Triple-Tier Neapolitan

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Triple-tier Neapolitan Cake

Triple-layer Dark Chocolate Cake with Lindt Chocolate Ganache Filling

Triple-layer Vanilla Cake with Vanilla Buttercream Filling

Triple-layer Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Buttercream Filling & Fresh Strawberry Garnish

 

This is a lot of cake!  And isn’t it fun?

Some days I know exactly what I’m baking and set out to do it.  Other days, I’m not feeling particularly inspired, but I know I really want to bake.  When that happens, I usually start with my favorite go-to Chocolate Layer Cake and see what happens.

As I was mixing the chocolate, it occurred to me to make a tiered cake.  My very first internal response “that’s so much work” was quickly followed by “but that would be kinda awesome!”

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Next, I considered baking something different from the chocolate… peanut butter, red velvet, almond, etc.  But, I love the classics – so Vanilla Layer Cake was an easy decision.

While the chocolate cake rounds were cycling in and out of the oven, I prepared the vanilla batter.  As I imagined the vanilla sitting atop the chocolate… strawberry came to mind.

 

Again, the internal dialogue, “NO!  THAT’S TOO MUCH WORK!”  was over ruled with “BUT THAT WOULD BE EPIC.”

I brought this on myself and I loved every minute of it.  There were absolutely moments of self-doubt, but I worked to overcome that.

The Neapolitan is a classic… chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry.  It’s really important for the Vanilla to be white and not yellow – so, I baked the cake with six egg white and not four whole eggs in order to keep the yolks out of the sponge.

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Baking with the basics means anything is possible.

Lining a cake pan with parchment or wax paper is how my grandmother baked a cake.  As much as it is humbug to add this step, it really pays off when the cake round easily releases from the pan.  It’s a “leave no chunks behind” approach to the layer cake.

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I love all the colors of the cake rounds.

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Beginning with the chocolate tier, I filled it with an amazing Lindt Chocolate Ganache.  I thinned out a small portion of it to apply the exterior crumb coat.

This was a decision point – how to design the cake.  There are many lovely piping techniques that would look fantastic on this cake.  I concluded that the sponge with a crumb coat would be minimalist yet dramatic.

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The Vanilla Buttercream is nothing but delicious.

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The little 4″ rounds needed to be leveled before stacking.  The smallest cake board I had in the house was a 6″ that was easily trimmed down.

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These three separate cakes barely fit in the fridge, but it was important to let them sit over night to make stacking more manageable.

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The chocolate and vanilla tier needed additional internal structure to support the weight.

Building each tier on a cardboard cake round helps with weight displacement, the bubble tea dowels offer support.

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And the stacking ….

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Keeping the design simple and working with cold tiers, it wasn’t necessary to cover the gap between tiers.

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I do love this cake; it looks almost like what I envisioned.

It’s important to me that I include a slice snapshot whenever I can.

When I first started designing and decorating cakes, I was all over Pinterest looking for ideas and inspiration; I was mesmerized by truly remarkable cakes.  Then I found out some of these were really cake designs (fondant or sugar paste over a Styrofoam base) and not cake. Oh.

Taking a slice from the cake demonstrates, “This is real cake and it’s really yummy too!”

Slicing a tiered cake requires a different approach… if this was a big event, I would separate the tiers and then slice.  But, while it’s still stacked, the slice requires moving along the curve of the tier above the slice.

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I absolutely love this slice on my Homer Laughlin Fiesta Dinnerware Dessert Plates in Flamingo, White, and Chocolate.  It’s like they were invented for a Neapolitan cake!

What a great day for a fun cake.  And a great day in this amazing season of life.

It’s also a great day for sobriety.

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1 Response

  1. Rubina says:

    Hi looks amazing your three layer cake, could you please send me chocolate ganache, strawberry n vanilla filling recipe pls. Thx a lot

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