Chocolate Strawberry Cake, Prepared Cold

We start by preparing the delicious base of our cake. The first step is to crush the biscuits. You can use a food processor to achieve a fine texture, but it is perfectly acceptable to leave some larger pieces for a bit of crunch. Once the biscuits are crushed, we mix them with cocoa, which will give them an intense chocolate flavor. Then, we add the melted butter, making sure it is warm, not hot, so as not to affect the mixture. We begin to gradually incorporate the milk until we obtain a homogeneous paste, similar to that for biscuit salami. It is important not to add too much milk at once, to maintain the desired consistency.

Once the base is ready, we prepare our round baking pan with removable walls, which we line with plastic wrap to facilitate the removal of the cake at the end. We pour the biscuit mixture into the pan and level it with a spatula, ensuring it is well compacted. Then, we let it cool while we take care of the delicious cream.

To prepare the cream, we take a saucepan and add the liquid cream and the chocolate broken into small pieces. We heat the mixture over low heat, stirring constantly with a whisk until the chocolate melts completely and the mixture becomes homogeneous. After we obtain a smooth cream, we let it cool for at least an hour. This is an important step, as the cream will become airier and easier to apply. After cooling, we add the rum essence and mix well until it becomes a dense and lighter-colored cream.

In the meantime, we take care of the strawberries. We remove the stems, choosing the most beautiful ones for decoration. It is essential that all strawberries are of approximately the same size, so that the cake looks uniform. After washing them, we let them drain well.

Now we can proceed to assembly. We take the pan out of the fridge, remove the removable ring and the plastic wrap. We transfer the base to a serving platter and apply a thin layer of cream on top. We place the halved strawberries around the edge of the cake, with the cut side facing outwards. The remaining strawberries are placed whole over the entire surface, and then we carefully pour the cream, filling the empty spaces between the fruits. Level the cream well and let the cake chill for half an hour.

For the glaze, we put the chocolate with the liquid cream in a saucepan and heat them together, stirring until they become homogeneous. It is important to keep some of this glaze, about a quarter, for decoration. After the glaze has cooled slightly, we carefully pour it over the cake, starting from the center, and level it evenly. We let the cake chill for the glaze to set.

For decoration, we choose the most beautiful strawberries with stems, which we half-dip in the remaining chocolate glaze. These will add an elegant look to the cake. Finally, we can adorn the cake with heart-shaped candies around the edges or as desired, for a festive and attractive appearance. Our cake is now ready to be enjoyed!