of it for this.

6. Put the rest of the chocolate buttercream in a piping bag with a serrated nozzle and create roses close together around the chocolate cake base. Do the same with a second piping bag and the strawberry buttercream. Then put the rest of the white buttercream in a third piping bag and cover the edge of the upper layer as well as the top with white cream roses.

Whether for a Sunday coffee morning, a birthday party or some other special occasion, this sweet eye-catcher will steal the show from all the other sweet treats — both before and after you cut into it!

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