Directions

Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350°F with oven rack in the middle
2. Line three six-inch cake pan bottoms with parchment paper. Butter and dust with cocoa powder, and set aside
3. In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and whisk well. Set aside
4. Mix the buttermilk and vanilla together in a measuring cup and set aside
5. With wooden spoon, stir together the boiling water, espresso powder and unsweetened chocolate until it becomes a smooth paste
6. In stand/hand mixer with paddle attachment, dump the brown sugar. Add the chocolate paste mix and beat on low until blended
7. Add the oil slowly to the chocolate mix
8. Add the eggs in one at a time
9. Now add the flour in three additions and the buttermilk mix in two additions, mixing in between each addition for less than 15 seconds. Scrape sides of bowl with spatula every now and then
10. Divide batter evenly between the three cake pans and bake for 25 minutes or until tester stick comes out clean. Start checking at 23 minutes
11. Let pans cool for about 10 minutes. Then transfer cakes from pans, remove the parchment paper and allow to cool on a wire rack for 2 hours
12. Once they’ve completely cooled, wrap with plastic wrap and pop in fridge for at least a couple more hours to make icing easier

YES!Berries Swiss Meringue Buttercream

1. Take butter out of fridge and cut into cubes and set aside. Butter should be soft on outside but somewhat still chilled inside
2. In a saucepan, add 2 tablespoons of water, the hulled strawberries and bring to a light boil for about 4 minutes. Take a potato masher and mash the strawberries
3. Push the strawberries through a sieve into a bowl, discard pulp and set the strawberry puree aside to cool
4. Bring a medium sauce pan (make sure the bowl with your egg whites will not touch the water) with about 1.5 inches of water, to a simmer
5. In a super clean bowl (or stand mixer bowl), whisk the egg whites, 1 cup of sugar over the simmering water for about 3-4 minutes, whisking continuously until a candy thermometer reads  160°F. Alternatively you can rub a bit of the mixture between your fingers. The egg is ready when you don’t feel any granules
6. Transfer bowl to stand mixer with whisk attachment and beat gradually from low to medium high for 8-12 minutes or until stiff glossy peaks form. The bowl should no longer be warm to the touch
7. Slowly whip in the strawberry puree juice until incorporated
8. Change the whisk to the paddle attachment now and add half the butter cubes and pulsate the mixture on high then off, high then off etc. about 6-7 times. Add the rest of the butter and repeat the pulsating
9. Then start beating on low speed gradually working up to medium-high with 10 seconds for each interval

*The meringue buttercream will look curdled during the beating. Don’t worry, it’ll come together after about 3 minutes or more

Icing the Cake

1. Place your bottom layer down, spread with an offset spatula about 1/4 of the icing
2. Gently lay down half the slices of YES!Berries Your Everyday Snack!® Strawberries
3. Continue with the second layer and top layer, spreading the remainder of the icing around the cake with your offset spatula
4. Garnish with strawberries and flowers (flowers are optional)

*If after 3 minutes it still looks curdled, take a hair dryer and blow some warm air over the buttercream for about 5 seconds or so while stirring
*Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream can be made in advance. Make sure you bring to room temperature before re-whipping again and using
*If whipping the Swiss meringue buttercream with a hand mixer, beating and whipping times will take longer

Recipe and Photography by Betty Binon, Stems & Forks