Chocolate Berry Cake with Italian Buttercream
Baking and Desserts | Italian cuisine
⏳ Time
4 hours
🥕 Ingredients
18
🍽️ Servings
7
Description
Recipe Tip The beautiful decoration of this cake is just as important as its taste. According to Anna, a pastry chef from a popular baking show, to create appetizing petals, you can use frosting of any color, but three shades of pink make the cake a true culinary masterpiece.
Ingredients
- Chocolate - 1.6 oz
- Freshly brewed green tea - ¾ cup
- Sugar - 2½ cups
- Wheat Flour - 1¼ cups
- Cocoa Powder - ¾ cup
- Activated Baking Soda - 1 teaspoon
- Baking Powder - ½ teaspoon
- Salt - ½ teaspoon
- Buttermilk - ¾ cup
- Vegetable Oil - 6 tablespoons
- Egg white - 1 piece
- Egg white - 7 pieces
- Vanilla extract - 1½ tablespoons
- Water - ½ cup
- Salted Butter - 16.2 oz
- Bittersweet Chocolate - 2.1 oz
- Raspberry leaves - 11.3 oz
- Red Food Coloring - to taste
Step by Step guide
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 302°F (300 degrees Fahrenheit). Take a 20 cm (8 inch) round cake pan. Dust it with flour and line it with parchment paper.
Step 2
Place the chopped chocolate in a small deep bowl, add the hot coffee, and let them sit for a minute to combine. Then stir the chocolate (don't worry if the mixture doesn't look smooth).
Step 3
In a large bowl, mix the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, oil, egg, egg whites, and vanilla extract. Combine the contents of both bowls and mix until smooth. Divide the batter into 3 portions. One portion will be one cake layer. The batter will be liquid and won't take up much space, but don't worry, it will rise well in the oven. Bake each layer in the cake pan for 30 minutes. You can check the doneness with a toothpick: insert it into the center of the cake; if it comes out clean, the layer is ready. Do not remove the layers from the pan for 30 minutes—then take them out to cool completely.
Step 4
To prepare the frosting, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt using a mixer or blender on medium speed. Whip the egg whites until foamy. Then increase the speed to high and slowly add 0.5 cups of sugar (100 g) until the egg whites thicken. Turn off the mixer.
Step 5
Take a saucepan, add the remaining sugar (1.5 cups, 300 g) and water, and boil the sugar over high heat without stirring. Use a candy thermometer to measure the boiling temperature of the sugar. Once it reaches 241°F (240 degrees Fahrenheit), remove the saucepan from the heat. Turn the blender (mixer) back on to high speed and slowly and carefully pour the hot mixture into the whipped egg whites. The mixture should be poured down the side of the blender bowl. Whip the meringue on high speed until it cools to room temperature (this will take about 8-10 minutes).
Step 6
Without turning off the blender, start adding the butter: piece by piece. Mix the contents of the blender (bowl) once or twice on your own. The meringue will start to deflate as you add the butter—that's normal, don't worry. Pour in the vanilla extract.
Step 7
Set aside 1.5 cups of the resulting frosting in a separate bowl, and add the melted chocolate and berries to it. Set the remaining frosting aside. The frosting in both cases should cool to room temperature.
Step 8
Now we start to 'assemble' the cake. Place one of the layers on a prepared plate. Spread half of the chocolate-berry frosting on it. Place the second layer on top and secure it. Add the remaining half of the chocolate-berry frosting. Cover the layer with the third layer.
Step 9
Now we begin decorating the cake. It should have 3 shades of pink: bright, dark, and light. Add a bit of food coloring to the remaining buttercream to achieve a light pink color. Take some of the frosting and cover the top layer and the sides of the cake. The top layer should be thick, while the sides should be thinner. At this stage, you should still have frosting left for decorating the cake with petals.
Step 10
Divide the remaining frosting into 3 portions. Add food coloring to two of them. You need to achieve 3 shades: light pink, pink, and dark pink. Place each portion into a piping bag.
Step 11
Start decorating the sides of the cake with petals using the piping bag. Move vertically down, alternating the petals: 2 dark, 2 medium, 2 light. Use a pastry knife to shape the petals correctly. Once the sides are ready, proceed to decorate the top, alternating the frosting as follows: 1 dark petal, 2 medium, 2 light, and again 1 dark. Repeat this process until the entire cake is decorated. Done.
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