Strawberry White Chocolate Mud Cake

This cake is all sorts of heaven. With moist, rich white chocolate and vanilla mud cake layers sandwiched with tangy strawberry and lemon buttercream, jam and fresh strawberries this straddles sweet and tangy in one! I called her Sapphira.

This is a cake for a large gathering really. I'd say that this is two cakes in one. I made this cake for my mother's birthday which actually is a celebration involving four people rather than 20. But my mother loves white chocolate and I knew that she'd like this mud cake with its moist texture and layer of jam. I adored the freeze dried berrt buttercream with its tangy sweetness.

We ate this after a dinner out at a Thai restaurant. It almost didn't come to be. A few of you have asked how my father is going. While he has some functions back, he has really reverted to being almost child-like. Or specifically a teenage child. He can be petulant and demanding. Also his cognition and memory is failing.

A few days before my mother's birthday he had a computer issue. I was having a really busy day and he burst into my place asking to use my computer to do some banking. I had already told him that I don't use my computer to do the banking because it isn't secure but he didn't care, he wanted to use it anyway. I refused to let him use it because he has been compromised already because they often fall prey to scammers no matter how much we warn them. Before he left he said, "You're coming on Wednesday night to your mother's birthday?" and I confirmed that I was.

That Wednesday afternoon I messaged my mother that we would pick them up at 6:15pm. She said that father had said that we were going out on Saturday and he had gone out to buy them dinner. He had the dates wrong but I let her decide. She wanted to go out to dinner with all of us instead because it was her birthday after all.

After dinner we went back to their house for the cake-this cake. As we sang Happy Birthday to her he was busy playing on his phone and I had to ask him to put it away which he did reluctantly. And when I asked him "Did you like the cake?" he replied a blunt "No". So yes we have a petulant teenager in our midst!

So tell me Dear Reader, do you like white chocolate? Are you very honest or blunt in your opinions?

Strawberry White Chocolate Mud Cake

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time:

• 350g/12.4ozs. butter
• 500g/1.1lbs white chocolate chips
• 300g/10.6ozs. white sugar
• 1.5 cups buttermilk
• 4 eggs, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 525g/18.6ozs. cake flour*
• 3 teaspoons baking powder

For frosting

• 225g/8ozs. butter, softened
• 6 cups icing sugar, sifted
• 15g freeze dried strawberries, pulverised in a food processor
• 4-5 tablespoons lemon juice

For chocolate drip

• 50g/1.7ozs dark chocolate

• 50ml/1.7flozs. cream

• 250g/8.8ozs. strawberries, hulled and sliced

• 1/2 cup low sugar strawberry jam (or regular)

For 1 cup of cake flour, replace 2 tablespoons of plain all purpose flour with cornflour/fine cornstarch

Step 1 - Preheat oven to 160C/320F and line 2x15cm/6inch round tins on the base and sides going up an inch above the tin's edge. In a saucepan melt the butter, white chocolate chips and sugar. Cool for 5 minutes. Then add the buttermilk, eggs and vanilla. Transfer to a very large bowl.

Step 2 - Sift in the flour and baking powder mixture in 6 or so lots. You shouldn't get lumps if you do it this way. Divide evenly among the two tins and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes or until the middle springs back when touched. Cool completely. Trim the tops off the cakes and then slice each in half horizontally.

Step 3 - To make the frosting, beat the butter until smooth for 2 minutes. Then add the icing sugar and freeze dried berries and then beat on low speed until combined. Beat for 5 minutes or so. Then add lemon juice to taste. Cover this icing when it isn't in use.

Step 4 - Place a cup of frosting in a piping bag and snip the end to around 3/4 of an inch. Place the cake on a serving plate or turntable and brush with some strawberry jam. Pipe icing around the outside and then fill with sliced berries. Repeat with the other rounds. At this point you can place the cake in the freezer for 30 minutes or so if you have space (I rarely do). It will make icing the outside a bit easier.

Step 5 - Finish off the cake by spreading strawberry buttercream around the top and sides scraping it down with an icing scraper. I then go over it with a palette knife to smooth down any edges dipping the palette knife in a little room temperature water.

Step 6 - Melt the chocolate with the cream and stir until smooth and allow it to firm up a little bit by cooling on the benchtop for 10 minutes or so. Use a teaspoon to get the drips down the edge. Dip half a dozen strawberries into the chocolate and allow the chocolate on the cake and berries to set completely.

Step 7 - Pipe six frosting flowers on top of the cake and affix the chocolate coated strawberries.