Spring Edible Flowers White Chocolate Strawberry Cake
Organic Fairy Orchids and other Botanical flowers garnish a 6″ round layered White Chocolate Cake with Strawberry Buttercream Frosting. A show-stopping cake for Special Spring or Summer Events.
- Prep Time: 60 minutes
- Cook Time: 35-40 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours 45 minutes
- Yield: 12 small servings 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking-Decorating
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
7 ounces white chocolate bar (chopped)
1–1/2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1–1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2–1/2 cups all purpose flour
2–1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
6 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
2 cups softened butter
2 teaspoons each vanilla and strawberry extracts
2 medium fresh organic strawberries (stemmed and mashed) or 2 tablespoons strawberry jam
4 tablespoons heavy cream or whole milk
Soft pink food gel if you want a stronger pink color
Garnish
Edible Organic Sweet Botanical Flowers, 25 depending on how you want to decorate your cake.
Floral selections for cakes include violets, pansies, dahlias, mums, carnations, marigolds, bachelor buttons, hibiscus, nasturtium, orchids, dandelions, impatiens, and begonias. I am sure there are more like violas and roses, Johnny jump ups, and herbs for stems. Mint, rosemary, chives.
Instructions
1.Preheat oven to 350°F. Adjust oven rack to middle of oven. Lightly spray 3-6″ round cake pans with cooking spray, line bottoms of pan with 6″parchment round, spray parchment. Optional: use cake strips to wrap around cake pans to help keep the cakes flat on the top for easier stacking. Cake strips need to be wet not dripping but wet to wrap around the cake pans as not to burn the strips.
2.In medium bowl, sift or whisk together flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.
3.In microwave safe bowl, add whole milk and white chocolate pieces, microwave at 30 second intervals, stir until chocolate is melted and smooth with the milk. Set aside.
4. In bowl of stand mixer, beat butter and sugar together for 4 minutes until light and creamy. Scrape down sides and bottom of the bowl, add one egg at a time, beating to combine between each egg on low speed. Add vanilla. continue to combine.
5.Alternate flour with white chocolate milk mixture, (4 additions of flour to 3 additions of milk). Fully blending after each addition. Pour batter between the three prepared cake pans. Place pans on a baking sheet, place in preheated oven. Bake cakes for 35-40 minutes. Cakes are done with toothpick inserted comes out clean.
6. Remove from oven. Cool on cooling rack 8 minutes, loosen edges of cake, flip over pan and remove cakes. Allow to fully cool on cooling rack. At this point if you are making the cakes ahead, wrap cooled cakes with plastic wrap and foil, then freeze until ready to frost the cake.
Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
When ready to frost the cakes, in bowl of stand mixer, add softened butter and one cup of confectioner’s sugar, whip until combined, keep adding all 6 cups of sugar. Add cream and flavorings. Whip on medium speed until smooth and creamy. If frosting seems curdled, keep whipping until smooth might take about 5-8 minutes.
Assemble Cakes
1.Place one cake layer on a 6″ cake board.Spread 1/4 cup frosting over layer, stack with second cake, frost, top with third cake.
2.Skim coat top of cake with frosting. Insert two dowels 1/4″ wide 6″ tall 1/2″ from center of cake. Continue to skim coat sides of cakes with thin layer of strawberry frosting. Chill 30 minutes. Cover frosting with wet paper towel and reserve until cake chill is over.
3.Frost cake with strawberry buttercream beginning at the top of the cake pushing frosting down the sides of the cake. Use an off set spatula, dipped in warm water and dried to create a smooth finish.
How to Garnish Cake with Flowers
Fill the entire cake with flowers at various heights and sizes. Be sure to add leaves, if you don’t have leaves from the flowers, use mint or chive stems. Fill in around the base of the cake with assorted flowers. If you want to add a topper, you can make a wreath of flowers, or position flowers large, medium and small to one side of top and angle the flowers trailing down the side of the cake.
ONLY ADD THE FRESH FLOWERS RIGHT BEFORE SERVING the cake…AS THE FLOWERS WILL NOT LAST LONG. KEEP CAKE CHILLED TO KEEP FLOWERS FRESH.
Notes
You will need: 6″ round cake board, 2-1/4″ wide dowel rods, off set spatula, stand mixer, good quality white chocolate bar, do not use white chocolate chips other than Ghirardelli for best melting results. I used Milk Boy white chocolate with bourbon vanilla brand.
