Stripes and Polka-dots Strawberry Rhubarb Cake

Stripes and Polka-dots Strawberry Rhubarb Cake

Cake.

• • 3 1/3 cups granulated sugar

  • 12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

  • 1/2 cup olive oil

  • 6 eggs

  • seeds from 1 vanilla bean

  • 4 1/2 cups cake flour

  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

  • 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

  • 1 cup whole milk

  • 1 1/2 cups strawberry rhubarb puree

  • 2/3 cup sour cream

• pink food coloring (optional)

Strawberry Rhubarb Buttercream.

• • 2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature

  • 4 cups powdered sugar

  • 2 tablespoons meringue powder

  • 1/4 - 1/2 cup strawberry rhubarb puree

  • cream, if needed

Chocolate Buttercream.

• • 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

  • 1 1/3 cups powdered sugar

  • 2/3 cup unsweetened, special dark cocoa powder

  • pinch of salt

  • 1 tablespoon meringue powder

  • 2 teaspoons vanilla

  • 2 tablespoons cream

  • 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Notes:

• 1. First, you'll need to cook and chill the strawberry rhubarb sauce; click here for recipe.

  2. This is a pound cake recipe, and the resulting cake is very dense and moist with a tight, velvety crumb texture. Right after baking, the cakes will look risen and puffed, but as they cool, the crumb tightens and the cakes settle down rather flat. This is normal for this recipe.

  3. While this is a two-tiered cake, it is still a rather petite cake due to the way the cakes tend to tighten up as they cool.

Cake.

Preheat the oven to 350. Spray the bottoms only of three 6-inch pans and three 8-inch pans with non-stick spray, line with parchment paper, and spray the paper as well.

In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the sugar, cream cheese, butter and oil on medium speed for 3-4 minutes, until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating each for 1 minute before adding the next; beat in the vanilla bean seeds.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, fruit puree and sour cream. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture to the mixing bowl in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk/sour cream, starting and ending with the flour, just until moistened. Tint with pink food coloring, if desired.

Divide the batter between the pans (with about 1 1/2 cups of batter in each of the smaller pans and the rest of the batter divided between the larger pans) and bake the cakes for 20-27 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pans on wire racks, covered loosely with clean kitchen towels.

Strawberry Rhubarb Buttercream.

In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the butter for several minutes until smooth. In a separate bowl, combine the powdered sugar and meringue powder. With the mixer on low, add by spoonfuls, stirring until moistened. Add the fruit puree; whip on medium high until very light and fluffy, adding a little cream if needed for consistency.

Chocolate Buttercream.

In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the butter for several minutes until smooth. In a separate bowl, combine the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, salt and meringue powder. With the mixer on low, add by spoonfuls, stirring until moistened. Add the vanilla and cream; whip on medium high until very light and fluffy, adding a little more cream if needed for consistency.

Assembly.

Fill and stack the cooled cakes with the strawberry rhubarb buttercream. You can stack the 6-inch tier right on top of the 8-inch tier, since the cake is very firm and can support itself without any dowels or cake boards between tiers. Frost all over with a thin crumb coat of buttercream and chill for 20 minutes.

Fit two piping bags with a large round tip and fill with your two buttercreams. Starting at the bottom, pipe even rows of buttercream around the cake, alternating each row and keeping them close together. Once you've piped as many stripes as you can, take a bench scraper and run it around the the cake several times to smooth out the buttercream and blend the stripes together.

Frost the top tier with a final layer of buttercream and decorate with the chocolate chips.

Decorate the top with chocolate buttercream roses.

Recipe and Design from Curly Girl Kitchen