Time is a gift.
I know this because everyday feels like no one has time for anything ever. I’m not complaining. I’m not above it. I’m all up in it. No time? Guilty as ever.
Sometimes the best gift you can give someone is your time. Time at a new restaurant for one of those extra long lunches with pink wine and comfortable eye contact. Time at the dog park with a friend… when you’re mostly scared of large groups of dogs. Time on the phone when it’s late and your phone is over-heating on your face. Time in the kitchen making a very (very) special cake for the woman that took the dang time to carry you around in her body for nine dang months.
Time. Gosh it’s such a gift.
Let’s find some and share it with each other.
It’s time for cake!
No time for intimidation.
Ingredients can smell your fear. An awesome cooking teacher once told me that, and it’s totally true.
If you can whip together a batch of Chocolate Chip Cookies, you can tackle a triple layer cake too. I believe in you (and so does yo’ mama)!
Softened butter is creamed with sugar then beaten with eggs The mixture will look a bit curdled. Don’t fret. It’ll come together with the help of cake flour.
We’re kicking this yellow cake up a notch with white chocolate chips. They melt while baking, but once the cake is cooled and frosted, they lend a nice sweet crunch to the cake insides.
I’ve been known to eat white chocolate chips by the handful. Help.
While the cakes bake I made the frosting and filling. The frosting: simple whipped cream, lightly sweetened, with a hint of rose water.
Rose water smells as good as you’d hope it might. It is, afterall, a distillation of rose petals.
In the whipped cream frosting, rose water lends more of a fragrance than taste. It’s subtle, delicate, and just… pretty!
Finely chopped white chocolate chunks and sliced strawberries fill this cake. Such goodness.
Also… if you look too closely into the tablespoon, you can see me taking this photo in my green pants. I’m glad you can’t see my hair.
Cakes are baked and cooled completely before frosting.
If you’ve ever tried to fudge it and frost a slightly warm cake, you know what a disaster this can be. Learn from me. Cool the cake.
I lined the edges of my cake plate with three thin sheets of parchment paper. Lining the area around the cake will keep the cake plate clean after the cake is frosted. Just shimmy the parchment from underneath the cake and you’re good to go! Mmm hmm. Easy.
Each layer of cake is topped generously with whipped cream, studded with fresh strawberry slices, and sprinkled with white chocolate.
I want a piece exactly right now.
I understand that frosting a cake can seem daunting. I totally get it.
Back in the Stone Ages when I started this blog, I wrote a little tutorial about How To Frost a Cake. Check it out if frosting a cake is a stressy prospect for you.
Tremendously helpful cake frosting tool: a warm glass of water. Cleaning the frosting knife with warm water makes smoothing the frosting easier. You don’t want to fight frosting with frosting. That never ends well.
Find the prettiest roses you can get your hands on. Put them up to your nose for a deep inhale. Then… rip their petal heads off. Cruel world, I know.
I placed the center of the rose petals in the center of the cake. Then generously arrange petals circling around the cake.
Your inspiration should be a show-stopping amount of petals. Get in the spirit!
Everyone should have a go-to, fail-safe yellow cake recipe. This is that! Deb from Smitten Kitchen knows her way around a cake. It’s moist and tender, but still solid enough to withstand a bit of manhandling, stacking, filling, and frosting. Cake flour is an important part of this cake recipe. It keeps the cake light. If you don’t have any on hand, you can make your own cake flour too!
Rose-scented whipped cream is totally divine and mom-friendly. If you aren’t able to find rose water, you could also add a splash of pure almond extract, just a touch will do. Strawberries are in season, but maybe you’re more of a raspberry person. Feel free to switch it up.
Do you eat the rose petals? Well…. no. I used the rose petals for decorative purposes only. Once the cake was sliced and plated, I removed the rose petals and got down with the cake. Also, cake will last, frosted and decorated in the refrigerator for several days. Just on the FYI.
This cake is brought to you as part of the HonestlyYUM Mother’s Day menu with floral design by Twig and Twine and dishware from Dish Wish.
White Chocolate Rose Cake with Strawberries
yellow cake adapted slightly from Smitten Kitchen
makes 1 three layer 9-inch cake
For the Cake:
4 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup white chocolate chunks
For the Frosting:
3 cups heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons rose water
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
For the Filling:
1/2 cup finely chopped white chocolate chunks
1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries
fresh rose petals, for topping the cake
Place racks in the center and upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour two 9-inch round cake pans. This is a triple layer cake, so butter and flour three 9-inch cake pans if you have them. I only have two pans, so I baked two cakes, then baked the last cake after the first two were out of the oven.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar at medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl after each addition. Beat in vanilla extract.
Turn the mixer speed to low and add half of the dry ingredients. Add half of the buttermilk and beat until just combined. Add the remaining flour and buttermilk and beat until just combined. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and finish incorporating the batter with a spatula. Scrape the bottom of the bowl to make sure there is no butter or flour hiding down there. Fold in the chocolate chips.
Divide the batter among the two cake pans, making sure that you save enough batter for the last cake to bake off. If you have three pans, divide the batter in three. Spread batter evenly in each pan then rap each pan on the counter top to help the batter settle and eliminate any air bubbles. Bake until bubbled and golden brown, about 20-25 minutes. Insert a skewer into the center of the cake. If it comes out dry with just a few crumbs, it’s done! Cool cakes in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.
If you’re baking off your last cake round, be sure to re-grease and flour the pan before adding the last of the cake batter.
To make the frosting, combine heavy cream, powdered sugar, and rose water in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Beat on medium speed until soft peaks form. Once soft peaks form in the whipped cream, keep an eye on it. Continue beating just past the soft peak stage. You don’t want to over-beat the whipped cream. It should hold it’s shape but still be smooth and spreadable. Also.. you can always beat the whipped cream into more shape, but you can’t unwhip it to a smoother consistency once it’s firm.
To assemble the cake, place three strips of parchment paper onto a cake plate or cake stand. Place one cooled cake round atop the parchment paper. The paper will help keep the cake plate clean while you frost the cake. Spread a generous amount of whipped cream atop the first layer. Arrange half of the sliced strawberries atop the whipped cream and sprinkle with half of the finely chopped white chocolate.
Place another cake layer atop the frosted layer. Top with more whipped cream, the remaining sliced strawberries, and sprinkle with the remaining white chocolate. Top with the last cake later. Spread whipped cream across the top of the cake and smooth along the sides. Keep a tall glass of warm water nearby. Rinsing the knife clean will help smooth with whipped cream more easily.
To finish the cake, top with fresh rose petals. I removed the petals from the rose stem and bud. I took the center cluster of flowers and adorned the center of the cake then arranged petals from the center outward.
Store cake in the fridge until ready to serve. I’ve found that the petals will be pretty on the cake for at least a day in the refrigerator.
To serve, remove a few of the petals and slice through the cake. I removed my petals before eating the cake. I want to eat cake, but not really eat rose petals. Petals can be appreciated, adored, and then discarded.
144 Responses
I followed the recipe exactly and the cake came out dense and heavy. I also felt like 3 tablespoons of rose water was way too much.
So beautiful! I want to make it for a bday for an 89 yr old woman. Will the whipped cream frosting melt away if it’s not eaten the first day?
Thank you! It will be fine if you keep it in the refrigerator. It should last a couple days.
If I am using a hand mixer, should I still use it’s single whisk attachment or should I use the regular beaters?
Thanks!
Dear Joy, thank you so much for sharing this! This cake not only looks amazing, it tastes amazing too! Everyone should try it!
Looks amazing, but I may not be able to buy the rose petals or make/buy rose water. Would grenadine suffice?
arrrrrrrrgh I want to make this
I’d love to try this recipe, but without the added white chocolate in the cake. Would this affect the texture at all? And what adjustments do you suggest for turning these into cupcakes?
this cake looks so yummy and i love white chocolate oh god i have to try and bake this cake!!!
I’ve been meaning to thank you for this recipe! I baked this cake for my birthday party and everybody loved it! It did not turn put as pretty (i still have some problems with frosting…) but it was delicious!
So, thanks!!!
https://www.averyberrylife.org/node/491
very nice picture. excellent writing. I like your site very much.
Yummy yummy delicious
It looks very delicious yummy
Hi…beautiful looking cake! I have two questions:
1. Is this a heavier (similar to pound cake) or lighter (similar to sponge cake) texture?
2. I have a friend who absolutely, positively HATES fruit in her cake…any suggestions on what I could use instead? If I leave it out, will it be too sweet?
Thanks!
It’s a lighter cake. Not quite like sponge but more like your standard birthday cake. As far as substitutions to fruit… maybe a ganache, jam, or frosting?
Hello Joy! I saw this cake sometime ago and couldn’t get it out of my head but when I tried to find it I couldn’t remember where I saw it. I am so happy I found it and I want to make it very soon. It so beautiful. Now I want to ask you, in europe I use grams and I want to know how many grams you have on a butter stick? Your text about the time is very beautiful and made me very emotional, I couldn’t agree more. I will continue to discover your baking. Thank you, Adelina
Making this for my sister’s birthday tomorrow evening! I’m really excited, I hope my version can live up to this beauty. :)
Hi Joe, I’m usually very silent here although I am a big fan and adore your work! I’m attempting to make this cake for my daughter’s Bat Mitvah. Is it possible to use also rose extract in this recipe or only the diluted rose water? (In spite of the fact that in Israel so many oriental deserts have rose water in it I never used it or bought it so I have no idea…)
you can use rose extract. just use much less of it.
One more thing. What would be the best replacement for the strawberries in the cake? We don’t have them now but we do have cherries, fresh bluberries (quite expensive), red and green grapes. Are these good options do you think?
This looks amazing, love the pics, I was almost gonna eat my desktop screen ^^
Looks like a perfect cake to go with my favorite cup of Chinese black tea.
The cake tasted great. I made it as a cupcake instead and swirled strawberry puree into each and it worked well. However, I think the icing called for far too much rose water and tasted…more like perfume than frosting. Maybe 3 teaspoons would be better than 3 tablespoons? Anyway, I rescued them with some store-bought vanilla and all is well!
I’m sure others have said this, but roses are on the edible flowers list, so technically you could eat them. Of course, if they were dyed or some crazy hybrid kind you might not want to take your chances with what was in them.
My mom was a florist for a couple years so she had to learn which flowers could go on wedding cakes. You don’t want flowers on a cake that aren’t edible, it can cause problems (usually inedible flowers/plants are toxic!).
So pretty!!! I need to find an occasion to make something like this.
This cake looks so beautiful I tried to recreate it for my mom and grandma but my cake came out dry. Do you have any suggestions? Should I have covered it in the fridge? Should I have let it come to room temperature from the fridge? I re-read the recipe today and realized I forgot to add the choc. chips to the batter, but I don’t think that would have made a huge difference. I had such high hopes for this lovely cake.
You are amazing. I want someone to make me that cake… and I don’t really even like cake that much generally.
You are awesome.
This is the Cake of my dreams and yes, you’re so right: time is the most beautiful and precious gift of our lives. Excepts for this Cake, obviously.
What mom wouldn’t love the beauty of this cake! It looks delicious. Thanks for the tips along the way as well!
When do you add the chocolate chunks to the cake?
Also, when do you add the vanilla to the frosting?
I’m making this cake tonight to my MIL, super stoked!
you’re right! i forgot to fold in the chocolate chips. the recipe is fixed.
You’re amazing!!
Can you teach my boys to make this? They can whip cream by hand….
Oh man, I hope there is cake in my Mother’s Day plans….
happy mother’s day aimee! i’ll be so excited to see you at the end of the month!
I just made this this morning & it’s wonderful! The frosting is the best part! But I wanted to share that I live in a small apartment in the city with a mini gas stove, and it took my round cakes 50 minutes to cook. If you don’t have a regular over, make sure sure you a lot more time for baking. Have an amazing mother’s day everyone!
So I am going to take a chance and make this. I feel confident after reading this. I haven’t frosted a cake in 10 years and that was with Duncan Hines. Wish me luck!
Beautiful! Thanks for sharing!!
I think the tartness from the strawberries and the floral flavor of the rose is perfect to balance how sweet white chocolate can be :)
Such a beautiful cake!! I totally agree with you on time. It seems to speed up as you get older. Geez. This cake combines two of my favorites sweets and flowers. Simply gorgeous! You have inspired me to try to bake a three layer cake some day.
Ariana
Shopaholic Undercover
What a beautiful cake! I love all those petals. I bet it’s delicious!
OH MY GOD! Beautiful – to say the least…I look forward to making the time to bake this absolutely GORGEOUS (and delicious looking) cake! And your photos…stunning! WOW…
Have a Happy Weekend!
Seriously. You knocked it out of the park!
A prettier cake there never was.
Hi Joy
What brand of white chocolate chunks did you use in this recipe.
those are Whole Foods Brand white chocolate chunks. i like the shape.
Looks delicious!
http://www.ellesappellepauline.blogspot.nl
xoxo
Lovely setting! When I was first learning how to frost a cake, it was dreadful and anything but smooth. I wish I still had a rose bush to pick roses from. They look so pretty on the cake.
This is like the Grace Kelly of cakes. Or something. Bravo!
This cake is so pretty.. I can’t take it! It’s like a really good wedding cake idea too. Love how easy the decor is and yet how elegant it looks.
MUST TRY THIS – it looks amazing! Going to have to save this for a cheat day!
Lovely thoughts about time and damn if that ain’t a beautiful cake.
What a lucky Momma you have! Oh, what a beautiful cake!
Gorgeous cake! Rose petals make it looks so elegant!
There’s strawberries in this cake too? I am completely sold on this. I don’t normally like white chocolate but if you add strawberries and rose I think the tart/floral flavors would balance the sweetness from the white chocolate so well :)
I love this adorable cake! :D
Beautiful, Joy! Love the white chocolate and strawberry combo.
WOW! What a beautiful cake! Absolutely gorgeous, Joy! Thanks for sharing!
I will totally eat the rose petals too… especially with bits of that frosting.. YUM!
If I had the time and patience, which I don’t, I would even sugar coat each petal.
i too thought of sugar coating the rose petals… then i remembered that i had neither the time or patience.
I would like someone to explain to me how to get a cake from its decorating place to it’s resting place without making a gigantic mess.
i decorated the cake directly on top of the cake stand with parchment paper. does that help you at all?
Okay, I’m seeing it. You layered two pieces of parchment down and then slid them out, I assume? I can see how it happened and I’ma go forward with this knowledge.
What a gorgeous cake! This is what keeps me coming to your blog…that and lovely photography with a side of snappy writing. Thanks for all you do :)
i appreciate you! i really do.
Joy! This is absolutely gorgeous. You are an artist. Thanks for sharing.
Smiles from Vancouver :)
Sweet fancy Moses. So lovely! This level of perfection is really something to aspire to, but I think I subconsciously make really hideous looking cakes on purpose so that I can justify quickly eating them to conceal the shoddy craftsmanship. Cakesmanship? Anyway, you have one lucky mom!
That is one of the prettiest things I ‘ve ever seen!
Oh my goodness gracious this looks SO AMAZING. Why do you cut slices into the top of the cake? I’ve seen that before but have never understood why. Thanks!
Absolutely beautiful cake. What a creative decorating idea! And I’m excited to try the actual recipe, too, of course…
What a lovely cake Joy! Love the presentation!
R
That is just the most beautiful cake.
Ah, time. As Mother’s Day approaches, the time I wish for is with my mom. She’s been gone for almost two years but I miss her desperately and miss our time together. Cake sounds like a good way to remember her.
This looks beyond fabulous. What a lucky mom you have!
Not only is the cake beautiful but this was a lovely post as well. And its because of you that I have rose water in my pantry so I’ll probably try this!
celina, this makes my heart happy. truly.
Lovely cake – white chocolate chunks embedded in the cake! wow!
Awww… So prettyyyy!!! There are plenty of edible roses, I would choose one that’s edible so no picking petals off. This looks like a dream cake..literally so fantastic it would make me instantly happy.
Oh and redcurrants would taste Good with the white choc and whipped cream!!!!
Anyway, I bow down :) Ray
you’re right! red currants would be lovely!
this cake is absolutely beautiful! How perfect for a show stopping occasion cake!
katie x
Looks amazing! I’m going to make this on Sunday for my mom’s Mother’s Day/Birthday lunch.
This looks lovely. I always have a hard time finding a reputable place that has organic roses. I just am too paranoid about pesticides to do anything less. Though there is a place near me where I can buy candied violets. I’m sure the cake would look smashing with a few of those strewn on top, but it wouldn’t be quite as much a show stopper.
glorious!! Now, where will i find the time to make it, this perfect tea party cake?
Fabulous, I really found the post on icing very helpful, thanks. Unless you use roses from your own yard, it would be a good idea to make sure they have not been sprayed with any pesticides. I don’t know if commercial
roses are sprayed or not.
This is so beautiful I almost cried. what a glorious glorious cake.
i’m so glad you’re here!
everything about this cake is just lovely. i agree, everyone should have a basic yellow cake recipe handy.
this is simultaneously the most delicate and most delicious looking cake i’ve ever seen.
this is probably, no most definitely, the most supreme-beautiful-lovely cake I have ever seen! I don’t know why but it makes me think of the movie Father of the Bride! I want this in my belly. right meow.
whoa! when you mentioned Father of the Bride I could totally picture it! flashbacks.
This looks just amazing. It’s not even mother’s day over here but I’m totally going to make it for my mum anyway. Thanks so much for the inspiration.
I literally gasped when I saw this. I love it.
I’ve been so impatient waiting for this cake recipe! It sounds as fabulous as the photos look! And no, I am not getting carried away with the exclamation points! Loooooooove the recipe!
BTW, 40+ years ago I used to order the chocolate whipped cream cake in Minneapolis at The Brothers Delicatessen, and when i moved away from the Cities, managed to recreate it at home, so I know just how a good whipped cream frosting melds with the flavor of a good cake to make something that transcends mere cake and whipped cream. I used 1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar for a pint of cream and no vanilla extract, so the frosting’s flavor resulted mostly from the medling of cake with the cream. There really is a transfer of flavors between cake and cream. While the combination is delicious as soon as the cake is completed, a few hours or even a couple of days later the combination is otherworldly. Ethereal. Your yellow cake with white chocolate and rose water scented whipped cream must be phenomenal! What I wouldn’t give for a piece of your rosé scented cake!
i’m always happy about exclamation points. lay em on me! and you sooo get it Sue! whipped cream becomes transcendent when paired with good layer cake. it’s tremendous. and i love how little sugar you add to you whipped cream. good cream will shine through. thanks for the thoughtful comment, sue!
this. is. stunning.
This cake is beautiful!! And I love your pictures. I wish caking was this clean and organized in my kitchen.
This looks lovely! I’m considering making this for mothers day instead of what I had planned!
Wise words! And a beautiful cake too, totally mom worthy!
just stunning! Your eye for photography blows me away!
So delightful!!! I feel like I’m looking for so many new and exciting recipes that sometimes I forget I should have a few classics up my sleeve too.
Oh wow! This looks fantastic (bet it tastes great too)!
such a beautiful cake! i am planning my upcoming wedding and this cake gives me so many wonderful dessert ideas! thanks :)
Gorgeous per the usual. You rock that cake girl
Home run, Joy! I went back and forth trying to decide what to bake for my mom, but as soon as I saw this I knew it was perfect. Terrific in every way :)
Beautiful cake! I always had a hard time frosting cakes in culinary school…not enough patience!
what a beauty!!! joy you have serious talent, i want that cake right now!! also, is it weird that I want a framed picture of the finished cake in my kitchen?!
Joy this looks fantastic. It could be a perfect wedding cake btw!
**your
Such a beautiful cake. You’re mama is a very lucky woman :)
super stunning joy! What a perfect Mother’s Day cake!
Stunning!! Wow, so pretty and is sounds delicious!
If you like rose (and i do!) I just made this rose-flavored mousse from Rachel Khoo last night
https://www.rachelkhoo.com/paris/rose-ricotta-clouds-with-strawberries
Mine did not turn out quite so great, the taste was good but i dont think i whipped the whipped cream enough :/ At least I have an excuse to make them again
i like the idea of this. sounds pretty!
‘fight frosting with frosting’ – ha! so true. gorgeous cake and great flavor combination!
This is so fu@cking dreamy. Sorry to curse. It’s just so fu@cking amazing. xo
I’ve always read and pondered Deb’s yellow cake recipe on her blog and in her book and have always wanted to make it. I still have not found my perfect yellow cake recipe and have always wanted to try hers. The next time I need a big layer cake, it’s on! Thanks for saying that her recipe is your go-to. That speaks volumes!
Your cake is just gorgeous, Joy! I’ve been reading a new cookbook called Cooking with Flowers that I bet you’d LOVE!
Amazinglybeautiful. I’m going to take the time to make this for a loved one soon.
Such a lovely use of flowers to enhance the flavour of a simple cake. I love the use of real flowers on the top. My mother adores rose flavoured tea, I think she used to say it kept her looking young!
SImple and stunning.
What a beautiful cake Joy! I love the combination of creamy white chocolate and the floral rose. So pretty.
This cake is simply gorgeous, Joy!