The last time I made a layer cake was my wedding. I made my wedding cake. I don’t think I recommend doing that – even if you love cake decorating like I do. I doubt you’ll love it the night before the big day when the frosting won’t spread right (Frosting totally knows when you’re stressed) and the layers are lopsided. I think I came out of that experience a little traumatized. I’ve been sticking to one-layer cakes and cupcakes now for almost three years. 

There’s the beast!

And that is the face of a traumatized woman.

But guys, it’s been too long. I had to get back in the saddle again. And my friend Gayle was only too happy to give me a reason to. She wanted a chocolate strawberry cake for her birthday – the perfect challenge. (She’s also really nice, so I knew she’d be happy regardless of how bad things turned out). 

This is what I came up with. It’s a six-inch cake, with three 2-inch layers, which was actually a ton of fun to both bake and construct. I don’t know what I was doing the night before my wedding, because this cake gave me literally no trouble at all. Building a layer cake is not really that hard, and I’ll be happy to link you to the tutorial I followed later in this post. 

This baby only took one doctored cake mix, and 1 1/2 of my standard buttercream frosting. Aside from baking, I think I only spent around and hour constructing and decorating. If you’ve never tried a layer cake, don’t let them frighten you. They’re really just teddy bears when you get up close (unless you’re about to be married. Then they’re pure evil :)).

Also, can we talk about those strawberry roses? They’re so fun and elegant, and they’re the simplest thing in the world to make. Really. A few cuts with a paring knife and you’re home free. I discovered this on Pinterest two days ago and knew I had to include them somehow. 

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Chocolate Strawberry Cake

Moist strawberry cake layers topped with chocolate buttercream.

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Cook Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 2 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Ingredients

Strawberry Cake

• 1 box strawberry cake mix
• 1 pkg vanilla instant pudding
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• ½ cup butter

Chocolate Buttercream

• ½ cup shortening
• ½ cup butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ¾ cocoa
• 4 cups + a little extra powdered sugar
• 2-4 Tbsp water

Instructions

Strawberry Cake

• Mix together all ingredients for the cake.
• Grease either two 9-inch pans, or three 6-inch pans.
• For 9-inch cakes. spoon 2 cups of batter into each pan. For 6-inch cakes, spoon 1 1/4 cups batter into each pan.
• Bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes for 9-inch cakes, and 30-35 minutes for 6-inch cakes.

Frosting

• Cream butter and shortening together.
• Add vanilla, cocoa, and 1 Tbsp water. Mix until combined, scraping the edges.
• Add in powdered sugar 1 cup at a time.
• Add in rest of water 1 Tbsp at a time until you reach desired consistency.
• Remove 1 cup frosting. Add extra powdered sugar until frosting is moldable.

Construction

• Place moldable frosting in piping bag with coupler but no tip.
• Between each layer, pipe around the outside edge of the cake to create a barrier.
• Fill in with regular frosting, then place next layer on top.
• Frost and decorate the outside.

Helpful Tutorials

To start, here’s a great one on how to construct a layer cake. As a note, you can make the recipe above work for either two 9-inch layers, or three 6-inch layers. Before I do this part, I refrigerate my layers so they’re easier to work with. Also, she uses a size 12 Wilton tip to make her dam. I prefer to just use a coupler with no tip. Either works just fine!

Now here’s one on how to get that lovely swirling effect on the outside. I used a large spatula for my cake because I wanted thicker swirls. You can actually do this with a butter knife if you don’t have an offset spatula lying around. You also don’t need a turntable (although they are really, really nice). If you have your cake on a plate, you can just rotate the plate with your free hand.

And last but not least, the strawberry roses. This one isn’t a video, but Ash and Craft’s tutorial is so easy to follow! Click the picture to go to the tutorial. One of the best things I’ve found in a while 🙂

Photo courtesy of Ash and Craft.

So that’s how it’s done. Here’s a photo of what it looks like cut (don’t judge, it was a picnic birthday and I snapped it with my phone!)

Well? Are you game to give layer cakes a try?

Snap a photo of your cake and share it with us either by leaving a comment or posting to Instagram. Tag it #homanathome!