Get creative in the kitchen and bake a cake for the LANCEWOOD Cake-Off® and WIN an all expenses paid trip to New York worth R150 000!
I'm always trying to come up with ways to pimp out my chocolate cake a little. If I'm honest I want to be eating chocolate cake 80% of the time so I need to find ways to at least make it a little more interesting! Enter, cream cheese! I've always been a MASSIVE fan of cream cheese frosting because it's just a little creamier and a little less sweet than your average buttercream. Add some fresh strawberries into the mix and BAM Chocolate Cake with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting! What could be more heavenly?
Okay, enough about the cake! Let's talk NEW YORK! Lancewood has kicked off their annual Cake-Off competition and if you aren't entering what are you even doing?! I mean who doesn't want to WIN an all expenses paid trip to the big apple worth R150 000?
To enter all you have to do is get into that kitchen and get creative! Whip up your favourite cake (sweet or savoury) using one of Lancewood's delicious cheeses (they have endless options), snap a picture of your masterpiece with the cheese that you used and upload it HERE! Finalists will even get to Cake-Off live on the Expresso Show.
I used to spend hours in the kitchen with my mom making chocolate cakes so I like to use that as a base and create a different version of the classic chocolate cake recipe. So think of a recipe that you've always been making for your family and whip up a variation of that recipe! If you need a little inspiration on what to make, check out my recipe below or head over to my Instagram page or Lancewood's Instagram page for a little extra inspo!
The competition is running until the 20th of May so you've still got quite a bit of time to whip up something decadent and delicious!
I'd LOVE to hear your suggestions, so please pop over to my Instagram or FB page and let me know what delicious things you have up your sleeve!
Chocolate Cake with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
Moist Chocolate Cake
- 2 ¼ Cups Flour
- 2 ¼ Cups Castor Sugar
- 1 Cup Cocoa Powder
- 3 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 Cup Buttermilk
- ½ Cup Lancewood Sour Cream
- 1 Cup Hot Coffee
- ¾ Cup Oil
- 3 tsp Vanilla Essence
- 3 Eggs
- 125 g Dark Chocolate melted
Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 400 g Butter softened
- 2 Cups Fresh Strawberries
- 3-4 Cups Icing Sugar Add more or less depending on your desired consistency
- 230 g Lancewood Cream Cheese
- 1 tsp Vanilla Essence
Toppings:
- Fresh Flowers
- Meringues
- Strawberries
- Blackberries
- Raspberries
Instructions
For the Cake
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC and line two 20cm baking tins with baking paper.
- In a mixing bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients.
- In another mixing bowl, combine all the wet ingredients until fully mixed.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients a little at a time, making sure to mix the wet ingredients in properly between each addition.
- Divide the batter between the two baking tins and bake them for 45min or until a cake inserted comes out clean.
For the Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting:
- Place the strawberries in a blender and blend until smooth.
- In mixing bowl, cream the butter until light and fluffy.
- Add the Lancewood Cream Cheese and continue to cream the mixture.
- While the mixer is running, add the strawberry pureé and vanilla essence.
- Lastly, add the icing sugar a cup at a time until you have reached the desired consistency. (I like my frosting to be relatively stiff).
Assembling the cake:
- Once the cakes have cooled, cut each cake in half so that you have 4 thin layers.
- Place the bottom layer on a cake plate and spread a little frosting on top of the chocolate cake.
- Continue the process until all 4 layers are stacked.
- Spread the last bit of frosting around the cake and use a palette knife to smooth the edges.
- Top the cake with fresh flowers, meringues and berries (get creative here).