White chocolate cream cheese butter birthday cake with strawberries.

This old blog's been collecting dust lately. I made a layer cake for my child awhile ago for his second birthday. It was similar to the butter cupcakes that I have made in the previous post, except that for the frosting I used this recipe for White Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream which looks like a dream. The cake was Mrs Ng's recipe which I have attempted a few times, but this time in a different size of tin.

The frosting requires butter, quality white chocolate and cream cheese with a 1:1:1 ratio. It is important to use high quality chocolate or else you would make the same mistake as I did. I subbed the chocolate with normal chocolate chips I bought from a bakery shop and the frosting didn't turn out as good as I expected it to be (it might also be due to myself not exactly following the recipe ...). 

You may use my version to speed things up or refer to the original recipe. I believe with the relatively warmer, more humid weather in Malaysia, the frosting needs to cool down in the fridge before it is used to frost the cake.

If I would whip this up again, I'd opt out the butter and just double the cream cheese. I like the pure flavour of cheese for my frosting.

I decorated the cake with heart shaped strawberries and an animal toy as a cake topper.

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Butter Birthday Cake with Strawberries (serves 8)

For the butter cake (makes two 6" round cake):

250 g butter, softened

4 eggs, whites and yolks separated (I used organic eggs with min. weight of 70 g each) 

50 g + 100 g castor sugar

200 g self-rising flour, sifted (I used 200 g cake flour with 1 tsp baking powder)

60 ml full cream milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven at 175 degrees Celsius. Line the bottoms of two 6" tins and grease the sides.

2. Beat egg whites with 50 g sugar until stiff peaks are formed. Set aside.

3. Cream butter with remaining sugar, then add vanilla extract, stir to combine. Add the yolks, beating well after each addition.

4. Stir in half the flour until incorporated, then stir in half the milk. Repeat with remaining flour and milk.

5. Add half the beaten egg whites into the batter to lighten up, before folding the remaining egg whites through the batter.

6. Divide batter into two tins evenly. Level the surfaces. Bake for 30-35 minutes. 

For the frosting:

220 g butter, softened

220 g white chocolate chips, melted in microwave

1 tsp vanilla extract

juice of 1/2 lemon

250 g cream cheese, softened

50 g icing sugar

1. Cream butter. Then add the melted chocolate and beat. Add the extract and lemon juice and beat for until incorporated.

2. Add cream cheese. Whip until light and fluffy.

3. Lastly, add sugar. Beat until fully incorporated.

To assemble:

Slice off uneven cake surfaces to even. On the top of one cake, spread jam (preferrably unsweetened to balance off the frosting's sweetness) in one thick layer. Top with the other cake. Frost the layer cake with the frosting.