Black and White Cake with Caramel Buttercream

Black and White Cake with Caramel Buttercream is rich and flavorful, loaded with vanilla and chocolate cake layers, and topped with silky smooth frosting and fresh strawberries.

Black and White Cake with Caramel Buttercream

This Black and White Cake has layers of chocolate and vanilla, topped with a sweet and fluffy vanilla mascarpone buttercream, and fresh strawberries.  To make it even more decadent, I covered it in a blanket of caramel buttercream. While this sounds like a high maintenance cake, it actually isn’t. This Black and White Cake is easy to pull together. You may have a few bowls to clean because of all the great flavors going on here, it’s totally worth it.

This cake was a big hit with my family. The texture can only be described as dreamy, very soft, but not crumbly. The strawberries add some freshness, a change of texture and some nice pop of color along with the tiny black specs from the vanilla beans. The layer of caramel buttercream is very subtle, and not overly sweet. I recommend using high quality caramel, if you have time, and are brave enough to make your own, go for it.

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As much as I like to make everything from scratch, sometimes I just don’t have time, that is when kitchen shortcuts like cake mixes are a blessing.

To cut out preparation time, I used:

• 1. French Vanilla Cake Mix
• 2. Decadent Triple Chocolate Cake Mix

To reduce the cleaning process, I baked the cake layers in round foil cake pans. Voila, great time saving tips!

Tips to Make the Best Black and White Cake:

• Ingredients should be at room temperature before you start baking. Also, the oven should be pre-heated.
• Make sure the cake is fully cooled before frosting it.
• If the frosting is too thin, add more powdered sugar 1/4 cup at a time.

How to freeze cake layers:

You can make the cake layers in advance and freeze them, thaw them when you are ready to decorate the cake. To freeze the unfrosted cake layers, follow these steps:

1. Bake the cake layer and cool each layer on a wire rack. Make sure the cake layers are fully cooled before freezing.
2. Wrap each cake layer in plastic wrap, preferably freezer wrap. After that wrap tightly in aluminum foil and place in a freezer ziplock bag (if it fits).
3. Write the date and cake type on the ziplock bag.
4. Lay the cake layers flat in the freezer.
5. Cakes can be frozen for up to 3 months.

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Black and White Cake

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Author: Catalina Castravet Serves: 12 slices
Prep time: 1 hour 50 minutes Cook time: 30 minutes Total time: 2 hrs 20 mins

Ingredients

For Cake Layers:

• 1  French Vanilla Cake Mix 
• 1  Triple Chocolate Cake Mix 
• 6  eggs 
• 2 cups  water 
• 2/3 cups  vegetable oil 
• 4 tbsp.  butter  (melted (to grease the pans))

For Vanilla Mascarpone Buttercream

• 2  sticks unsalted butter  (softened)
• 4 oz  chilled mascarpone cheese 
• 2  vanilla beans 
• 2 cups  confectioners’ sugar  (sifted)
• 2 tbsp.  heavy cream 
• 1 cup  fresh strawberries  (washed and sliced)

For Caramel Buttercream

• 2  sticks unsalted butter  (softened)
• 3 cups  confectioners’ sugar  (sifted)
• 1/2 cup  caramel sauce 

Instructions

For Cake Layers:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Grease sides and bottom of 4 8inch foil pans with butter. Flour lightly.
3. Open the vanilla mix, and empty the box mix into a medium bowl. Add 3 eggs, 1 cup water and 1/3 cup of vegetable oil. Stir using a spatula until well incorporated. Divide the mixture equally into 2 pans. Set aside.
4. Open the chocolate mix, and empty the box mix into a medium bowl. Add 3 eggs, 1 cup water and 1/3 cup of vegetable oil. Stir using a spatula until well incorporated. Divide the mixture equally into 2 pans. I did NOT use the chocolate filling.
5. Bake for 25-30min or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean, or with only a few moist crumbs attached to it, the cake is done.
6. Let the cakes completely cool, when cooled using a sharp kitchen knife level the surface of the cakes.

For Vanilla Mascarpone Buttercream:

1. Place softened butter into the bowl of a stand mixer that has been fitted with the wire attachment. Turn the mixer on a medium setting and cream the butter until it is smooth and has lightened in color, about 2 minutes.
2. Add the mascarpone cheese, specs from vanilla beans and sugar 1/2 cup at a time, beating 15 sec on medium after each addition.
3. Add heavy cream one tbsp. at a time, beating on medium until desired consistency is achieved.
4. Set the bowl aside and let the frosting chill for 30 minutes.

For the Caramel Buttercream:

1. Place softened butter into the bowl of a stand mixer that has been fitted with the wire attachment. Turn the mixer on a medium setting and cream the butter until it is smooth and has lightened in color, about 2 minutes.
2. Add sugar 1/2 cup at a time, and mix on medium until well incorporated.
3. Add caramel, and mix until desired consistency is achieved.

Assemble the Cake

1. On a cake stand, start with a leveled vanilla layer, top with vanilla mascarpone buttercream and fresh strawberries, followed by a chocolate layer topped with caramel buttercream, another vanilla layer topped with vanilla mascarpone buttercream and fresh strawberries. Finish with a top layer of chocolate cake; cover the entire cake in caramel buttercream. Decorate with vanilla mascarpone buttercream and sprinkles.

Calories: 441 Carbohydrates: 57 Protein: 3 Fat: 22 Saturated Fat: 14 Cholesterol: 92 Sodium: 120 Potassium: 59 Fiber: 0 Sugar: 49 Vitamin A: 435 Vitamin C: 7.1 Calcium: 38 Iron: 0.5

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