Neapolitan Cake

This is the third consecutive year that I am baking Neha’s birthday cake. Two years back I had made a chocolate cake filled with chocolate mousse and frosted with dark chocolate ganache and though my ganache split (lack of expertise) I had managed to make a decent looking cake. By last year, I had gained some more experience in baking and frosting and had managed to make an eggless red velvet

cake with whipped cream frosting (Neha doesn’t like cream cheese). So, this year we did some brain storming and finally decided to make this Neapolitan cake.

Neapolitan cake is basically a three flavoured cake comprising of a layer of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry cake, just like the Neapolitan icecream. The best part of this cake is that you get the flavours of three different cakes. I have filled and frosted it with a strawberry flavoured whipping cream and finally used some ganache for a drip effect. The fresh strawberries on top gives it an added beauty. I accept that I am not very good in frosting and don’t know to do a very beautiful one, but I can assure you that the cake tastes fabulous.

I was expecting the middle strawberry cake layer to have a pretty pink colour, but unfortunately didn’t get a good pink colour unlike my strawberry muffin recipe. But the cake surely had a very good strawberry flavour. Please do try this cake and share your feedback. As always I have used a 240 ml cup. Since the recipe is a pretty long one, there might be some typo errors, please don’t hesitate to point it out to me. Though I was not extremely pleased with my frosting skills, but I was very happy to see the slice. Neha’s friends enjoyed it and had very good feedback about the same.

Have a look at these birthday cakes…

Ingredients:

For the chocolate cake:

• All purpose flour 125 gm
• Cocoa powder 25 gm
• Salt a pinch
• Brown sugar 125 gm
• Baking powder 1/2 tsp
• Baking soda 1/4 tsp
• Milk 180 ml
• Oil 80 ml
• Vanilla extract 1/2 tsp
• Vinegar 1 tsp
• Curd 2 tbsp
• Coffee powder 1-2 tsp

For the vanilla cake:

• All purpose flour 150 gm
• Salt a pinch
• Sugar 125 gm
• Baking powder 1/2 tsp
• Baking soda 1/4 tsp
• Milk 150 ml
• Oil 80 ml
• Vanilla extract 1/2 tsp
• Vinegar 1 tsp

For the strawberry cake:

• All purpose flour 125 gm
• Strawberry custard powder 25 gm
• Salt a pinch
• Sugar 100 gm
• Baking powder 1/2 tsp
• Baking soda 1/4 tsp
• Milk 150 ml
• Oil 80 ml
• Strawberry compote 2-3 tbsp
• Vanilla/strawberry extract 1/2 tsp
• Strawberry pieces 2 tbsp (optional)
• Vinegar 1 tsp
• Pink gel colour 1 drop (optional)

For the sugar syrup:

• Sugar 2-3 tbsp
• Water 2-3 tbdp

For the filling and frosting:

• Whipping cream 500 ml
• Pink gel colour 1 drop

For the drip:

• Dark chocolate 50 gm
• Fresh cream 50 gm

Method:

To make the chocolate cake:

• Preheat the oven at around 150-160 degree Celsius for atleast 10 minutes.
• Grease a seven inch or eight inch cake tin with butter and dust it with flour. Tap out the excess flour. If you want you can line it with parchment paper. But I haven’t done it.
• Sieve the flour, cocoa powder, coffee powder, salt and rising agents 2-3 times. Transfer the dry ingredients into a big mixing bowl.
• Mix the milk and vinegar and keep aside for 2-3 minutes.
• Now add, oil, curd, brown sugar and vanilla extract and mix well.
• Add the liquid ingredients into the dry flour mixture and fold gently. Do not over mix or stir vigorously.
• Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and tap it on the counter to remove air bubbles if any.
• Bake the cake for 30-35 minutes or till the top looks golden and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Take the tin out of the oven and allow the cake to cool in the tin for 4-5 minutes.

• Transfer the cake slowly onto a wire rack and cool it completely.

• Once it’s fully cooled, cling wrap the cake and place it in the cake tin and refrigerate overnight or for atleast 6-8 hours.

To make the vanilla cake:

• Preheat the oven at around 150-160 degree Celsius for atleast 10 minutes.
• Grease a seven inch or eight inch cake tin with butter and dust it with flour. Tap out the excess flour. If you want you can line it with parchment paper. But I haven’t done it.
• Sieve the flour, salt and rising agents 2-3 times. Transfer the dry ingredients into a big mixing bowl.
• Mix the milk and vinegar and keep aside for 2-3 minutes.
• Powder the sugar and add it to the milk-vinegar mixture.
• Now add oil and extract and mix well.
• Add the liquid ingredients into the dry flour mixture and fold gently. Do not over mix or stir vigorously.
• Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and tap it on the counter to remove air bubbles if any.
• Repeat all the steps as in the chocolate cake.

To make the strawberry cake:

• Repeat the first two steps as in the previous cake.
• Sieve together the flour, custard powder, salt and rising agents 2-3 times. Transfer the dry ingredients into a big mixing bowl.
• Mix the milk and vinegar and keep aside for 2-3 minutes.
• Powder the sugar and add it to the milk-vinegar mixture. Now add the strawberry compote and mix.
• Further, add oil, strawberry extract, a very small drop of pink gel coloured (optional) and mix well.
• Add the liquid ingredients into the dry flour mixture and fold gently. Do not over mix or stir vigorously.
• Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and tap it on the counter to remove air bubbles if any.
• Repeat all the steps as in the chocolate cake.

To make the sugar syrup:

• Boil the sugar and water till the sugar is completely dissolved.
• Cool and use it to moisten the cake while frosting.

To make the ganache drip:

• Chop the chocolate into small pieces and place it in a bowl.
• Heat the cream in a sauce pan till it is warm. Do not boil.
• Pour the cream on top of the chocolate pieces and keep undisturbed for 2-3 minutes.
• Stir gently till the entire chocolate melts.
• If the consistency is too thick, add some more cream. Keep aside for it to cool.
• Pour in squeeze bottle or piping bag to make patterns or drip.

To assemble the cake:

• Thaw your whipping cream in the refrigerator compartment for atleast 6-8 hours.
• Around half an hour to one hour before you plan to frost your cake, chill a big mixing bowl (preferably a steel bowl as it retains chillness better than glass bowl) and the blades of the electric beater in the freezer.
• Once all the three cakes are nicely cooled and the crumbs are all settled well, remove it out if the refrigerator and trim the top crust.

• Take a heavy cake turn table and place a cake board on top of it.
• Transfer around a cup (240 ml) of the thawed cream into the chilled bowl. Keep the remaining cream back in the refrigerator.
• Add a small drop of pink gel colour into the cream.
• Start whipping it at low speed and gradually increase the speed till you get nice stiff peaks. Do not over beat. This process will take around 4-6 minutes and not more.
• Transfer some whipped cream into a piping bag and refrigerate the remaining. Do not fill the bag too much. The cream will start melting due to the heat of your hands.
• Apply a small blob of cream in the centre of your cake board and place the chocolate cake on it. Adjust it so that the cage us in the centre of the board.
• Moisten the surface well with the prepared sugar syrup. Either use a pastry brush or use a squeeze bottle. Make sure that the entire top is well moistened.
• Pipe out the cream on the top of the chocolate cake. Smoothen it out using a spatula.
• Now place the layer of strawberry cake on top of it and press gently.
• Moisten the strawberry cake too with the syrup.
• Apply a layer of cream and cover it with the layer of vanilla cake.
• Once again repeat the process of moistening the vanilla cake too.
• Apply cream on top and sides of the cake and crumb coat it.
• Refrigerate the crumb coated cake for half an hour or freeze it for 10-15 minutes.
• Remove the cake from the refrigerator and coat it with the remaining cream.
• Frost it as per your liking and garnish it with either fresh strawberries or pipe designs using the whipped cream.
• If you want to make drips on the cake, pour the ganache in a squeeze bottle or pour it on the sides of the cake using a spoon. For more details on frosting and drips, please refer YouTube videos. There are many good ones.

• Refrigerate the cake for few hours or overnight so that the cream sets well.
• Thaw the cake for atleast half an hour before slicing. Enjoy a big slice of this delicious Neapolitan cake.