Fresh Strawberries Bruised and blemished ones will not work as well for this recipe
120 grams Dark Chocolate
50 grams White Chocolate

Line 2 8 inch baking tins. * See notes for different cake tin sizes. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees celcius

In a separate bowl whisk the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla extract the add this to the dry ingredients and combine

Mix 1 tsp of coffee with the boiling water then add it to the rest of the mixture until combined. Don’t over mix

Pour the mixture into your baking tins then bake for 30-35 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.

Once the cake is baked, leave it to cool at room temperature then after 10 minutes take the cake out of the tin and let this totally cool.

While the cake is cooling prepare your icing.
Beat the butter until it’s almost pale white and a light texture. Sift in the icing sugar and gently fold the mixture together with a spoon or spatula. Doing this avoids the cloud of icing sugar.

Once the mixture is combined, beat it until it is light and fluffy. This takes at least 5 minutes. Add in some more water as you go along to loosen it up.

Once combined, add in the cocoa powder and mix with a spatula before whisking again. The buttercream gets a deeper colour the next day because the cocoa powder is full absorbed into the buttercream.

Cut the layers of your cake. This will give it height and also add in more buttercream.

Place your bottom layer on your cake stand then place some icing on it followed by some chocolate sprinkles. Keep repeating until you have covered all your layers.

Now make swirls on the top of the cake around the edge. Add some sprinkles on them

Chill the cake for about 30 minutes to let the buttercream set. At this point you can make the chocolate covered strawberries. See next steps on how to make them

Once your strawberries are made, place each one on a swirl

Wash your strawberries and dry well. You need to ensure the strawberries are totally dry.
Insert a toothpick in the stem of each of your strawberries

On a chopping board place put some baking paper, then place your skimmer slotted spoon. This is where you are going to put your dipped strawberries so they cover uniformly

Melt your dark chocolate in 30 second intervals in the microwave. Keep stirring to ensure the chocolate does not burn and is evenly melted. You want it totally melted and not too hot

Holding the strawberry by the toothpick, dip it into the melted chocolate and gently shake to get rid of the excess chocolate. This will stop a pool of chocolate forming

Place the toothpick into one of the holes in your skimmer slotted spoon. It should balance well and the spoon should not move too much. Repeat until all the strawberries are covered with the dark chocolate and are on the spoon.

Lift your chopping board and place the strawberries in the fridge for a minute

Melt your white chocolate the same way you melted your dark one, ensuring you do not burn it

Take your strawberries out the fridge then drizzle the white chocolate on top. To drizzle the whole strawberries, twist the toothpick to turn the strawberry and repeat
Chill the strawberries for another minute, pull out the toothpicks and they are ready to enjoy/to decorate your cake with