The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Pink Strawberry Chocolate Chip Cake

dstroy's picture
dstroy

Pink Strawberry Chocolate Chip Cake

So this year my son turned 10, and he requested a cake that was all sorts of "half-and-half".

Half of his cake, he wanted "hockey" themed. The other half, he wanted "warrior cat" themed. (He's been reading a series of books about fighting cats)

And he wanted strawberry AND chocolate cake as well.

I wasn't up for making a layered cake, so I asked if he'd take a strawberry cake with chocolate chips in it - and then found myself having to make something up since I couldn't find anything that matched that description online. The boxed strawberry cake mixes from the store are pretty...meh.

So I found a bunch of strawberry cake recipes that called for a white cake mix and a package of Strawberry Jello, or I'd find ones that were totally from scratch that had crushed berries in them but which weren't pink, so I decided to go with something in between since I'm not fond of the boxed white cake mixes and wanted something in between.

I am very pleased with this one, because I've never messed with a cake recipe that much before.  It came out very strawberry flavored, not too sweet, with just the touch of chocolate.

Pink Strawberry Chocolate Cake:

This is the recipe I came up with when making a 9x13 "hockey rink" cake:

I put some frozen strawberries in a ziplock the day before I made the cake, so they'd thaw before I made it.  Then for the cake, the first thing we did was to mash up those berries. This was a great job for the littlest helper who was excited to help make her brother his special cake.  The leftover mashed berries can be thrown in a container and used for smoothies later - bonus!

cream together:

  • 1 3/4 cups white sugar
  • 2 sticks of butter (1 cup)

then add:

  • 4 eggs
  • about a Tablespoon vanilla extract

when this was all ready, dump in and mix gently:

  • 3/4 cup of the mashed strawberries

mix the dry ingredients FIRST, and add to the batter mix:

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 small package of Strawberry Jello gelatin mix (this stuff basically gives it that ice cream parlor taste, along with the crazy color)

And finally, after youve mixed all that stuff together, add in

  • 3/4 cup of milk
  • 1/3- 1/2 cup mini-chocolate chips (the mini ones were perfect for this!)

Fold it together and you're going to have some pretty shockingly pink stuff to cook with.

 Pour it into your pan, having greased the sides with some butter beforehand.

Oh - and I discovered an awesome trick which is kind of a "duh" but which had never occurred to me until I ran across it searching for recipes - line the bottom of your pan with parchment paper and your cake will be a snap to pop out of the pan! 

Bake @ 350 for 1/2 hour and then start checking the cake with a toothpick to check when it's ready (toothpick won't come out mushy) - mine took about 40 minutes.

THAT'S A PINK CAKE! Your house should be smelling pretty "strawberry" now.

parchment paper, I love you!

Once the cake cools, it's time to frost:

Take

  • 2 packages 8 oz cream cheese  
  • 2 cups confectioners' powdered sugar in a mixing bowl, and whip with an electric beater until smooth. 

(*DONT DO THE NEXT PART UNTIL THE STUFF IS SMOOTH, or you'll end up having to "zamboni" your ice rink like I did and start a new batch because it'll end up all powdery )

Then add about 

  • 1 cup of heavy whipping cream and beat again until you have a spreadable consistency.

Decorate as desired, in my case, it was with a hockey rink and some printed card cut-outs of pictures of cats playing hockey. :)

  

Comments

sonia101's picture
sonia101

Your  birthday cake looks stunning you did a fantastic job with the decorating!! My son also happens to LOVE strawberries and chocolate and I was making him a strawberry glazed flan today for when he comes home from school. I just used your recipe for the flan, it's in the oven and it smells fantastic :) I assumed jello is what we call jelly in Australia, our packets are 85 grams so I hope that was right. Fingers crossed my cake turns out moist like yours.

Thanks so much for sharing your recipe.

Cheers Sonia

Floydm's picture
Floydm

 I assumed jello is what we call jelly in Australia, our packets are 85 grams so I hope that was right

I would guess so too since our boxes are 85 grams as well.  Tell us how it turns out!

-Floyd

sonia101's picture
sonia101

Thank you so much :)

dstroy's picture
dstroy

Wow! Do let us know how it came out! Is flan the same as a cake? The meaning of flan I was familiar with is a jelly-like caramel custard type of dessert!

sonia101's picture
sonia101

It's out of the oven now and WOW it's good! Thanks so much for sharing the recipe, I also made a mini bundt cake so I could taste it :))) Maybe Flan is an Australia word? It's a layer of cake (I normally use Vanilla) topped with egg custard then fresh strawberries and then finished off with a glaze. My son is going to love this cake! I'll post a picture when it's finished so you can see it.

dstroy's picture
dstroy

woohoo! That's awesome! And can I say how incredible it is that we still havent put the kiddos to bed on his bday and someone else on another continent has already tried the recipe? :D Looking forward to seeing your pics!

sonia101's picture
sonia101

Oh I didn't realise it was his BD today....Happy Birthday and thanks for asking your Mum for a strawberry cake :-) I'm fighting with my son trying to stop him from cutting the cake before it has set lol

LindyD's picture
LindyD

Cool cake and creativity - but you always pull that off with the birthday cakes.  Love the hockey cats!  :-)

sonia101's picture
sonia101

My son loved it....in his words (edited otherwise I'll get banned) This cake is _____ MINT! Hehe mint is teenage Aussie slang for REALLY good! He then said it was the best strawberry flan I have made! The flavours were so much nicer with a strawberry base instead of a vanilla based cake! Thanks for posting your recipe, I'll be making this AGAIN!

 

 

Cheers Sonia

dstroy's picture
dstroy

oooh wow that looks like the kinds of cakes I used to get for MY birthday when I was little! Bet the berries, chocolate, and custard on top were delicious. (It was not an option for me with the whole "ice hockey rink" problem but I love what you did there!)

and I'm glad it turned out "mint" :) Thanks for sharing your photos!