Now I will admit to going a bit crazy with the decoration. This is called a petal cake and technically it’s really easy and forgiving but it takes TIME; even if you’re going at MAX speed like I was. But it was worth it (at least to me). I love the tricolored spiral effect and it just looks pretty. Also I should mention that this design is buttercream heavy. Soooo if you like your cakes with less frosting, skip this decoration scheme! The cake actually looked nice with a tricolor crumb coat as you can see in the video but sometimes more is more than more 😵
A delicious chocolate, strawberry and vanilla cake.
- 1 2/3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 cup salted butter at room temperature
- 3 egg whites
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 tablespoons cocoa
- 6 ounces strawberries sliced, reduced and strained
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons vanilla
- 4 lb confectioners sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons strained strawberry preserves
- Pink food coloring
Add hulled strawberries and lemon juice to a saucepan over medium heat.
After the mixture heats up for a few minutes, mash the strawberries then allow to simmer for about 10 minutes.
Strain mixture into a bowl. Cover and chill for another 10-15 minutes.
- Sift the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
- Mix the wet ingredients together in a medium bowl.
- Add the wet to the dry and mix until just combined.
- Divide the mixture into 3 bowls.
- Add the cocoa powder to one batch and mix.
Add the 3/4 of the strawberry reduction to the second batch and mix.
- Transfer the three batters into three 6″ cake pans, which have been buttered and floured.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes or until the centers are springy to the touch. Let the strawberry layer bake 5-8 minutes longer. Test with a toothpick.
- Whip the butter for about 5 minutes using a paddle attachment (stand-up mixer).
- Beat in the confectioner’s sugar slowly.
- Add the cream and vanilla. Beat until you have an even, fluffy consistency.
- Dive buttercream into 3 parts.
- Transfer one vanilla batch to a piping bag and snip off the tip.
- For the Chocolate Buttercream:
- Mix cocoa into one batch of buttercream.
- Transfer to a piping bag and snip off the tip.
- For the Strawberry Buttercream:
Add the rest of the strawberry mixture to a buttercream batch.
- Add in a few drops of pink food coloring if you want the color to be more vibrant.
- Mix together until desired consistency.
- Transfer to a piping bag and snip off the tip.
- Pipe alternating circles between each layer with each buttercream bag.
Add layers
- Pipe and smooth out a crumb coat on the outside of the cake with an uneven spatula.
- Pipe out petals around the entire cake. Stay consistent with the size of each petal.
Notes: For the strawberry buttercream, you could add more preserve if you’d like or even use the liquid from defrosted frozen If you’re doing a petal design with a crumb coat, it requires A LOT of buttercream. If you're doing a simpler design, you can halve the buttercream.
How to Decorate a Petal Cake
How to Decorate a Petal Cake
Full Recipe: https://preppykitchen.com/neapolitan-cake/
My neapolitan cake is packed with flavor and has a mesmerizing decorating scheme of multicolored petals. THis is …
You cakes look amazing! I have a question about the flour you use. Why all purpose over cake flour? If you were to use cake flour or pastry flour do you think the same results would happen? I love your cake and thanks for posting the recipe!!
Amy,
I use all-purpose flour because I can never find cake flour at the store! You can totally use cake flour though!
John
Thank you!!
Hello. Wouldn’t using cake flour alter the structure of the cake since cake flour is lighter than AP flour?
Btw the cake looks amazing 😊
Sanaya Ali,
You can absolutely use cake flour for this recipe!
John
Looks delicious and stunning! You mentioned a petal cake is easy so I am going to give it a try. Do you use a tip for the “petals”? Thank you.
Christin,
Use a large round tip to pipe the petals! Hope you enjoy!
John
Thank you! Very helpful tip 😉
John,
how much butter in grams, thank you.
Lulia,
170 grams of butter!
John
This cake was beautiful! I’m so happy I made it for my daughter’s 15th birthday!
Love this! Looks great!
hello , my country doesn’t sell sour cream. can i omit it or replace it?
your cake look absolutely stunning and yummy btw 🙂
Thanks so much! You can use yogurt instead!
thank you for your reply.also a request.can you also listed the ingredients in metric [grams]? i know it will take time. but I’ve tried 4 different website which convert cups to grams and they’re all different.one said 1/2 cup of AP flour is 85 grams the other is 55 grams.so its kind of confusing.