Chocolate and Vanilla Cake with Cream Cheese Filling, Strawberries, and Almonds

Chocolate Cake Layer

1. 3 large eggs
2. 1 cup sugar
3. 1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
4. 2 tsp cornstarch
5. ½ cup pure cocoa
6. 2 tsp baking powder
7. ¼ tsp baking soda
8. Pinch of salt
9. ½ cup vegetable oil
10. 2 tsp vanilla extract
11. 2 tsp rum
12. ¾ cup water

Cream Cheese Whipped Cream

1. 1 8-ounce package of cream cheese, softened at room temperature for an hour
2. 2 cups whipping cream
3. 4 tbsp powdered sugar
4. 2 tsp vanilla extract
5. Sliced strawberries

Directions:To Make Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and line with parchment paper two 9” round cake pans. (Make sure to grease the parchment paper again!)
2. For vanilla cake, whisk together sour cream, eggs, sugar, salt, baking powder, vegetable, oil, vanilla, flour, and rum. Keep mixing until smooth and pour into one of the prepared pans. Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden on top.
3. Remove from oven, allow to cool for 10 minutes and then turn out onto cooling rack.
4. To make chocolate cake, whisk together all of the dry ingredients and then add in the eggs, oil, vanilla, rum, and mix until smooth. Slowly add in the water and keep mixing until the batter is smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 35 minutes.
5. Remove cake from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.
6. Slice the cooled cakes in half horizontally and place one of the vanilla layers on a plate. Now make the filling.

How to Make Filling

1. Whip the cream cheese in a small bowl until soft and aerated. In a separate larger bowl, whip the cream until soft peaks form. Scrape in the cream cheese and whip on high speed until stiff peaks form. Beat in sugar and vanilla.
2. Keep in the fridge until ready to use.

How to Assemble the Cake

1. Frost all layers of the cake and place strawberries on each layer. To decorate I sprinkled sliced almonds on the sides and then dipped strawberries in chocolate to garnished the top.