An easy-to-make yet incredibly tender and delicious cake that both kids and adults will love. It features chocolate layers made with high-quality cocoa powder and a splash of coffee for a rich, sophisticated flavor — I based it on the "Devil's" Chocolate Cake. For the frosting, I used cream cheese as the base, adding heavy cream for a lighter texture and butter for a firmer, smoother consistency that's easy to spread over the cake. I made this cake for my daughter's birthday — she requested a chocolate cake with strawberries. So my husband had to hunt down some strawberries; thankfully it's May and not January!)) We pulled it off, and the birthday girl was thrilled! P.S. There is no chocolate in this recipe, despite its appearance in the ingredient photo.
Ingredients:
- Cake layers:
- 250 g flour
- 250 g sugar
- 150 ml kefir or yogurt
- 100 g vegetable oil
- 50 g cocoa powder
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 0.5 tsp salt
- 200 ml hot coffee (3 tsp coffee + boiling water)
- Frosting:
- 300 g cream cheese
- 200 g heavy cream 33%
- 100 g butter
- 100 g powdered sugar
- 10 g vanilla sugar
- For the top:
- any berries to taste (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries)
How to cook "devil's" chocolate cake with strawberries
Make the cake layers. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in the bowl you'll use to mix the batter. Stir to combine. The cocoa absolutely must be very high quality — this is very(!) important, as cocoa is the foundation of the layers' flavor.
In a separate bowl, mix together the kefir, eggs, sugar, vanilla sugar, and vegetable oil. Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until you get a thick batter.
Brew a strong cup of coffee. I used regular instant coffee dissolved in boiling water. You can't actually taste the coffee in the finished cake, but in my opinion it definitely gives the layers a richer, more sophisticated depth of flavor. If you'd rather not add coffee for any reason, just use plain boiling water. Immediately pour the hot coffee into the batter and mix well — the batter will go from thick to almost liquid, and that's perfectly normal.
Pour the batter into your pan. I used a ring mold set to 18 cm, tightly wrapped on the bottom with parchment paper and foil. Bake in an oven preheated to 180°C for 25–50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the finished cake layer cool completely.
Make the frosting. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla sugar to the softened butter. Beat thoroughly until the mixture lightens noticeably and increases in volume.
In a separate bowl, beat the heavy cream until it becomes quite thick. Add the cream cheese and butter mixture in portions, continuing to beat.
Assemble the cake. Trim the domed top off the cake layer, crumble it into pieces, and set aside — you'll use it for coating the sides. Slice the cake into three even layers.
Add the second layer, spread on more frosting, then place the third layer on top and cover with frosting.
Coat the sides of the cake with the remaining quarter of the frosting. Press the cake crumbles onto the sides with your hand, making sure they stick well. Let the cake sit for several hours to soak.
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