Tasty Tuesday: 5-Layer Neapolitan Cake

Every year I ask Leighton, "What kind of cake do you want for your birthday?" And every year he responds, "I don't care." This year he did follow it up with, "I don't think I want a Boston cream though."

It was a start. I knew what he didn't want, but that didn't narrow it down much. "Do you want another tres leches?" was met with "I don't know," (I don't know usually means no.) to which I responded, "Well, you're no help."

Profitable conversation, huh?

I browsed the recipes on a few of my favorite sites and narrowed the choices down to two. The one is an all white cake with white chocolate - a big plus in my hubby's eyes. I knew immediately that he would love it. The other was a cake I fell in love with the moment I first saw it nearly a year ago. While it does have a couple layers of chocolate cake, I thought I might be able to win him over with the Neapolitan aspect and the abundance of strawberry flavors.

As you can see, the lure of the prettier and more complicated cake was too strong. I did promise to make him the all-white cake some day though. I get bonus points for that, right??

This cake takes a bit of time to make. You make 3 different cakes - chocolate, strawberry, vanilla - along with a strawberry buttercream frosting. In between the layers, you can add either a bit of vanilla buttercream frosting or a good-quality strawberry jam. We used our homemade jam (using our  triple berry jam recipe, replacing the blueberries with extra strawberries.) Whether you choose the frosting or the jam to hold it all together, make sure you use just a tiny bit, a super thin layer. Mine soaked into the cake and bled through some. While it made for a very tasty addition, the layers were not quite as defined as I would have liked.     

But really, who cares about a little seeping when the cake tastes amazing??? All the components separately are delicious (oh, how I love that strawberry buttercream and can't wait to try it on other cakes!), but combine them and the flavors all work together to make a very Neapolitan-esque creation. It's kinda crazy how just how Neapolitany it is. Crazy and delicious. 

And crazy and delicious is good.

 

Really good.

And was I right? Did the cake win Leighton over??

Ohhh yeah.


5-Layer Neapolitan Cake

Chocolate Cake
Ingredients:
¾ cup plus 2 Tbs all-purpose flour
6 Tbs dark cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 cup sugar
¼ cup vegetable or canola oil
1 egg
½ cup black coffee
½ cup buttermilk
1½ tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. and butter and flour the edges of a 9-inch round pan, shaking out the excess flour. 
2. In a small bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt; whisk to blend and set aside. 
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the sugar, vegetable oil and egg.  Beat on medium speed until smooth, about 1-2 minutes.  With the mixer on low speed, blend in half of the dry ingredients, beating just until incorporated.  Blend in the coffee, buttermilk and vanilla just until smooth.  Beat in the remaining dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 35 minutes.  Cool in pan on wire rack for 20 minutes before inverting onto rack to cool completely.


White Cake
Ingredients:
2 egg whites
1¾ cup flour
1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 cup sugar
8 Tbs unsalted butter, room temperature
¾ cup very cold water
½ tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp almond extract

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. and butter and flour the edges of a 9-inch round pan, shaking out the excess flour. 
2. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt; whisk to blend and set aside. 
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites on medium speed until foamy.  Increase speed to medium high and continue to beat until stiff peaks form.  Transfer the egg whites to another bowl and set aside. 
4. In the bowl of the electric mixer now fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the sugar and butter, and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.  With the mixer on low speed, beat in half of the dry ingredients just until incorporated.  Blend in the water, vanilla and almond extracts.  Beat in the remaining dry ingredients just until incorporated.  With a silicone spatula, stir in about a quarter of the egg whites to lighten the batter.  Gently fold in the remaining egg whites, until the batter is smooth and no streaks remain.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 35 minutes.  Cool in pan on wire rack for 20 minutes before inverting onto rack to cool completely. 

 

 

Strawberry Cake 

Ingredients:
1¼ cups plus 2 Tbs all-purpose flour
1¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1½ oz strawberry gelatin
8 Tbs unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 eggs
½ cup milk
1½ tsp vanilla extract
¼ cup sweetened strawberry puree (process partially thawed frozen strawberries, if unsweetened add 2 tsp sugar)

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. and butter and flour the edges of a 9-inch round pan, shaking out the excess flour.  
2. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt; whisk to blend and set aside. 
3. Combine the sugar, strawberry gelatin and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.  Beat the eggs into the sugar mixture one at a time, mixing well after each addition.  With the mixer on low speed, add half of the dry ingredients to the batter and mix just until incorporated.  Blend in the milk and vanilla extract.  Add in the remaining dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated.  Blend in the strawberry puree.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 35 minutes.  Cool in pan on wire rack for 20 minutes before inverting onto rack to cool completely.
 

Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
8 cups confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup whipping cream
2 Tbs vanilla extract
1 Tbs water
pinch of salt
1 tsp strawberry extract
yellow food coloring, optional

Directions:
Beat the butter and icing sugar in an electric mixer on low with the paddle attachment for about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla, water, whipping cream, salt, strawberry extract, and food coloring (as needed to match the color of the white cake) and whip on high speed until fluffy and smooth–about 4 minutes. If consistency is too thick, add water 1 teaspoon at a time, and whip again for 30 seconds or so.
 

Filling
Vanilla buttercream or good quality strawberry jam


Assemble the Cake:
Torte each of the cake layers horizontally into two thin halves. If you do not have a cake slicer, use a large serrated knife. Hold the knife in the middle of the cake and spin the cake slowly as you cut into the side. Continue spinning and sawing until you cut all the way through. Use a cake board (I cut a circle out of a cereal box) to slide under the top layer and lift it off.

Place one of the chocolate layers on a cake board or cake platter.  Top with a very thin layer of the vanilla buttercream or strawberry jam.  Place a layer of the strawberry cake on top.  Again, cover with a thin layer of vanilla buttercream or strawberry jam.  Top with a layer of the white cake.  Cover with a thin layer of the vanilla buttercream or strawberry jam.  Repeat the process with the remaining layers of chocolate and strawberry cake.  (For a taller cake, you can use the remaining layer of white cake.  Otherwise, you can wrap tightly and save.)  Frost as desired with the strawberry buttercream frosting.
Recipe adapted from Sweetapolita.