I always put my hand up when I get invited to a celebration party and ask if they need cake. It’s a great opportunity to practice new techniques and to make flavour combinations that I have been quietly obsessing over.
This time it was my good friend Ele’s baby shower, and I had been thinking about how pretty a matcha/strawberry layer cake would be. White chocolate cake was an obvious candidate for the base, and since I’ve (unintentionally) been keeping my favourite white chocolate cake recipe a secret from you all this time it seems fair to share it. Since its so good.
I was reminded of how good it was while I made it. If you use a good quality white chocolate, all the slightly salty, creamy, vanillary aromas linger right through the baking process and come through in the cake. It’s a delight. It’s also a superb dessert cake – served plain and fresh, piled with thick greek yogurt and fresh raspberries.
I had all sorts of plans for decorating Ele’s white chocolate cake, but they all fell by the wayside when work dominated my evenings leading up to the baby shower – luckily, there isn’t much a piping bag and a bunch of coloured frosting can’t fix, and I really love the field-of-flowers look that this technique gives. An excited exclamation: OH BOY in marbled white chocolate sets the scene for the arrival of the young man in question.
It’s simple, chic, and very modern.
White Chocolate Cake with Strawberry & Matcha filling
makes a very tall 15cm cake (serves about 30)
White Chocolate Cake
ingredients
400g good quality white chocolate, melted and cooled
250g unsalted butter, softened
210g sugar
7 large eggs (70g each)
425g self raising flour
100mL milk
1/4 tsp salt
mixing
Line the bases and sides of 3 deep 15 cm cake pans with baking paper.
Beat the cool chocolate, butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat and the eggs one at a time. As the flour, and beat on low speed for one minute until well combined. Add the milk and salt and beat on high-speed for two minutes until the mixture is very light and fluffy.
Divide the mixture into thirds and spread each third into one of the prepared cake pans. Bake the cakes together on a single rack of the oven at 165 degrees Celsius for 1 hour 5 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of a cake comes out clean (the cakes will still whisper slightly). Cool on a wire rack.
When the cakes are cold, trim the tops so that the cakes are all 5 cm high, then wrap tightly in cling film and refrigerate.
When the cakes are chilled, remove from the refrigerate and unwrap. Cut the cakes into three even layers each, so you have 9 layers in total.
Fill alternately with strawberry and matcha filling (divide the strawberry into four portions and use a quarter for each layer; divide the matcha into six portions and use a sixth for each layer – don’t worry – both portions should be the same size because of they way the filling is split up below). Spread the entire outside of the cake with the rest of the matcha filling. Chill until set.
Prepare the buttercream for decorating the cake.
Divide the buttercream into five equal portions. Leave one portion white. Tint the other four portions different shades of blue and green (or whatever colour combination you choose – pink and orange would be nice, or pink and green would fit well with the flavour of the cake).
Load an individual colour of buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a small star nozzle. Pipe even sized, relatively shallow stars dotted randomly but evenly all over the cake. Repeat with the rest of the buttercream colours until all of the cake is covered. Decorate with chocolate letters or shapes or other decoration of your choice and refrigerate until the buttercream is set.
A note about serving the cake – it’s best to have the cake at room temperature when it’s eaten. Usually this will happen at a party because the cake gets to sit around and be admired for an hour or so first. To cut the cake, it’s easiest to cut it in half vertically, then place one half, cut side down on a board. Proceed to cut into half across the round width of the cake, set the two half-cylinders back into their original orientation (with the layers horizontal), then cut into small wedges.
Strawberry and Matcha filling
ingredients
3 tbsp custard powder
1 cup caster sugar
250g salted butter, softened
2 tbsp freeze dried strawberry powder
mixing
In a large microwaveable bowl, mix the custard powder with a little milk until you have a smooth paste, then add the rest of the milk. Microwave the mixture on high for one minute, then stir. Repeat for another minute (custard will be thick) and stir. Cook for a further 30 seconds, then cover with a layer of cling film directly on the surface of the custard and cool to room temperature – this is important, if the flour mixture is too hot the resulting frosting will be soupy! If this happens, chill the mixture and beat again.
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. With the mixer still running, add the custard, a tablespoon at a time, beating until all incorporated.
Split into two portions – one being 3/5 of the total mixture, the other 2/5 and add the matcha powder to the large portion and mix well. Add the strawberry powder to the small portion and mix well.
Buttercream for decoration
ingredients
300g soft unsalted butter
300g icing sugar
2 tbsp milk
flavouring of your choice – I used 1 tsp vanilla essence
colouring of your choice – I used Wilton leaf green, Wilton royal blue, Sugar Flair navy and Sugar Flair holly green.
mixing
Beat the butter until creamy. Beat in the icing sugar and salt and beat until very pale and fluffy. Beat in the milk and beat another 2 minutes.
White chocolate decorations
Of course you could put whatever topper you like on your cake – or even leave it plain. I made 5 letters and 8 hearts using 100g white chocolate (compound chocolate like Nestle melts is easiest to work with) which had been marbled with a little Wilton blue candy colouring. This is oil based and will safely colour chocolate without causing the chocolate to seize. Never use water based colouring with chocolate. The moulds can be purchased from a good cake decorating store, kitchen store, or Spotlight store. Simply melt the chocolate over hot water, colour and fill the moulds of your choice. Let the chocolate set completely at room temperature before gently pressing the forms out of the moulds. Press your chocolate decorations onto the buttercream covered cake as soon as you have finished the buttercream so that the decorations will sit nicely and adhere well.
Oh boy is right.
Enjoy!xxx
