Dark Chocolate - Strawberry Cake with Whipped Cream & Strawberries

There are many memorable moments in life that are worth remembering, and then there are those that you just can't forget. Oftentimes, they are the first time you do something. Don't you remember the first time you rode a bike? The first school day? The first dance? The first test you failed? Either way, I got my first official cake order!! Although it wasn't the first time I made a cake for someone else; but, this was the first time I sat down with someone to discuss cake details they wanted - from flavors to designs and themes. Her hubby's birthday is just two days before mine. Of course I couldn't say no, so I moved a few things around and I made time.

As you can see, the girl requested a chocolate and strawberry theme, 3-layers, 9" round cake. She emphasized lots of chocolate shavings, not too sweet, and lots of strawberries with whipped cream. So, I opted for a combination of very dark chocolate and bittersweet chocolate.

I made tons of chocolate shavings from 2 huge bars of chocolate - dark and bittersweet. [My arm will definitely remember this cake for the next day or two]. I wonder if there's an automated way of making this...

I then tempered a bunch of chocolate and made dark chocolate-dipped strawberries and drizzled white chocolate on them. I made a few extra just incase. [Incase I accidentally ate one subconsciouly ;)]. One thing to be careful is, if the strawberries are still wet from rinsing, the chocolate won't adhere as well. So be sure they are dry.

The top and bottom layers of cake were dark chocolate and the middle was a strawberry layer where I puréed fresh strawberries and mixed it into the batter to create a nice strawberry flavor. The batter was so pretty and pink colored, with flecks of fresh strawberries in it. The batter makes me happy just looking at it :).

I filled the cake with freshly made, light-as-air, fluffy almond whipped cream and tons of sliced strawberries between the cake layers.

Either way, I assembled the cake and made it to order :). The girl wanted chocolate writing and gave me a relatively lengthy message, so I wrote it on a thin dark chocolate slab with white chocolate. Let me say, I haven't piped chocolate before [not to mention I had to fit so many letters in such a small space]. It's much more challenging than it appears - more challenging than piping with buttercream or piping gel for example. Plus, you can't rest your arm anywhere, so I was happy it came out alright.

Here are a few more pictures of the final cake --