Do you dream about chocolate? One taste of this Chocolate Covered Strawberry {Cake} and you will! The deepest, darkest, richest, most delicious chocolate cake you will ever taste! Filled with chocolate ganache and topped with strawberry cream cheese frosting (made from fresh strawberries). The final touch for this decadent dessert is to decorate it with chocolate dipped strawberries. Then watch it disappear!
I have been making this chocolate cake for years and I can’t begin to tell you how much people rave about it! I’ve made it for weddings, birthday and graduation parties and it always has the same glowing reviews…Best Chocolate Cake Ever!
I made this one for my boyfriend’s daughter’s birthday and topped it with strawberry cream cheese frosting and chocolate covered strawberries. It worked it’s magic once again. Everyone loved it!
Chocolate Covered Strawberry {Cake}
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 3 1/2 Cups All purpose flour
- 4 Cups Sugar
- 1 1/2 Cup Cocoa powder
- 1 Tablespoons + 1 teaspoon Baking soda
- 2 teaspoons Baking powder
- 2 tespoons Salt
- 2 Cups Buttermilk or Milk with 2 Tablespoons vinegar added
- 2 Cups Strong brewed coffee
- 1 Cup Canola oil
- 4 teaspoons Vanilla extract
- 4 Large eggs
For the ganache:
- 24 ounces Chocolate chips
- 2 Cups Heavy cream
- 1/2 Cup Seedless strawberry jelly
For the cream cheese frosting:
- 2 8 ounce packages Cream cheese softened
- 2 Sticks Unsalted butter
- 1 Pound bag + 2 Cups Confectioners sugar
- 1/2 Pound Strawberries
For Chocolate covered strawberries:
- 1/2 Pound Strawberries washed and dried
- 12 Ounces Chocolate chips
- 1 Tablespoons Shortening for thinning if desired
Instructions
For the Cake:
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Prepare 3 (10 inch) cake pans. (line with wax paper on bottom, grease and flour bottom and edges of pans.)
- In an extra large mixing bowl combine all of the dry ingredients. Whisk together to blend well.
- Make a gully in the center of dry ingredients and add remaining ingredients. (Make sure your coffee is cooled so it doesn't cook your eggs!)
- Whisk together by hand for 3 minutes to incorporate ingredients. Then using an electric mixer, beat on high for another 3 minutes while constantly turning bowl and scraping sides with a spatula. Pour batter evenly between cake pans. (Should fill about 1/2 to 2/3 full.) Bake for about 35-40 minutes.
- Or until toothpick comes out clean. Remove to cooling rack and cool completely.
For the ganache:
- Heat cream in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Once steam begins to rise from cream turn to low. Add chocolate chips and let sit in cream for one minute to soften. Whisk to incorporate until you have a chocolate creamy mixture with no lumps.
- Add strawberry jelly and mix to incorporate. Remove from heat an let cool to room temperature.
For the strawberry cream cheese frosting:
- Wash strawberries,remove stems and place in a blender or food processor.
- Blend until smooth.
- Pour into a small saucepan and cook over medium heat. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low. Cook stirring occasionally for 3-5 minutes to slightly reduce.
- Cool to room temperature.
- In a large mixing bowl cream butter and cream cheese until smooth and creamy. Add confectioner sugar and strawberry mixture in batches mixing on low until all incorporated. Mix on high for 3-5 minutes to create a smooth and creamy frosting. If it seems to runny you can add more confectioners sugar a cup at a time until desired consistency is achieved.
For Chocolate Covered Strawberries:
- In a small sauce pan over a double boiler filled with water (water should not touch bottom of saucepan). Heat over medium heat constantly stirring chocolate until completely melted. A small amount of shortening can be added at this point if chocolate seems too thick. It will make dipping the strawberries easier and produce a smooth shiny texture.
- Dip strawberries (make sure they are completely dry!) into chocolate letting excess drip back into saucepan and place them on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Chill in refrigerator to harden chocolate.
Put the cake together:
- Loosen edges of cake from pan with a butter knife, invert onto wax paper. Remove wax paper liner from bottom of cake if it is still stuck to it and place a 10 inch round cake board on bottom of your cake and flip over. Discard wax paper. (you can find these cake boards at Michaels, Party Store or Walmart. They come in different sizes.)
- Trace a circle with a butter knife about 1/2 -1 inch in from the cakes edge around center of your cake. Cut out and remove this circle about a 1/2 inch down so you have a gully in the center of your cake.
- Fill with ganache. (Careful not to fill too high or it will over flow when you add next cake layer.
- Place next cake layer on top and repeat.
- Place final cake layer on top and frost with strawberry cream cheese frosting. Pipe decorative edge and top with chocolate covered strawberries.
Nutrition
How to fill your Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake with ganache.
Here is the technique I use for filling the cake with ganache. The pictures shown are for a different cake so you would not have the raspberries added. Just the ganache.
This Chocolate Covered Strawberry {Cake} will serve between 25-30 people. It should be kept in the refrigerator but you definitely want to bring it to room temperature 1-2 hours before serving.
*This batter freezes very well! I freeze it all the time. Just thaw batter to room temperature before baking.
I’ll be sharing this recipe at the following link parties:
Friday I’m Lovin it link party
Saturday-Strut your Stuff link party
Wednesday- Wake up Wednesdays link party
Wednesday- Wow us Wednesdays link party
Thursday-Create it Thursday link party
This cake is BEAUTIFUL and sounds delicious! 🙂 Thanks for sharing at Sweet & Savoury Sundays! This is one of my favorites this week! I’ll be sharing this on Pinterest as well 🙂
How pretty, I love the piping work you’ve done to the cake! Thanks for linking up to Sweet and Savoury Sunday, stop by and link up again. Have a great day!!
This is such a gorgeous cake!!
Looks so delicious and elegant
Thanks Winnie!
Your Chocolate Covered Strawberry {Cake} recipe looks like it may soon well become my best friend! Great recipe!
looks great, cannot wait to try it out. As a newbie to cooking sweets, is there any chance you could post some additional images especially when it comes to the cake cutting and filling, also do you have any tips on how you created the piping please.
Hi Steve. I believe I do have some pictures of the technique I use for filling the cake. I will get them up on this post at some point today. As for the piping… there are many great videos on youtube that you could watch. Here is one that I found with the technique that I used. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2d4U-zIVsw . If you want to search for other videos, I just typed in “How to pipe a buttercream shell trim on a cake”. Good luck!
I just updated the recipe and added some pictures of the cutting/filling process. The pictures are right below the recipe. Hope this helps. I’ve been wanting to write a few tutorial posts but haven’t gotten around to them yet. Good luck with your cake! Also since you are new at cake decorating… if you find you’ve added too much strawberry puree to your frosting it can become a bit runny and difficult to pipe. Add more confectioner sugar to thicken it up. It’s best to add the puree a little at a time in the beginning and if you find the frosting is becoming too loose don’t add all of the puree.
My daughter requests a chocolate covered strawberry cake for her birthday every year. This cake is exactly how I picture the perfect chocolate covered strawberry cake! I’m excited to make it this week for her 9th birthday!
Happy Birthday to your daughter! She’s in for a treat with this cake! I make it every year my boyfriend’s daughter and it really is amazing! If you’re not used to making flavored cream cheese frosting you may want to keep some extra confectioner sugar on hand in case you find it’s too soupy to frost. Just add a bit more confectioner sugar until it thickens up. Hope you all enjoy it as much as we do!
I have to say one of my favorites, a standout above all the rest of chocolate cakes, The absolute go-to for chocolate cake recipe!!