I Think I'll Call It "Summer Cake"

Trying to come up with names for recipes is hard, man.

It should be catchy, snappy, fun..........and hopefully, informative. 

I struggled to come up with a name for this recipe.  "White Chocolate Cake with Fruit Filling and Fresh Fruit on Top with Cream Cheese Icing" was too long.

"WCC with Double-FF and CC Icing" was too vague.

The math geek in me loved "White C^2 + 2(F^2) + C^2 Icing = YUM!"

You'd have to know Italian to understand "Torta al Cioccolata Bianca con Frutta e Crema di Formaggio Glassa."

I finally came up with "Summer Cake."  Because I usually only make this cake during warm weather......when berries are sweetest, and a cool, icebox cake is totally refreshing.

Summer Cake

• 1 cup (about 6 oz) white baking chocolate or white chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1 box white cake mix
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 eggs

• 1/4 cup seedless jam (any berry flavor: raspberry, blackberry, strawberry, boysenberry, blueberry, etc)
• 3/4 cup fresh berries (any type of berries)

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 8 oz. softened cream cheese
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) softened butter
• 1 cup (about 6 oz) white baking chocolate or white chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups powdered sugar

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Grease (or spray with non-stick cooking spray) 2 (9-inch) round cake pans.

It's only my opinion, but you should use a good-quality white chocolate for this recipe.  Baker's Chocolate, Nestle, Guittard, Hershey's--any name-brand would be fine.  The better quality the white chocolate is, the better it will melt.

Place your butter and white chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl.  Microwave on medium-high power for one minute.

It will look like this.  Stir it up and the white chocolate chips should melt.  If your microwave is not very powerful and the butter and/or chocolate chips have not melted enough, you may need to put it in for one more minute.

After stirring for a bit, the white chocolate should be all melted and will look something like this.  The stirring also cools the mixture down a bit.

Gather all your cake ingredients: the melted white chocolate chips/butter, cake mix, eggs, vanilla and milk.

Mix all the cake ingredients in a large bowl on low speed just until moistened......

.......then increase the speed to medium/high and beat for 2 minutes until very well-blended.

Pour the batter into your prepared pans.  Try to divide it as evenly as possible, but don't stress if it's not totally perfect.  No one will ever know.

Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, until the cake is set and a toothpick inserted in the centers comes out clean.

Yeah, that's quite a time range!  You do not want to over-bake this cake.  You know your oven; if your baking is usually done at the lower end of the time range, set your timer for 25 minutes and check and reset the timer if necessary.  The cakes actually took 33 minutes in my oven.

After you put the cakes in the oven, put the cream cheese and the butter for the frosting into a large bowl, so that it can soften.

When your cakes are done, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool for 10 minutes in the pan.  Remove them from the pans and allow them to cool completely (at least an hour), preferably on wire racks.

After the cakes have cooled, prepare the frosting.

Melt the chocolate chips in your microwave like you did for the cake: one minute on medium-high in your microwave.  Stir until completely melted; if they have not melted enough after stirring, zap them for another minute in your microwave.

Beat the softened cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer on medium-high speed, until very well-blended.

Add the melted chocolate chips and vanilla; mix on medium speed until blended.

Add one cup of the powdered sugar.  Mix on very low speed until moistened.  Don't go to a high speed too quickly, or the sugar will puff up in a cloud and you and your counter will be covered in white. Yep, I've done that.  Once the sugar has been incorporated, you can beat it on high until it's light and fluffy.

Add the second cup of sugar and repeat.  Low until incorporated, high until light and fluffy.

The frosting will look like this when you're done.

Place one of your cake layers on your serving platter.

Frost it with a very thin layer of the frosting.

Get your seedless berry jam.  I am using blackberry jam this time. 

You know how jam is all jelled into one large blob in the jar? You don't want the jam to be blobby, i.e. lumpy, so I stir it right in the jar so it's all loose and spreadable.

Then I don't even measure it, just spoon a couple of large spoonfuls right onto the top of the cake.

Spread it around on top of the cream cheese frosting.

Then place your other cake layer on top.

Then cover with the remaining frosting.  I like to frost the top first, then the sides.

Place your berries on top.  I used raspberries this time, but raspberries and blueberries together would make a nice 4th of July cake.

After you've frosted and put the berries on the cake, you can serve it immediately.  If you're not going to serve it immediately, you should refrigerate it because the cream cheese frosting should be refrigerated. 

It tastes awesome when it's cold, right out of the fridge.  If you prefer, you could take it out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature before serving.

Enjoy!