Chocolate Strawberry Cream Cake

For Layton’s party I made a cake inspired by the cake we won at the Young Women’s dessert auction. I used Pioneer Women’s chocolate sheet cake recipe for the layers, strawberry cream for the filling, and a whipped chocolate frosting to top it off.

Using a 7 by 11 inch pan to create the layers, I put about 1 3/4 cup of sheet cake batter in each pan to create three layers of cake. I took the left over batter and poured it into three ceramic ramekins so that I could create a tiny cake just for Layton. Notice the parchment paper on the bottom of the pan. It is the secret to getting your layers to come out of the pan perfectly with no breakage.

Now for the filling. Start with one block of softened cream cheese.

Add 1 3/4 cup of powdered sugar. Beat together until creamy.

Whip 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream. The secret to getting your whipping cream to fluff up properly is to throw the bowl that you will be using (a glass or metal bowl is best) into the freezer for about 20 minutes before you start beating the cream. Then beat on medium high until fluffy. Be patient it takes several minutes to get to a nice stiff consistency. Fold the stiff cream into the cream cheese mixture. If you don’t want to whip your own cream you can always substitute 2 cups of cool whip for this step.

Fold in 3/4 cup of chopped/mashed strawberries.

Place a generous amount of filling between the layers of the cake.

Top each layer of cream with sliced strawberries.

Refrigerate and start working on the chocolate frosting. Yum!

This chocolate frosting is light and fluffy and yummy. Start out by melting 2 oz (2 squares) of unsweetened chocolate. Heat in the microwave at 30 second increments until it is nice and smooth. Do not over heat the chocolate. It will get all clumpy and nasty. Yuck.

Add 1 can of sweetened condensed milk. Stir until smooth.

Add 1/2 tsp vanilla and a 1/2 cup of water. Add a 3.9 oz chocolate pudding mix. Use a whisk to get it nice and smooth.

Whip 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream until stiff (or use 2 cups of cool whip). Slowly fold it into the pudding mixture.

Ice the cake with a thick (really thick, you’ll thank me for it) layer of frosting and then refrigerate until ready to eat.

And boy were we ready to eat it. Take a look at the size of the piece of cake that Nathan cut for himself.

Layton loved getting down and dirty with that luscious chocolaty goodness.

This is what his little cake looked like when he was done with it. I think he liked it!

Click HERE for a printable copy of the recipe.