It’s happening. I’m baking! Like a mad person. I have committed to this more than I thought, and planned way more than I thought I would. Guys, I bought a calendar and have written in it more than once! WHO AM I?!
Now, for the reason we are all here…cake.
Cake #1 is the Neapolitan Cake. Layers of white chocolate cake and chocolate cake, with strawberry preserves layered between, wrapped in a beautiful Swiss meringue buttercream (we will talk about this a lot), chocolate ganache poured over, and lastly topped with chocolate covered strawberries. Honestly, what else could you want in a cake?
While starting this whole challenge I promised myself I would follow the recipe. Now this may seem like an easy task, but I rarely even follow my own recipe. For bakers this isn’t normal, I KNOW! But I’ve kind of always been like this. I just go with the flow and if I don’t have sour cream I’ll sub it out with something else. “Can’t hurt, right?” When I told my chef in school that he basically had a heart attack. I’ve found that there are two types of people; the ones that follow a recipe and those that don’t.
So I followed the recipe, every step. And here are my takeaway notes.
White Chocolate Cake
- The batter was so smooth and delicious looking and smelling.
- SUPER easy to make!
- Loved how many dishes I didn’t have to dirty.
- It baked with a large dome, which could be my mistake.
- Had a very caramelized crust when it came out of the oven, so I trimmed all the edges. Also, could be my oven since it is a gas stove/oven and tends to bake on the hotter side.
Chocolate cake
- I adored the addition of almond extract. I couldn’t taste it (gluten free) but my fiancé tried it and loved it!
- Love the addition of coffee, I always add coffee to my chocolate cake as it just….makes it better! It enhances the chocolate flavor and gives it some depth.
- Once again, a beautiful batter.
- This one also baked with a large dome. (I’ll talk later as to why I don’t care for that.)
- Very soft and moist crumb.
Swiss Meringue Buttercream
- Overall, perfect.
- Love.
- Swiss.
- Meringue.
- Buttercream!
Other notes
- I’m just so very excited for this year and the challenge I gave myself to bake all these cakes.
- The addition of the chocolate covered strawberries was genius! Any time that I have an excuse to make/eat them, I’ll take.
- Overall in this book, I love how much Tessa loves Swiss meringue buttercream. I remember the days when I only knew of one kind of buttercream and knew there had to be more. Hint, that one kind of buttercream is American buttercream.
- Jokes on me for trying Russian tips for the first time on this cake….with soft buttercream.
- This was also my first drip cake! HOW?! I know. I’m always late to the party. And I learned a good lesson during this; be a little stingy with the drip
So here it is. The first cake.
To my one subscriber currently, hi mom. I love you.
