vanilla cake with chocolate cheesecake filling and strawberry cheesecake frosting

I love birthdays.  I love celebrating someone.  I love buying thoughtful gifts.  I love how excited people get when you do nice things for them. I love to think about that person, and what they would like most on their one day that's about them.

Usually, that's in baked good form.

This year, I returned the favor. To myself.

Hello, pretty.  You are my ultimate dessert.  You take everything that I love in sweets and package it up quite nicely.  You're easy on the eyes.  And my taste buds.


You are...a vanilla cake, filled with a chocolate cheesecake frosting. And topped with fresh strawberry cheesecake frosting.


I love you.

I had so much fun baking this cake.  It took me days to figure out exactly what I wanted.  


It had to be cake.  Duh.


It had to be vanilla cake.  No other form of cake is superior in my opinion.


I wanted something kind of fruity and not too rich.  It's summer.  Enter strawberry.

But then I had a serious problem: how do I incorporate chocolate?  I like a little chocolate, but not a lot.  Buttercream?  Too boring.  Then I saw this.  A gift from the heavens Jessica.

So call it a neapolitan cake.  Call it whatever you like.  Regardless, this cake was in.cred.i.ble.

Yeah.

Oh, and I can't forget to give huuuuge credit to my blog's biggest fan, Morgan Morrone, for all of the awesome photos! She's a sneaky talent who snapped all of those action and close-ups while I'm wrist-deep in frosting. Thanks, bud.

Vanilla cake with chocolate cheesecake filling and strawberry cheesecake frosting
cake recipe from Baked; chocolate filling from How Sweet It Is; strawberry frosting from yours truly


for the cake:
2 1/2 cups of cake flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups ice cold water
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1. Preheat the over the 325 degrees F. 
2. Butter three 8-inch round cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment paper, and butter the parchment. Dust pans with flour and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, sift together flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and shortening on medium speed until creamy, about 3 to 4 minutes. 
5. Once creamy, keep beating and gently pour in sugar and vanilla and continue to beat on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape sides of bowl to ensure all sugar is mixed.
6. Continue beating and add the egg until well incorporated. Turn the mixer to low. Add the flour mixture, alternating with the ice water, in three separate additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Scrape down the bowl, then mix on low speed for a few more seconds.
7. Meanwhile, whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form in a medium bowl, careful not to overbeat. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter.
8. Divide the batter among the prepared pans and smooth the tops. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, rotating the pans about 20 minutes into the baking time. Once a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, remove and transfer cakes to a wire rack and let cool for 20 minutes. Invert the cakes onto the rack, remove the pans, and let cool completely. Remove the parchment.

for the chocolate cheesecake filling:
1/2 cup butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup good quality unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese together on medium speed until smooth. 
2. Turn the mixer to low speed, and gently pour in vanilla.  Slowly add the powdered sugar and cocoa powder, scraping sides of bowl to ensure all ingredients are fully incorporated.

for the strawberry cheesecake frosting:

1 quart strawberries

5 1/2 cups powdered sugar

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1. Place strawberries in food processor and puree until smooth.  Set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese together on medium speed until smooth.
3. Turn the mixer to low, and gently pour in vanilla and strawberry puree and mix until well incorporated.
4. Keeping mixer on low, gently pour in powdered sugar, one cup at a time, until frosting becomes creamy and somewhat thick, or until desired consistency is attained.

apple spice cake

So, there once was a recipe of Dorie Greenspan's...something I've been eyeing for quite some time.

 

But I had a few problems with it.  I can never just leave a recipe alone.  

Hello, my name is Melissa, and I'm a control freak.  

Hello Melissa.

This cake was no different.  It calls for dark rum.  Rum, Dorie? Really?  There's no way I'd have that in stock, and certainly an even slimmer chance that I'm buying a whole fifth just for the three tablespoons the recipe calls for.  So instead, I upped the vanilla and threw in some almond.  Who doesn't love almond extract, anyways?  And if you ask me, you can really never have enough vanilla.

I didn't stop there.  I noticed that Dorie just wants you to simply "melt" your butter.  Oh, no you di-in't, Dorie.  Are you kidding me?  You really don't want to enhance the apple flavor with the nuttiness of browned butter?  Well, I do.  Sorry.  [Actually, I'm not. This was delicious.]

Oh, but there's just one more thing.  I swear.  You may be the next Julia Child, Ms. Greenspan, but let it be known: I won't fall for your tricks.  Are you really trying to tell me that an apple cake can be delicious without cinnamon?  I don't believe you.  

Enter cinnamon.  

And...that cardamom I bought last week that I've been dying to use.  

Oh, yeah, and if I have cinnamon, I have to add nutmeg.  I can't have one without the other.  (I think this is what they call a compulsion.)

And then there's those ground cloves that I love.  And allspice!  Gotta have allspice if I'm calling it a spice cake.

But that's it.  I swear.  I mean no disrespect, ma'am.

Other than these couple of things, Dorie my dear, I think you I have yourmyself a winning cake here.

Apple Spice Cake

recipe slightly adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Marie Hélène's Apple Cake

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of salt
2 cups apples, peeled and chopped into 1" chunks (about 3 large apples)
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cardamom

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon allspice
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, browned and cooled

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously butter an 8-inch springform pan and put it on a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper and put the springform on it.
2. Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices together in small bowl. 
3. Brown the butter in a small saucepan and set aside to cool.
4. Peel the apples, cut them in half and remove the cores. Cut the apples into 1-inch chunks.
5. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk until they’re foamy. Pour in the sugar and whisk for a minute or so to blend. Whisk in the vanilla and almond extract. 
6. Add half of the flour to the egg mixture, and when it is incorporated, add half of the butter, followed by the rest of the flour and the remaining butter, mixing gently after each addition so that you have a smooth, rather thick batter. 
7. Switch to a rubber spatula and fold in the apples, turning the fruit so that it's coated with batter.
8. Slide the pan into the oven and bake for 50 minutes, or until the top of the cake is golden brown and a knife inserted deep into the center comes out clean; the cake may pull away from the sides of the pan. Transfer to a cooling rack and let rest for 5 minutes.
9. Carefully run a blunt knife around the edges of the cake and remove the sides of the springform pan. (Open the springform slowly, and before it’s fully opened, make sure there aren't any apples stuck to it.) Allow the cake to cool until it is just slightly warm or at room temperature. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and enjoy.

coconut cake

Acts of service.  That's my language of love.  Well, right behind a tie between words of affirmation and quality time.  Do you even know what I'm talking about?  If you haven't read The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman, it's my strong recommendation that you remedy this fact quickly.  It's just one of those books that you have to read if you're a human being.  It's pretty self-explanatory, but the concept behind this book is so simple, yet so few people ever realize these characteristics of themselves, but rather use them as tools for arguments in their relationships.  Anyway, it won't let you down.  Go get it.


So, acts of service.  I always knew that I was much more of a one-on-one kind of a girl rather than a just-a-face-in-the-crowd girl, so the quality time thing didn't really shock me.  Words of affirmation?  I guess now I realize that I do try to tell those around me that I love them, and that I do need to hear reassurance in return.  But acts of service is something that I've battled with for a while.  Call me a doormat, or a people pleaser, but I really like doing nice things for people.  It's not selfless, because I get enjoyment out of baking people cookies, or doing laundry for someone, or even cleaning a bathroom (yeah, you heard me right.)  But either way, it was really interesting to read about this particular language of love and then translate it just in time for Miss Morgan's birthday a few weeks ago.


Morgan loves coconut.  I despise coconut.  All she requested from me for her birthday was a coconut cake.  She even related stories dating back to her childhood about always having coconut cake and how much she loved it.  Whether this was just a ploy to see me cringe, I'm not entirely sure, but either way, what my friends want, my friends get.

So, this cake.  What a process this was.  I had to find the perfect recipe, so after many days of searching (and surprisingly yielding far fewer options than I had originally anticipated), I decided on Bobby Flay's Throwdown coconut cake.  Now, if you know me, you know how much I not only love Bobby Flay, but love this show.  #4 on my list, to be exact (and now this is on my wish list too.)  But, being an Iron Chef and all, his recipes are always super labor-intensive, but always get outstanding reviews.  So this was the perfect excuse to challenge myself not only with an ingredient I loathe, but with a super complicated recipe. I was even more excited to read My Year on the Grill's review of this exact recipe, who confirmed some of my reservations about the cake. Special thanks to him for those tips!


First comes the many, many, fillings that you have to make.  I started with the coconut custard that is the base for the coconut buttercream and the coconut cream.  The custard has to sit in the fridge for two hours to cool, so this was the first thing that I started making. When it's all said and done, it should look something like this:

Next, I made the coconut simple syrup.  This is used to drizzle over the cakes once they're cooled in order to keep them moist and also to add coconut flavor to them, since you may have noticed that the cake does not contain any coconut ingredient (which is why I rave about the cake so much, so take my excitement with a grain of salt here, friends.) 


This is when I started making the cake itself, once the custard is in the fridge and the simple syrup is basking away all of that coconut on the stove.  Now, prepare yourselves: I have a very strong statement to make.  I LOVED THIS CAKE.  I loved everything about it.  It was super moist, full of flavor, and baked perfectly.  Ah, just look at that...

But, the recipe for the cake itself was really interesting - not like anything I've ever seen or done before.  I loved making the batter - even though I don't yet own this certain handy and heavenly piece of equipment - and even though I had to individually mash each tablespoon of butter into the dry ingredients.  It was fun.  The butter looks cute all cut up in individual pieces.  

But nonetheless, the batter still turned out wonderfully.  I wish that I had been able to find actual vanilla beans to use in the batter, but instead I just added more vanilla.  I can only imagine how much better this will taste with the bean.  I'm definitely using this cake recipe from now on for any vanilla/yellow cake that I need - it totally knocks Paula's (way too dry and dense) and Betty's (also way too dense) out of the park.  I knew Bobby wouldn't let me down.

Next up: toast that coconut.  This is when things started to not go as smoothly as they were for so long.  I'll leave it to your photographic judging skills to deduce what happened here.

Yeah.  The recipe says to leave it in the oven after you toast it, for 15 minutes to get it "crunchy."  I did that, and around the 9 minute mark, started to smell that all-too-familiar smoky smell that my lovely oven is so fond of permeating.  The good news?  The recipe waaaaay over-calls for the amount of toasted coconut you need.  All I used was the stuff in the middle that was still semi-white and it was totally enough.  Although you should probably ask Morgan - she actually enjoys the stuff.


Back to the fillings.  Once your custard has sat for two hours, you divide it between making the buttercream and the filling.  The filling was tricky.  It seemed to yield way too much, and although despite my preconceived notions, I used most of it to fill the cake.  I'm not sure this was the right call.

Oh, it looks pretty now, you say, but just wait until you scroll down further.  The buttercream also had its own hiccups.  It just wasn't coconut-y enough!  I threw in some more Malibu to try to make it a rum buttercream, but I'm not sure this even really worked.  The ratio of powdered sugar was totally off, too.  But alas, it somehow came together to form this:

I told you.  Coconut filling oozing all over the coconut place.  Oh well.  I'll leave you with a prettier picture, though, don't worry.

Morgan's Coconut Cake

Courtesy of Bobby Flay with adaptations from My Year on the Grill

This recipe is all about time management. I organized this recipe by how I organized my time, starting with the coconut custard since it has to sit for so long.  While you're doing that, soften your butter for the cake.  After the custard is in the fridge, prepare your cake. Once that is in the oven, prepare the simple syrup and put 3/4 cup of the heavy cream in the freezer to get really cold for the coconut filling. When your cake is done baking, toast your coconut. While the cakes cool, prepare the filling and frosting.

Coconut Custard:

3/4 cup whole milk

3/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk

1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped

4 large egg yolks

1/3 cup granulated sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

3 teaspoons coconut rum (recommended: Malibu)

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Combine the milks and vanilla bean and seeds in a medium nonreactive saucepan and bring to a simmer over low heat.
2. Whisk together the yolks, sugar and cornstarch in a large bowl. Slowly whisk the warm milk into the egg mixture then return the mixture to the pot over medium heat and bring to a boil, whisking constantly, until thickened.
3. Scrape the mixture into a bowl and whisk in the rum and vanilla extract.
4. Let cool to room temperature then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold, at least 2 hours.

Cake:
2 tablespoons softened butter, for pans
2 1/4 cups cake flour, plus more for pans
1 cup whole milk, at room temperature
6 large egg whites, at room temperature
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped [I couldn’t find any, so I just added another tsp of extract]
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces, slightly cold

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Butter and flour 2 round cake pans and line bottoms with parchment paper.
3. Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
4. Whisk together milk, egg whites, vanilla bean seeds and vanilla extract in a separate medium bowl.
5. With mixer running on low speed, add butter, one piece at a time, and continue beating until mixture resembles moist crumbs.
6. Add all but 1/2 of the milk mixture to the crumbs and beat at medium speed until mixture is pale and fluffy, about 1.5 minutes.
7. With mixer on low speed, add remaining 1/2 cup of milk mixture and increase speed to medium and beat for 30 more seconds.
8. Scrape sides of bowl and mix for 20 more seconds.
9. Divide batter evenly between two cake pans and smooth tops using a rubber spatula.
10. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few crumbs attached, about 22-24 minutes.
11. Cool cakes in pans on a baking rack for 10 minutes.
12. Run a small knife around the side of the pan and invert cakes onto baking rack, removing parchment paper.
13. Let cool completely, about 45 minutes.

Coconut simple syrup:
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut

1. Bring water and sugar to a boil.
2. Stir in coconut and remove from heat. Let mixture sit for at least 30 minutes, up to 4 hours.
3. Strain liquid into clean saucepan and bring to boil.
4. Let cook until mixture is slightly reduced, about 5 minutes.
5. Let cool.

Toasted Coconut:

2 cups sweetened flaked coconut [This amount will vary on how much you actually want covering your cake, I only used about 1/2 cup.]

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Spread coconut evenly onto baking sheet and toast until lightly golden brown, flipping once, for about 8-10 minutes.
3. Turn oven off and let the coconut sit in the oven until very dry and crunchy, about 8-10 minutes longer, depending on your oven.

Coconut Buttercream Frosting:

3 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 cup confectioners' sugar

1/4 cup heavy cream

3/4 cup coconut custard, cold

1 teaspoon coconut rum

Pinch fine sea salt

1. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes
2. Add cream, coconut custard, rum, and salt.  Beat until combined and smooth.

Coconut Filling:

3/4 cup coconut custard, cold

3/4 cup very cold heavy cream

Mix and keep cool until ready to assemble.

Assembly:

1. If you want a four-layer cake, slice each cake horizontally into 2 layers.
2. Place first layer on a cardboard round, cut side up, and brush with some of the coconut simple syrup.
3. Poke a dozen holes into the top of this cake and spoon a bit of the syrup into the cake.
4. Spoon 1/3 of the coconut filling onto the cake and using a small offset metal spatula, spread it into an even layer, leaving a 1/2-inch border around the edge of the cake.
5. Repeat with 2 more layers if making a 4-layer cake.
6. Brush cut side of reserved cake layer with remaining syrup.
7. Place final layer on top of the cake.
8. Frost sides and top of cake with buttercream.
9. Pat coconut onto the sides of cake and sprinkle remaining coconut on top of the cake.