Neapolitan Rose Cake with Strawberry Buttercream

Layers of chocolate and vanilla sponge cake with strawberry frosting. Looks and tastes amazing! :)

When rose frosting hit the web earlier this year, I caught the bug as well. I began frosting all my cupcakes with those romantic rose swirls and  forever gazing dreamily at the frosting before I actually ate them!

Hahaha look at how tacky this whole picture is!! Sorry but I can't help myself with the red rose as prop!

So cupcakes, done. Next, a whole cake covered with roses frosting and in my head the frosting had to be PINK! I envisioned the cake to look like a bouquet of pink roses, and it has to be delicious of course! So I decided to combine my favorite flavors; chocolate & vanilla and use fresh strawberry puree in the buttercream.

I used my favorite cake recipe of all time; from London's Hummingbird Bakery cookbook. Their recipes always turn out really well; moist and delicious!

Neapolitan Rose Cake with Strawberry Buttercream
makes 4 x 4" layer cake

Chocolate Cake:
100g/ 3/4 cup plus 2 TBS plain/AP flour
2 1/2 TBS unsweetened cocoa powder
140g/ a scant 3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
40g/ 3 TBS unsalted butter, room temperature
120ml/ 1/2 cup whole milk
1 egg
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 170 Celcius. Line 2 x 4" baking pan with butter and grease with butter and flour at the sides.

Put the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, salt & butter in an electric mixer with a paddle attachment and beat on slow speed until you get a sandy consistency and well-combined.

Whisk the milk, egg and vanilla extract together in a separate bowl, then slowly pour half into the flour mixture, beat to combine and turn the mixer to high speed to get rid of any lumps.

Turn the mixer down to slower speed and slowly pour in the remaining milk mixture (scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula). Continue mixing for a couple more minutes until mixture is smooth. DO NOT OVERMIX.

Pour into the baking pans and bake for 20-25 mins. Let cool on a wire rack before you chill the cakes in the fridge (to prevent crumbs scattering all over when you frost the cakes).

Chill in the fridge for 20 mins.

Vanilla Cake:
120g/1 cup plain/AP flour
140g/scant 3/4 cup caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
40g/3 TBS unsalted butter, room temperature
120ml/ 1/2 cup whole milk
1 egg
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 170 Celcius. Line 2 x 4" baking pan with butter and grease with butter and flour at the sides.

Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt & butter in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment. Beat on slow speed until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined.  Gradually pour in half the milk and beat until the milk is just incorporated.

Whisk the egg, vanilla extract and remaining milk together in a separate bowl, then pour the flour mixture and continue beating until just incorporated. Continue mixing for a couple of minute until the mixture is smooth. DO NOT OVERMIX.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until light golden and a skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean.

Let cool on a wire rack before you chill the cakes in the fridge (to prevent crumbs scattering all over when you frost the cakes).

Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream:
For the frosting I used the recipe from Sweetapolita and it was sooooo smooth, light, butter-like texture..it was incredibly delicious!! Swiss Meringue Buttercream is really the best!

 ENJOY!

Zie x