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This Neapolitan Cake is a delicious twist on the iconic neapolitan ice cream! You’ll fall in love with the yummy flavors all over again – they taste even better in cake form. You’re welcome!
Neapolitan Cake
It’s our 4 year wedding anniversary! So I made a cake! But first, a few words about that wonderful day. 🙂
I know everyone says this about their wedding day, but this was seriously the best day ever! I married a wonderful man, we had all of the most important people in our lives in one room and had a blast with them all and I got to see the fruits of my mom and I’s labor all come together to create a beautiful day! I want to go back and relive it all. Not everyone feels this way, but I would totally do it all again. It was all worth it. Fortunately I have awesome pictures and an amazing wedding video that the hubs has to watch with me every year. 🙂
Probably the most important part was all the people we had with us. I know that was what my husband loved the most. He is originally from South Africa, so most of his family still lives there and he doesn’t see many of them often, if at all. He had a number of relatives come all the way here for the wedding and it meant so much to both of us. I know he worries that he will never have the chance to see his grandparents together like that again. We desperately want to get to South Africa for a trip, but have yet to do it.
On top of that, having so many people who have influenced us over the years in so many ways all celebrate with us was such an honor. So many great people and amazing friends! I know some people look back at their wedding party and haven’t kept in touch with many people, but the lovely ladies in my wedding were family. Technically 4 of them are friends and 1 is my cousin, but all of them are my sisters. For life. And sharing that day with my parents and grandmother was exceptionally awesome as well. They are all my best friends.
And after just over a year a half of planning with my mom (no wedding planner!), it was awesome to see everything come together. I am a person that is very into the details. There was a lot of DIY too. Seeing it the day of the wedding was special for my mom and I. Not only was it beautiful, but people still tell us how much fun it was! Again, I’d go back and do it all again and so would she.
Wedding cake on left, my cake on right
One of the details that I naturally love is the cake. Of course. I searched high and low for just the right design and Gail from Cheesecake etc did an amazing job of creating it. That cake is actually the inspiration for this recipe and post.
Last year I really wanted to make a replica of one of the tiers of our cake but wasn’t able to. This year I went for it! And not just the look of the outside of the cake, but the inside too. We had a few different types of cake, but the layer we cut into and the topper both were chocolate cake on the bottom and pink tinted vanilla pound cake on top with Baileys buttercream in the middle.
I decided not to do the same flavor combo, but still wanted the colors. You can tell from the picture below how much I loved the inside of the cake. I had actually forgotten she was going to color it and when I saw it I got really excited. Clearly I have a cake problem. 🙂
Photo by Fort Mill Photography
So for the chocolate cake I used my favorite recipe. It is the moistest chocolate cake you will EVER have. Really. Really really. I’ve used it before in other recipes on the blog and if you haven’t made it before, you desperately need to.
I tried a new recipe for the pink layer. I figured strawberry made perfect sense for a pink cake, so I decided on vanilla icing and the neapolitan cake was born.
I spent forever looking for the right recipe. I didn’t want to use jello. I really wanted to use actual strawberries. I also wanted a cake with whole eggs. I hate throwing away parts of eggs. I know I could use them for something, but when I have a whole cake to decorate, the last thing I want to do is try to bake something additional.
I found this recipe from Confections of a Foodie Bride. It’s a great recipe! Denser than I expected, but the strawberry flavor is awesome! I definitely had to add some red food coloring to get it as pink as I wanted but that’s fine by me.
And to finish it off – vanilla buttercream. Even though the outside of the cake is pink, it’s vanilla flavored. It’s a beauty isn’t it? A Happy Anniversary dessert to the hubs and I! Thanks for hanging in there with me friends. Here is your recipe! 🙂
PrintNeapolitan Cake
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour 35 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours 5 minutes
- Yield: 12-14 Slices 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
This Neapolitan Cake is made with a layer of chocolate cake and strawberry cake and filled with vanilla frosting! It’s the iconic ice cream flavor in cake form!
Ingredients
CHOCOLATE CAKE
- 1 cups cake flour
- 1 cups sugar
- 1/4 + 1/8 cup Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 large eggs
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 3/4 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup boiling water
STRAWBERRY CAKE
- 24 oz fresh, very ripe strawberries, hulled
- 1–2 tsp sugar, optional
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 cup milk, room temperature
- 4 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 2 1/4 cups cake flour
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), room temperature
- red food color, optional
VANILLA BUTTERCREAM
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup shortening
- 8 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3–5 tbsp water
Instructions
CHOCOLATE CAKE:
STRAWBERRY CAKE:
VANILLA BUTTERCREAM:
TO ASSEMBLE:
Keywords: neapolitan cake, the best chocolate cake recipe, moist chocolate cake recipe, homemade chocolate cake recipe, strawberry cake recipe, strawberry cake recipe from scratch, strawberry chocolate cake, vanilla buttercream recipe, vanilla buttercream
Enjoy!
I was wondering do you have an video how to make this cake? I’m curious how it looks coming all together.
I don’t, I’m sorry.
Wow Lindsay, Your cake looks absolutely stunning! Seriously, it looks like it belongs in an upscale Parisian Bakery. This may be a stupid question, but how in the world did you make the lacy chocolate design on the white frosting, on the sides of the cake? Did you use some kind of stencil? If so who makes it and where can I buy it? Also how did you defy gravity and get it to stick to the sides? Just dusting over a stencil doesn’t seem like it would work. The pattern density looks very nice and uniform too. It looks like you’d need some kind of a frosting air-brush ( if such a thing exists? ) and a lot of artistic ability. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Detailed Instructions on how to create the lace effect would be fabulous.
Thank You for sharing this beautiful cake! It sounds delicious too! I can hardly wait to try my hand at making it, but would love to be able to try to do the lace effect. Thanks & Aloha from Hawaii 😉
Thank you Sandy! The orignal design on the wedding cake used a stencil from here. For my version, I basically created my own stencil with a pattern and a piece of patter. I used an exacto knife to cut the pieces out. Then I used some black icing color with vodka to paint it onto the white fondant before adding it to the sides of the cake. The fondant sticks onto the buttercream cake with a little sugar water.
Hi! I had the same problem as Shelley! My strawberry cake is the oven now and it is HUGE! I should have split it into 2- 8in pans. I was worrisome when the recipe for chocolate only needed 1 cup of flour and sugar and the strawberry needed 2 1/4 and 1 3/4. I’m hoping it will bake okay and I can cut it in half to put on top of the chocolate.
I baked these cakes for my fathers birthday. The chocolate cake is 1/2 the thickness of the strawberry cake. I was disappointed as the chocolate cake was too thin for a layer so I had to find another recipe to bake another chocolate cake and I was under time constraints.
Otherwise the taste is deliscious
That’s strange that the chocolate cake was so thin. After looking the recipe, I realize I actually have the full strawberry cake recipe listed and it should be half. That would explain why the chocolate cake was 1/2 the thickness. I’m SO sorry! Would the chocolate layer have worked with the strawberry if the strawberry was half as thick as it was?
Actually no, I’m sorry. The recipe is correct as posted. I’m not sure why your chocolate layer didn’t come out right. It’s a cake I use all the time and love. No matter the reason, I’m sorry it didn’t work out as expected. I hope it all worked out in the end and your dad had a great birthday!
I didn’t give up! I rebuked the chocolate cake and it was still slightly thinner than the strawberry cake …Im a bit weird in the way I want them to be the same . anyways no one but me noticed once frosted and decorated. It was a hit! Thank you
That’s great Shelley! I’m glad it worked out!
Oh my goodness, just beautiful. Happy Anniversary! Your wedding cake was gorgeous, but I love your cake better. So pretty!!
Thanks Nicole! 🙂
how fun! happy anniversary! i love to reminisce back to my day too. there were a few things we would have changed if we could go back, but all in all it was an amazing day and so worth all the work!
Thanks Carrie! It’s so fun to look back 🙂
That is a gorgeous cake AND replica! You did an awesome job. The flavors, yum. Happy anniversary!
Thanks Dorothy! 🙂
Congratulations!! that’s so romantic and exciting, and what a better way to celebrate than with this gorgeous cake! 😀
Thanks Jess! It’s not an occasion without cake 🙂