Checkerboard cake

Slice of cake showing checkerboard layers of chocolate and vanilla cake

Overhead shot of cake, showcasing decoration including berries, chocolate ganache

Variation of overhead shot of cake, showcasing decoration including berries, chocolate buttercream, caramel, dried roses

This was actually another accidental cake! I had been wanting to make one of these checkerboard cakes for a while, and one day, I realized I had all the ingredients ready to go in my freezer, so in essence it went pretty quickly. I often make cake disks and use them for cakes I'm making, and freeze extra disks for later use. So I had 2 chocolate cake disks and 2 vanilla cake disks in the freezer. All that was needed was the cream and that went pretty easily since I also had some chocolate mousse frosting I had made previously. This was my first attempt, and although it was far from perfect (leaning to one side, lol), it turned out much better and easier than I expected.

Important tips :

I would say :

1) have some good cake cutters (I used glass cups and it's not ideal for removing the disks)

2) spread the frosting fairly thinly in between the layers in order to see the checkboard pattern

3) if you freeze cake disks or frosting ahead of time, it is a time saver, in a delulu kind of way

4) the wow factor is not only be in the surprise first cut of the cake, everyone I serve this to is so taken aback, trying to figure out how I did it, but also add an element of surprise with the outer decoration.

5) Gotta catch the eye! As a first impression, sometimes over the top is ideal for cake decoration, and here I went not only with frosting, drippy salted caramel, colorful fruits but also added some dried roses I had gathered from the garden (save these for decorating) for a bit of drama.

Here's the chocolate cake recipe :

1/2 cup buttermilk (you can also make it from 1/2 cup warm milk and 1 teaspoon vinegar)

1 large egg + 1 yolk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup hot water with 1/2 teaspoon instant coffee

Preheat oven to 350° F / 180° C. Line a small 7-8" cake pan with parchment paper. Mix wet ingredients in a bowl (except hot water and coffee, leave that for the end). Add dry ingredients. Then add hot coffee mixture. Mix about 2 minutes. Pour into pan and bake for about 25-30 minutes or until the middle is cooked. Check with a toothpick that should come out clean. Set aside to cool.

Vanilla cake recipe :

3 eggs, separated

1/4 water or milk (this is what you can substitute with flavors like strong coffee, pandan extract, juice, ube, cider, lemon...)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup cake flour

1/2 cup sugar + 1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven 350° F / 180° C. Line a 9-10" diameter pan with parchment paper. Separate eggs into 2 bowls. Beat egg whites until you get soft peaks. Add 1/2 cup of sugar and continue to beat until you get a stiff meringue (about 2 minutes). In the other bowl, beat the egg yolks with vegetable oil, 1/4 liquid (water, milk, juice, coffee, limoncello... according to the flavor you want to have, I used milk for this version), then sift in flour, rest of sugar, baking powder, salt and vanilla. Add a tablespoon of the meringue to loosen batter if too dry. Then fold in the meringue with a spatula tablespoon at a time. Pour into pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the center is firm.

Now for the chocolate espresso buttercream :

1 cup salted butter
3 cups confectioners sugar

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tablespoon instant coffee or espresso powder melted in 3 tablespoons

heavy whipping cream (slightly warmed)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

Assembling of cake with middle chocolate espresso buttercream

Whisk butter in a bowl until creamy and lightened in color. Add confectioners sugar, cocoa, vanilla, salt. Beat for about 3 minutes, scraping down bowl. Fold in coffee mixture. Refrigerate at least an hour. Add another tablespoon of cream to thin frosting for easy piping.

Salted caramel :

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
6 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon sea salt

Cutting chocolate cake layer with cutters or a glass

Cutting chocolate cake layer, make 3 rings

Cutting vanilla cake layer, also make 3 rings

Alternate colors by inserting contrasting cake ring

Ta da ! How the finished alternating color rings create a bull's eye disk

Adding raspberries for color onto buttercream

For the assembly :

This is actually the fun part. Take the cake disks in two colors, you should have 4 disks in all, two chocolate and two vanilla. With two circle cutters (or glasses or cups) in two sizes, cut out each disk in order to get 3 rings from each disk. Then remove the rings and create a dark-light-dark disk, then a light-dark-light disk. Continue until you do this with all four disks. The rest is just adding the cream in between, not too thick in order to see the pattern. Also, make sure as you layer, that it is, for example, in this order, bottom cake disk layer : a light-dark-light disk, spread a layer of cream, then for the 2nd layer, add a dark-light-dark disk, and repeat for the 3rd and 4th layer. Add cream on the sides and on the top of the cake, pipe cream roses, add fruits or candy, flowers, etc.

That's it guys, enjoy, it's such a fun cake !