Chocolate Cake with Strawberry Filling

This chocolate cake with strawberry filling is irresistibly combining two classic flavors! This moist chocolate cake gets a burst of fresh strawberry flavor thanks to a homemade strawberry preserve filling, and then a velvety chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream. Literally a dessert dream come true!

This strawberry filled chocolate cake has a few more steps than my chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting, but I promise it is worth it once you have this dreamy show stopping cake! This chocolate cake would be perfect for a birthday party, special occasion or holiday like Valentine's Day! This really is the perfect cake for strawberry and chocolate lovers!

The chocolate cake is based off of my triple chocolate layer cake while the strawberry filling is a homemade strawberry jam that I used in my vanilla cake with strawberry filling!

If you want even more strawberry recipes, check out my strawberry-filled cupcakes, strawberry crumble and strawberry white chocolate cheesecake!

Ingredients Needed

• Flour: I've only tested this recipe with all purpose flour.
• Cocoa Powder: you'll want to use dutch processed cocoa powder here.
• Buttermilk: this is going to make the cake super moist!
• Baking Powder & Baking Soda: make sure these haven't expired, otherwise your cake won't rise.
• Oil: you want to use a neutral oil like vegetable oil, sunflower oil or canola oil.
• Salt: you always need salt when it comes to baking. This is going to really enhance the flavors.
• Melted Chocolate: I'm using chocolate that is 70% cocoa. You want to make sure the chocolate has melted and cooled before using it in the frosting.
• Strawberry Filling: I'm using my strawberry filling for cake recipe.

See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

Step by Step Instructions

Step 1: In a large mixing bowl or a stand mixer, combine the flour with the cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt until smooth.

Step 2: In another bowl or a large jug, whisk together all of the wet ingredients until smooth.

Step 3: Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Then pour in your hot water - be careful as it might splash! There is a lot of batter here. Divide the cake batter in 3 greased and lined 8-inch baking pans and bake in the oven.

Step 4: Make the strawberry filling. Place all of the ingredients in a medium saucepan and cook, stirring frequently, over medium-low heat. Continue stirring until all of the strawberries have broken down and it has become very thick. Let cool completely.

Step 5: Make the frosting. In a large bowl, whisk together the egg whites and sugar. Set this bowl over a saucepan with about an inch of simmering water. Whisk this mixture constantly until the egg whites go from a yellowish color to a white and opaque color. If you feel the mixture with your fingers you shouldn't feel sugar granules anymore. Whisk until the mixture gets to 140°Fahrenheit/60°Celsius.

Step 6: Take the mixture off of the simmering water and place in your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, or use a hand mixer. Whisk on medium-high speed for 10-15 minutes until you have a stiff, glossy meringue. When you touch the sides of the bowl it will be room temperature and no longer warm. If it's too hot outside it might take up to 20 minutes!

Step 7: Switch to the paddle attachment and add the butter a piece at a time, making sure each piece of butter is fully incorporated before you add the next piece.

Step 8: Once you've added all the butter and the frosting is soft and fluffy, pour in the melted chocolate, vanilla extract and salt.

Step 9: Time to assemble your cake! Place one cooled cake layer down. Spread a thin layer of chocolate frosting, then pipe a ring of frosting around the outer edge. Spread the strawberry filling. Repeat this once more with the second cake layer.

Step 10: Place the third layer of cake on top and frost the cake with the remaining frosting. Place fresh strawberries on top of the cake to decorate!

Expert Tips & Tricks

• Use a weighing scale – I highly recommend using a weighing scale and measuring out your ingredients the metric way. It makes a huge difference to your baking and is the most accurate way to bake!
• Room temperature ingredients – Make sure all of your ingredients are at room temperature before you start baking the cake. Especially the butter for the swiss meringue buttercream, you don't want it to be too cold or too warm.
• Frosting dam - it's important to frost a dam around the edge of the cake so the strawberry filling doesn't leak out. Just place some of the frosting in a piping bag and use a round tip to pipe the frosting.
• Prep ahead - I really recommend making the strawberry filling at least a day ahead of time, this will make your life so much easier! You can make the strawberry filling up to a week in advance and the cake layers two days in advance.
• Decorating - I frosted the cake with the chocolate buttercream and then used a Wilton 1M piping tip to decorate the edges of the cake. If you prefer, you can decorate with a chocolate drip, like I did in my Oreo drip cake!

Swiss Meringue Buttercream Troubleshooting

Here are some issues that might pop up when it comes to make Swiss meringue buttercream as well as some tips!

• I can't get stiff peaks - one reason it might not whip into stiff peaks is you have some bits of egg yolks in the mixture. This fat is going to stop stiff peaks from forming, so make sure your bowl is completely clean before using. I also recommend adding separating the egg whites one at a time in a separate bowl so if one egg yolk breaks you don't ruin the entire batch of egg whites! If it is a hot day, it might take longer for the egg whites to stiff up.
• How do I know when the meringue is ready? Stop the mixer and dip the whisk attachment into the meringue. Lift up and if the peaks are completely straight up without bending at the tip, then it is ready!
• I'm adding my buttercream but the mixture is soupy! This is because the meringue didn't have enough time to cool down and it is melting the butter. The bowl should be cool to the touch before you add the butter. The butter might also be too warm, so the butter should be cool to the touch too before you add it! If you've added the butter and it's soupy, stop the mixer and place the mixing bowl in the fridge for 20 minutes, then try again.
• The buttercream seems to be curdling - just keep mixing! It is pretty normal for the mixture to look curdled, so keep mixing. It might be curdling because the butter you added was too cold.

Frequently Asked Questions

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