Neapolitan Cake

This cake is SO. MUCH. FUN. Chocolate! Strawberry! Vanilla! Rosettes! Sprinkles!!

The nights are getting longer and colder, so I think we all need a little more cake in our lives in these dire times.

Neapolitan combines my favourite simple and sweet flavours, and I think the colours are absolutely classic together. I have been trying to up my cake decoration game lately, but I’m still quite cack-handed and impatient.  So I needed something which looked nice but was relatively simple. Enter, the buttercream rosette!

To make this, you just need buttercream icing, piping bag with star shaped nozzle, and a little bit of effort. To make the rosette, start in the centre with a blob of icing and then move the tip around the centre part, piping the entire time. I quickly youtubed it before having a go the first time.

You will have noted that this is a Neapolitan cake which is quite heavy on the chocolate. But I think that it looks quite impressive (if I do say so myself) and by decorating it all in chocolate on the outside, the inside becomes a complete surprise. I put some chocolate sprinkles on it because this is a lighthearted little cake, and I wanted to hint at the insides. Feel free to decorate however you like, but this was easy peasy!

Ingredients for the 3 cakes

• 180g caster sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla sugar
• 180g butter
• 3 eggs
• 180g flour
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 2 strawberries, quartered
• Tiny bit of red food colouring
• 30g cocoa powder
• 1-2 tbsp milk

Ingredients for the icing

• 150g butter
• 550g icing sugar
• 1 strawberry, quartered
• Teeny bit of red food colouring
• 2 tbsp cocoa
• Sprinkles

Method

To make the cakes, begin by greasing and lining 3 cake tins and preheating the oven to 175 degrees.

The rest is just cake 101. Cream the butter, the caster sugar and the vanilla sugar.

Add the eggs, one at a time, with a spoonful of flour.

Add the rest of the flour and the baking powder and stir to combine.

Now, separate the batter into three. I measured this out because I am a bit obsessive with cake.

One of the batters will become strawberry. Put the chopped strawberries in a sieve and grind it with a spoon to let the juice out. Put the juice in the batter and top up with a little bit of food colouring to make a lightly pink batter.

The next will be chocolate. Mix through the cocoa and add a little milk to get dropping consistency.

Lastly you have vanilla. This just needs a little milk to get to dropping consistency.

Place each batter in a different cake tin and bake for 15-20 minutes until cooked though.  They will be quite thin, just so that the cake isn’t mammoth.

Let cool in the pans for a few minutes and then turn out to fully cool on a wire rack.

Meanwhile, make the buttercream.

Put the butter in a bowl and beat until softened. Add the icing sugar about 150g at a time and mix together until all incorporated. You might need to add milk if needed to get to a pipeable consistency.

When the cakes are fully cooled, take a little bit of the plain buttercream icing and spread it on top of the vanilla cake.

Take another little bit into a separate bowl and, like before, sieve over the strawberry juice. Add some red food colouring if needed. Then spread this on top of the strawberry cake.

Mix the cocoa into the remainder of the buttercream.

Now, you’re ready to assemble and decorate!

The plain sponge comes first, icing side up, then place the strawberry one on top, again icing side up. Plop the chocolate sponge on the very top.

I wish the edges had come together better, but I think some of the tops rose a bit too much and there wasn't enough cake to be able to slice a bit off and even them up

Cover the whole thing in the chocolate buttercream.

Put the remaining half or so of the buttercream into a piping bag, and cover the top with rosettes.

Sprinkles are optional. But really, when are they ever optional.

Slice and serve, to the delight of all.

Phone camera shot of the inside since I took it into work. Don't worry, I'll make it again (and again and again) and put a better photo on..