A Sweet for My Sweetie

With Valentine's Day quickly approaching I thought it was time to make something inspired by the day to help give you, my dear readers, some inspiration for your own Valentine's Day treats. For me Valentine's Day is about making or doing something for my sweetie that I wouldn't normally. Now if we are talking about food and all things culinary, that translates to a cake. I like cake, but don't LOVE it the way I do other sweets, most specifically pies, thus I rarely make cake. Sure, I make cupcakes occasionally but usually for work or some event I'm hosting or attending, but not much besides that. This past weekend I decided to make a two-layer cake. I figured if I was going to tackle this, I might as well do it right. And so my White Chocolate Berry Cake was born.



White Chocolate Berry Cake

1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
5 oz good quality white chocolate
1 Tbsp butter (this is the amount I used, on the recipe card it says butter the size of the walnut)
2 tsps salt
2 tsps vanilla
2 cups boiling water
2 cups sliced strawberries (or berry of your choosing)
1/2 cup Forest Berry jam (or any type of mixed berry jam)
Meringue icing (recipe below)

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Over a double boiler melt the white chocolate and butter. Once melted remove from heat and add in all other ingredients. Mix until just combined.

2. Butter and flour 2 round 8 inch cake pans. Bake in preheated oven for 25-35 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

3. Let cool completely before icing. Even out the tops of each cake so they will rest flat on either side. Be sure to eat what you cut off just to make sure the cake is tasty :).

4. Place bottom layer on serving plate. Spread the jam on the bottom layer. On top of the jam, place a nice layer of strawberries. Then carefully spread a generous layer of icing. Carefully place the second layer on top and ice the entire cake. Decorating the tops and sided with sliced strawberries.

Meringue Icing

1 cup granulated sugar
2 egg whites
½ cup boiling water
¼ tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp vanilla

1. Beat first 4 ingredients together in a small mixing bowl for 5-8 minutes. Add vanilla when mixture begins to thicken. Beat until stiff peaks form.

First off I am so happy with how this turned out. For my first multilayer cake I think it's quite pretty and with the red and white it's the perfect Valentine. We sampled it soon after it was assembled and the flavors worked really well together too. Overall it was a winner, which is good since the boy claimed he wasn't a fan of white chocolate. Now to be honest I'm not either. But rather than do a dark chocolate Valentine's Day treat I wanted to a try something different with the white. Boy was it worth it! You got the nice buttery flavor of white chocolate without it being sicky sweet. This is a dense cake that was offset nicely by the light and fluffy icing and fresh berries. The berry jam upped the tasty berry flavor and was a last minute addition as I was assembling the cake.

My only complaint is that the icing doesn't hold up for a long period of time. I assembled and tasted it in the afternoon and after dinner it just didn't look as good. So be sure to assemble this close to when you plan on serving. I think fresh whipped cream would also go very well and may hold up a bit better. Enjoy!