Chocolate Strawberry Butter Cake

People often ask how I make my dishes.  Like everyone else, I look at cookbooks, and I have a shelf filled with cookbooks.  My iPad also is full of apps and electronic versions of cookbooks.  And while I visit a few food blogs, I visit a number of websites that have a large database of recipes.

And then, there are days when I experiment and just follow my instincts.  I get to imagine a certain taste, and I see how I can translate the my imagination into an actual dish for everyone to try.

This recipe is one of them.  I’ve always loved the taste of chocolates and strawberries.  And I’ve always loved the color, richness and creaminess of butter.  So as an experimental project, I made the chocolate strawberry butter cake.

Its base is made of butter cake.  The ganache — white chocolate cream and strawberry preserves.  And then the icing is Belgian Chocolate with chocolate circles as additional topping — and decor.

I like to refer to this as my Saturn Cake, because the white chocolate stripes on the top of the cake somehow remind me of the stripes on the planet.

Chocolate Strawberry Butter Cake (also known as Saturn Cake)

Butter Cake Base

• All-purpose flour, 1 and 3/4 cups
• Salt, 1/2 tsp.
• Baking Powder, 1 1/2 tsp
• Butter, 1 1/2 sticks
• Sugar, 1 cup
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• Almond Extract, 1 1/2 tsp
• All purpose cream, 3/4 cup

1) Preheat oven to 375°F .   Butter a 9-inch round cake pan.  Line with parchment paper.  Make sure that the parchment paper is also buttered.

2) Whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder.

3) In a separate bowl: using an electric mixer, beat together butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add whole egg, yolk, and almond extract and beat 1 minute. At low speed, mix in flour mixture and all-purpose cream alternately in batches.  Using all-purpose cream instead of milk gives the cake extra moisture.

4) Spread batter in cake pan and bake until golden brown and a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool cake in pan 10 to 15 minutes.  If the cake starts to brown early, temporarily take out the cake and place a foil on top of the cake pan to avoid burning.

5) Using a good serrated knife, horizontally cut across the center of the cake two make two layers of cake.

6) Spread the white chocolate ganache on the top of the lower layer.  Then spread the strawberry preserves.  Place the upper layer on top.  Spread the chocolate icing. (see instructions below for chocolate and white chocolate icing)

7) Using left over white chocolate ganache, create stripes across the cake.  As an optional decor, add chocolate circles on the side of the cake.  I used chocolate from Royce, a premium brand of chocolate from Japan.  My cousin flew in recently and gave us lots of it. 🙂

White Chocolate Ganache

Using a double boiler, melt 1 cup of white chocolate.  Add 1/2 cup of all purpose cream.  Add 1/4 cup of confectioner’s sugar/powdered sugar.  Chill for at least an hour.

Chocolate Icing

Still using a double baker, melt 1 3/4 cups of chopped Belgian Chocolate.  Add 1 tsp. of instant espresso powder.  Add 1 cup cream.  Add 1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar/powdered sugar.