Devil’s Food Cake with Strawberry Cream

November 10, 2011

 

So those that follow me on Twitter know the origins of this cake. Sometimes the urge to bake is less about fulfilling a specific craving and more about letting it all out. For those times when you need a balls-to-the-wall effort to expunge whatever lousy pent-up issue you’ve got and it’s more appropriate to smash out a cake than smash other things. You know, whipping the heck out of cream, chopping chocolate to smithereens, the BAM! BAM! BAM-ing! with a rolling pin. Yeah boi.

I needed a heavenly cake to make all the bad go away.
With layers of fudge chocolate cake.
And cream.
And more chocolate! MOAR!
Add a topping of chocolate ganache? Why yes, thanks, pour that glossy stuff right on.
And chocolate shavings. Milk or white? How about both. Why not, let’s go crazy.
And finish it with strawberries. Dusted with icing sugar. Cos we’re fancy like that.

So here’s a recipe for a layered Devil’s Food Chocolate Cake, sandwiched together with strawberry jam and sweetened cream with fresh strawberries, and topped with many manifestations of chocolate. There’s about 400g of chocolate involved and the chance to lace the cake layers with alcohol if you play your cards right.

If you’d like to extend your warrior skills beyond the kitchen, why not try your hand at foraging for your own ingredients. Earlier that day I travelled to the Sunny Ridge Strawberry Farm in the Mornington Peninsula to pick my own strawberries. Here are the Cake Mistress tips for being a strawberry-picking ninja.

#1 Avoid this rookie mistake

Humans are inherently lazy. See how everyone’s stopped at the first patch from the entrance? Rookie mistake. Instead, Ninjas nonchalantly sneak away to the furthermost point, where the bushes haven’t stripped faster than Paris for publicity. Don’t move too quick, else the others will notice your plan and start following.

#2 Dress like a ninja

Strawberry plants lie what feels like one centimetre from the floor. Don’t let the pictures of young carefree ladies in sundresses and sandals effortlessly swinging baskets from their arms fool you. Ditch the Manolos. Strawberry picking ninjas wear sneakers and maybe a back brace if they’re hardcore. Bonus points for dressing like an actual ninja. You’ll scare people away with your crazy, which means more strawberries for you. WIN.

#3 Befriend a little person

Find a little person to do all your bending work. Bring your own child or borrow someone else’s to do the work play treasure hunt. 3-4 feet tall is best. Your talents are best used as aerial lookout for hints of red berry nested in the leaves. Make sure they’re old enough to know red from green, otherwise their nimble fingers will pick everything before you can blink.

#4 Befriend a Tetris Geek, too

Good at tetris? You’ll be a natural at packing your strawberry box to it’s maximal potential. Artfully rotate those berries until they all fit.

#5 You can do it, put your back into it

Although it would be awesome if strawberries just flopped out from the plant announcing “oh hai! I’m ripe and lush and ready for you”, they don’t. Many a ripe berry is your reward for checking under the leaves too. It’s amazing how many don’t do this.

Picking your own berries is only $8 for 500g, which is quite fantastic for fresh strawberries right off the vine. Half of mine were eaten raw. Okay, maybe some were dipped in a little chocolate. And the other half went into this extremely delicious cake that made all the bad go away with every bite. It might look like a long list of ingredients and components, but it’s not complex at all.

 

Devil's food cake

Taste the happy

Devil’s Food Cake with Strawberry Cream

CAKE:
280g SR flour
85g Cocoa Powder
345g Caster Sugar
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
150g unsalted butter, softened
250ml water

CHOC CURLS/FLAKES:
100g milk chocolate, chopped
100g white chocolate, chopped

GANACHE:
225g dark chocolate, finely chopped (70%)
70g unsalted butter, cubed

STRAWBERRY CREAM:
250ml whipping cream
2 tablespoons icing sugar
300g Strawberries
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

STRAWBERRY FILLING:
4 tablespoons strawberry jam
2 tablespoons liqueur (I used cherry brandy, can use orange liqueur etc)

Serves 8-10

The cake part is easy, with everything mixed in one bowl! Preheat oven to 180c. Grease a 24cm springform cake tin and line base with baking paper. Sift flour and cocoa into large electric mixer bowl. Add the sugar, eggs, softened butter and water. Beat on low speed until all combined, then increase to high and beat for 4 minutes. Pour into tin and smooth the top. Bake for around 55 mins, or until a skewer comes out clean from the centre. Leave to cool in tin for 20 minutes, then turn onto wire rack to cool.

While the cake is baking, make some chocolate curls. Place milk and white chocolate in separate heatproof bowls. Heat very gently over boiling water until melted (don’t let the chocolate get above 32 degrees if you can help it). Thinly spread the chocolate into thin layers onto a flat surface and let it set. Using a non-serrated knife or long metal spatula, push the knife at a 45 degree angle through chocolate away from you. If you’ve managed to temper your chocolate you’ll get nice curls, otherwise you’ll get pretty flakes instead. Refrigerate until needed.

Set aside 4 strawberries for decoration. Remove the green leaves and stalks and dice the strawberries. Beat cream and icing sugar until thick. Stir through the strawberry pieces and vanilla and refrigerate until needed.

Before assembling the cake, make ganache by melting chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over boiling water. Stir occasionally to ensure chocolate is fully melted. Set aside to cool to room temperature first, otherwise you’re chocolate curls will melt if you add them straight away.

When cake is completely cool trim the dome off the top. Carefully cut the cake into two layers horizontally. Place the bottom layer onto your serving plate. If you want a bonus alcoholic punch to the cake, brush some extra liqueur over the bottom layer. Otherwise mix the strawberry jam & liqueur in a bowl, and spread over the bottom layer. Spread all the strawberry cream over the top. Place second cake layer over the cream.
Pour chocolate ganache over the top and swirl it around the edges. Dot strawberries around the edges and sprinkle the chocolate curls/flakes around. Finish with a dusting of icing sugar.

Keep refrigerated when not in use.

 

Recipe adapted from The Cake Bible, by Rose Levy Beranbaum, available at The Book Depository

 

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  • YAY!!! You’re back!!! I’ve been waiting for you!!!

    It’s such a NICE cake!!! I can’t wait to try and make it myself, my boyfriend LOVES strawberries hehe :)

    I wanna go to the Sunny Ridge Strawberry Farm too is it worth going?

    Keep up the great blog posts!

  • Looks wonderful and a great read too. 

  • You have a lovely site here.. I really like the layout.
    In addition, your devil’s food cake looks scrumptious… great job! 
    Yes, dessert makes most of the “bad” go away.  :-)

  • Hiya,
    Aww shucks :) Sunny Ridge is worth going to if you’re visiting other places in the area as well. Once the strawberry picking is over, there’s a cafe inside and also the cellar door for Rebello Wines, their strawberry-based alcohol products. Let someone else drive that day :) :)

  • Oh I could go a slice of that now, we have nothing yummy in the household and I have post 10pm munchies.

    I love you ninja strawberry picking tips.  May I add another one?  Make sure your little person is not colour blind or they won’t see the ripe red berries against the green leaves.  How do I know, Dad is colour blind and it is really amuzing watching strawberry hunt (I am such a bad daughter!)

  • you crack me up… that ninja thing is hilarious… 

  • All these wonderful cakes and no invite to eat them! :(

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