Chocolate Cake! and Brownies!

Double-layer Chocolate  Cake, Vanilla Buttercream, Fresh Strawberries and Brownies!

This lovely double-layer chocolate cake is the perfect dessert to satisfy those chocolate cravings!  The fresh strawberries are an ideal complement to the decadence of this cake/brownie combination.  Vanilla Buttercream is quite literally…the icing on the cake.

I was looking for a simple dessert to share with friends and this little beauty was inspired by the fresh strawberries I found in the market.  In order to keep things as easy as possible, I added finely chopped berries to the Vanilla Buttercream filling.  These flavors and colors look fantastic together.

In order to keep the strawberries between the layers of cake, I piped a wall of buttercream around the edge.  Consider building a well next time you want to add fresh fruit, pudding, jams, etc. to cake filling.

Why the brownies??  Because chocolate!  I baked little brownie bites using my mini-muffin tin.  It’s a perfect little pan since all the edges are cooked and the brownie maintains its freshness.

I wasn’t sure how to decorate this cake, so I started messing around with a few design ideas.  The Strawberry Santa Hat just didn’t have enough uumph and the brownie, buttercream, and strawberry tower was more than my standard over-the-top.

Absolutely!  What this cake needed was more chocolate…bring on the delicious milk chocolate drizzle.  It looks fantastic and adds just the right finishing touch.  When in doubt, garnish with additional Ghirardelli.

Those dark chocolate layers of cake deliciousness are lovely and very approachable for the home baker.

I’m so grateful to have the time to blog again!  The holidays were amazing with my life partner, family, friends and our travels.  Baking happened, but blogging not so much.  Also, I’m grateful for sobriety and my home group.