Valentine’s Day is approaching soon, which means it’s chocolate and strawberry season.
I love chocolate and strawberry desserts, it’s a very good flavour combination. So I wanted to make a chocolate strawberry cheesecake cake…the name is a little long I don’t know what to call it.
You got 2 layers of chocolate cake, with a layer of no bake strawberry cheesecake in between them. Then the cake is coated in a strawberry cream cheese frosting.
Breakdown of the process
This cake…or cheesecake, again I don’t know what to call it.
This cake does need to be made over 2 days and there is quite a few step to make it.
But here’s a quick breakdown of what we are going to be doing:
Day 1
- Make a strawberry puree.
- Leave this to cool down.
- Make the chocolate cake batter.
- Bake this in two 8 inch cake tins, then leave these to cool down completely.
- Make the no bake strawberry cheesecake filling.
- Put the cake layers and cheesecake filling together.
- Leave this in your fridge to set up overnight.
Day 2
- Make the strawberry cream cheese frosting.
- Cover the cake with the frosting.
- Now it is done.
The strawberry puree
We are starting by making a strawberry puree.
We don’t need this until later, it’s for the cheesecake filling. But we’re making it first so it has time to cool down before we use it.
You only need 3 ingredients for it, or 4 if you consider water as an ingredient.
These are the ingredients you will need:
- Fresh strawberries
- Granulated sugar – caster sugar works too.
- Corn flour – also known as corn starch, this is going to thicken the mixture.
- Water
The cake layers
Once the strawberry puree has been made, we can move onto making the cake layers.
I made 2 chocolate cake layers for this. I used the same recipe I use whenever I’m making any kind of chocolate cake, but a slightly smaller batch than I usually make.
Here are the ingredients we are going to need for it:
- Cocoa powderÂ
- Hot water – we are mixing this with the cocoa powder to hydrate it. This is going to intensify the chocolate flavour.
- Unsalted butter – you want this to be softened.
- Vegetable oil – any flavourless oil works, but I like to use vegetable oil.
- Sugar – a mix of both granulated sugar and soft light brown sugar. The brown sugar is going to add a lot of flavour and moisture.
- EggsÂ
- Buttermilk – for moisture.Â
- Plain flour – also known as all purpose flour.
- Baking soda
- White vinegar – this is going to react with the baking soda as the cakes bake, giving you softer fluffier cake layers. I like to use white vinegar, but apple cider vinegar works great too. If you don’t want to use either, lemon juice can be used BUT vinegar gives you way better results. Â
The cheesecake filling
I have made a few cakes like this before, cakes that have a layer of cheesecake in the middle of them.
Usually when I make them, I add a baked cheesecake in between the cake layers.
But today I decided to make a no bake cheesecake layer instead.
It makes the recipe a little easier but also it gave the cake a different taste to the ones I’ve made before. The cheesecake layer was more light and airy, instead of being dense, rich and creamy.
Both taste great, but it was just different. It almost tasted like a strawberry mousse, which I liked.
You don’t need a lot of ingredients to make it, here’s what you will need:
- Cream cheese – make sure to use full fat cream cheese. Your cheesecake will be too soft and runny if you use low fat cream cheese.
- Granulated sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Lemon juice – this is not making the cheesecake lemon flavoured, it just helps thicken the mixture.
- Freeze dried strawberry powder – this added extra strawberry flavour and a nice colour, I get mine from Amazon from a brand called Honeyberry. It is optional though, you could leave it out if you wanted to.
- Double cream – also known as heavy cream.
I’ve gone into more detail on how to make this in the recipe card below. But essentially, all we are doing is mixing all the ingredients together. It’s super easy to make.
Assembling the cake
Once the cake layers have baked and cooled completely, and the cheesecake filling has been made, it’s time to put them together.
- Get an 8 inch cake tin. You want this to be a loose bottom or springform cake tin, either works.
- Line the sides of the tin with acetate or baking paper.
- Now get your cake layers and cut the tops of them off, just so you have more flat even layers. You can skip this part if you want to.
- Place one of your cake layers into the tin.
- Add the cheesecake filling into the tin, on top of the cake layer.
- Now add the second layer of cake.
That’s the cake assembled.
Chilling the cake overnight
This is very important. At this point, your cheesecake filling will be very soft.
It needs time to set up and actually become cheesecake. And also chilling it give a chance for the flavours to develop.Â
So make sure to leave the cake in your fridge overnight, you can’t skip this.
The strawberry cream cheese frosting
It’s the next day now, this is the last thing left to make. I covered the cake in a strawberry cream cheese frosting.
To make it, you will need 5 ingredients:
- Unsalted butter – this has to be softened, it will be very hard to make the frosting with cold butter.
- Icing sugar – also known as powdered sugar. It’s good to sieve this before using it…I never do, but it is good to do it.
- Vanilla extract
- Freeze dried strawberry powder – don’t go anywhere I will talk more about this in a second.
- Cream cheese – again, make sure to use full fat cream cheese. We don’t want a runny frosting.
The freeze dried strawberry powder
To get a strawberry flavour in the frosting, I relied on freeze dried strawberry powder, instead of adding a strawberry puree.
Using strawberry powder is a good way to add flavour without changing the texture of your frosting. If we were to add a strawberry puree, the cream cheese frosting can end up being too soft and runny.Â
Like I mentioned, I get my freeze dried strawberry powder from Amazon. From a brand called Honeyberry.
But with all this being said, if you can’t get your hands on some, you could just leave it out.
Your frosting won’t be strawberry flavoured but the cheesecake still is. So you will still have have a strawberry tasting cake, it will just be a little less strawberry tasting.
So don’t worry too much if you can’t get any strawberry powder.
Decorating the cake
All we need to do now is decorate the cake.
Take the cake out of the tin, and then decorate it.
All I did was cover the cake in the frosting, then I used a small palette knife to add a swirl to the top and sides.
I kept it simple, that’s all I did.
You could do more if you want to, decorate your cake however you like.
But once it has been decorate, you can dig in.
I make a lot of cakes, here are some other cake recipes you also need to try:
Chocolate Strawberry Cheesecake Cake
Ingredients
- For the strawberry puree:
250 g fresh strawberries
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon corn flour mixed with 1 tablespoon of water
- For the cake layers:
50 g cocoa powder
80 ml hot water
120 g unsalted butter, softened
100 ml vegetable oil
120 g granulated sugar
120 g soft light brown sugar
4 large eggs
140 ml buttermilk
200 g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons white vinegar
- For the cheesecake layer:
800 g full fat cream cheese
150 g granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons freeze dried strawberry powder (or more, if you want a stronger strawberry flavour)
300 ml double cream
- For the strawberry cream cheese frosting:
150 g unsalted butter, softened
150 g icing sugar, sieved
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon freeze dried strawberry powder
300 g full fat cream cheese
Directions
- DAY 1
- Making the strawberry puree:
- Add your strawberries into a food processor and process until smooth. Then pour this through a sieve to get out all of the seeds.
- Pour this into a pot and add the granulated sugar. Give this a mix, then place this onto medium heat. Heat until the mixture comes to a simmer.
- Add the corn flour/water mixture into this.
- Keep heating, whiles mixing, until the mixture thickens.
- Take this off the heat and leave in your fridge to cool down.
- Making the cake layers:
- Start by pre-heating your oven to 180c. Also grease and line two 8 inch cake tins, leave these aside.
- In a large bowl, add the cocoa powder and hot water. Whisk these together, then leave this aside to cool down for 5-10 minutes.
- After it has cooled down, add the softened butter, oil and both sugars. Beat these together for 5 minutes.
- Add 2 of the eggs into this and mix. Then add the remaining eggs and buttermilk, mix these in too.
- Now add the flour and mix just until you get a smooth batter.
- In a small separate bowl, add the baking soda and then pour the vinegar over it. This will start bubbling, just give it a quick mix, then pour it into your cake batter and whisk this in.
- Pour this batter into your cake tins and bake for around 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean. Once baked, leave your cake layers to cool completely.
- Making the cheesecake layer:
- In a large bowl, add the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla extract, lemon juice and the cooled strawberry mixture. Whisk all this together until combined.
- Add the freeze dried strawberry powder and whisk this in.
- Whiles still whisking, slowly pour in the double cream.
- Once all the cream has been added, whisk until you get a thick mixture.
- Leave this aside until ready to use.
- Putting the cake together:
- Once your cake layers have cooled completely, we can put the cake togehter.
- Get an 8 inch round spring form or loose bottom cake tin. Line the sides with acetate or baking paper.
- Cut the top of the cakes off, just so you have more flat even layers. This part is optional.
- Place one of your cake layers into the prepared tin, then add the cheesecake batter. Now add the second layer of cake on top.
- Leave this in your fridge to set up overnight.
- DAY 2
- Making the frosting:
- In a large bowl, add the softened butter, icing sugar, vanilla and the freeze dried strawberry powder. Mix these together, then once combined, beat for 5 minutes.
- Add the cream cheese and beat until you get a smooth, thick frosting.
- Decorating the cake:
- Take the cake out of the tin, then you can decorate it.
- I just covered the cake in the frosting, then added a swirl. But you can decorate yours however you want.
- Once decorated, cut into it and enjoy!
This is very good, I looovveeee strawberries ,chocolate and cheesecake my friend who dislikes strawberries agrees that this cake was the best strawberry cake she ever had!!!