Dark Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake Recipes

DARK CHOCOLATE-COVERED STRAWBERRY CAKE

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottom and sides of 2 (9-inch) round cake pans with shortening, or spray with cooking spray.
• In large bowl, stir together cake mix and gelatin mix with whisk. With electric mixer, beat in pureed strawberries on medium speed. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add oil and water; beat about 2 minutes or until smooth. Divide batter evenly between cake pans.
• Bake about 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans 20 minutes. Carefully invert cakes onto cooling racks. Cool completely, about 45 minutes.
• Refrigerate cooled cakes 4 hours or overnight to make icing the cake easier.
• Place 1 cake, right side up, on serving plate. Spread frosting on top of cake. Place second cake layer, upside down, on top of frosted cake. Spread frosting over top and sides to completely cover cake. (You may not need all of second container of frosting.) Garnish cake with fresh strawberries.

CHOCOLATE-COVERED STRAWBERRY CAKE

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pans). Grease and lightly flour bottoms and sides of two 9-inch round cake pans, or spray with baking spray with flour. In large bowl, mix cake mix and gelatin. Beat in water, oil and whole eggs with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, then on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pans.
• Bake 28 to 33 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pans to cooling racks. Cool completely, about 1 hour.
• Meanwhile, gently rinse strawberries and dry on paper towels (berries must be completely dry). Line cookie sheet with waxed paper. In 1-quart saucepan, melt vanilla baking chips and shortening over low heat, stirring frequently. Remove from heat.
• Dip lower half of each strawberry into vanilla chip mixture; allow excess to drip back into saucepan. Place on waxed paper-lined cookie sheet. Refrigerate until coating is firm, about 30 minutes, or until serving time.
• Split each cake layer horizontally into 2 layers. On serving plate, place top of 1 layer, cut side up; spread with 1/3 cup of the jam. Add bottom half of layer, cut side down; spread with 1/3 cup jam. Add top of second layer, cut side up; spread with remaining 1/3 cup jam. Add bottom of remaining layer. Frost side and top of cake with frosting. Arrange dipped strawberries around top of cake. Store covered in refrigerator.

CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRY CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
• Grease and flour three 8 x 2 inch round pans - I recommend using a circle of wax or parchment paper in the bottom of each pan. Cakes with fruit are more likely to stick.
• In a medium bowl add the flour, baking powder and salt, whisk to blend and set aside.
• In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and mix until softened and smooth. Slowly add the sugar and mix on medium speed 4 to 5 minutes.
• Add the oil and blend
• Add the eggs one at a time and mix until the yellow of each egg is blended in.
• Add the vanilla and strawberry extract, blend.
• Alternately, add the flour mixture and the strawberry puree, beginning and ending with the flour mixture (3 additions of flour and 2 of strawberry puree)
• Add 2 to 3 drops AmeriColor pink coloring or your pink coloring of choice (optional but you will have a prettier shade of pink for your cake!)
• Pour cake batter into prepared pans and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Check at 25 minutes.
• Place your chocolate into a microwave safe bowl.
• Pour heavy cream over the chocolate and place in the microwave for 1 minute. (Times may vary, see our note below).
• Remove and stir. Microwave for 30 seconds more and when the chocolate has melted almost completely, allow it to sit for 1 minute more before stirring. Stir until you've reached a silky smooth consistency.
• *Microwave times may vary. If you are making a smaller amount of ganache, you will reduce the microwave time. If your chocolate hasn't melted after the 1 1/2 minutes recommended in the instructions, simply microwave in small 10-15 second increments until it has nearly completely melted. Let sit one minute, then stir until smooth.
• Cream the softened butter until smooth.
• Gradually add the powdered sugar and pureed strawberries beating at medium speed until blended.
• Continue mixing on medium speed another 3 to 4 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally
• Slow down the mixer to very slow (#2 on a KitchenAid) and mixing another 1 to 2 minutes. This will eliminate air pockets. The buttercream will become very smooth.
• If the buttercream is too thin add more powdered sugar, if too thick add more puree or a bit of milk.
• Makes 4 to 4 1/2 cups
• We melted four oz. of chocolate in the microwave in 10-20 second increments until fully melted. We washed, dried, and dipped the strawberries into the chocolate and placed on a sheet of waxed paper until the chocolate was firm. (If you are in a hurry, you can chill in the refrigerator for a few minutes to firm up the chocolate.)
• For this cake, I piped a dam of strawberry buttercream around the edge of the bottom layer of cake (the dam was piped about 1/2 inch from the edge of the cake.)
• Next, I spread the layer with a thin coating of ganache, and then piped on a buttercream filling which I spread with my spatula.
• I then added a layer of thinly sliced strawberries on top of the buttercream.
• Next, I added my middle cake layer and repeated these steps.
• I topped with the top layer of cake and frosted the cake with a coating of strawberry frosting.
• I filled a disposable piping bag (tip snipped away) with ganache and drizzled around the edge of the cake. I then covered the top of the cake with ganache as well as spread with my spatula.
• I topped with strawberry buttercream stars spaced around the edge of the cake, (Ateco 863) and then topped each with a chocolate covered strawberry.

CHOCOLATE-DIPPED STRAWBERRIES

Steps:

• Cut a strip of baking parchment and leave to one side. To melt the dark chocolate, fill a small pan with 2cm water and bring to a simmer. Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and rest it on top of the pan, ensuring the bowl isn't touching the water. Stir the chocolate to gradually melt it. Or, melt the chocolate in 20 second blasts in the microwave, stirring after each blast until melted. Put the melted chocolate in a small deep bowl.
• Gently hold the strawberries by the leafy top and dip into the chocolate. Tap off any excess chocolate and put on the parchment to set. If you have any leftover chocolate, pour it onto another strip of parchment and leave it to set, it can be used again.
• If you'd like to decorate the strawberries, melt the white and milk chocolate and drizzle lightly over the fruit.