Originally when I created the Neapolitan Cake I made my life really difficult!
Because I prepared three separate recipes for the chocolate, vanilla and strawberry cake layers!
However I’ve wised up in my old age and have tweaked one simple recipe to make all the flavors!
Introducing Neapolitan Cake 2025!
Chocolate, Strawberry and Vanilla layers with a simple vanilla buttercream that mixes up while the cake is baking!
Added to the cake batter and to the icing for the most intense strawberry cake and buttercream ever!
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR HOW TO MAKE THE NEAPOLITAN CAKE
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Notes for Success:
Soy milk is the only milk that will sour and thicken upon adding vinegar for our mock “buttermilk”
Of course you can use any plant milk of your choice if you are staying away from soy
Just be sure to add the vinegar as that is also the activator for the baking soda to leaven this recipe
A combination of oil and melted vegan butter is my preference but you can use all of one or the other if you prefer
This method for making all three cake flavors from one recipe will also work with my
BOX CAKE HACK! Using a yellow or white cake box!
7″ Cake Pans are always my preference but if you only have 8″ pans you can still make this recipe but your layers will be much thinner
Neapolitan Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake
- Plant Milk 1½ cups (355ml) *see notes
- Vinegar 1½ Tablespoons
- Vegan Butter ½ cup (113g) *see notes
- Vegetable oil of your choice ½ cup (117ml)
- Granulated Sugar 1½ cup (300g)
- Salt ½ teaspoon
- Vanilla Extract 3 teaspoons (15ml)
- All Purpose Flour 3 cups (375g)
- Baking Soda 2 teaspoons (8g)
For the Strawberry Batter
- 2 Tablespoons Freeze Dried Strawberry Fruit Powder
For the Chocolate Batter
- 2 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder
- 2 Tablespoons Water
- 2 teaspoons oil
- 1 Recipe American Buttercream
For the Strawberry Buttercream
- 6 tablespoons Freeze dried strawberry powder
Instructions
- Prepare your 7" cake pans with pan grease & parchment liners & preheat the oven to 350°F
- Make the cake batter by combining the vegetable oil with the melted vegan butter then add the vanilla extract and set aside
- Combine the plant milk with the vinegar and let stand for 5 minutes to thicken.
- Sift all the dry ingredients(including the sugar) together in a large mixing bowl
- Pour the wet ingredients in and whisk smooth, this will be the plant milk mixture and the butter/oil mixture
- Now divide the batter evenly into 3 separate bowls
- Add the strawberry powder to one bowl for the strawberry layer & then mix the cocoa powder with the hot water & oil to make a paste and add that to the other batter to make the chocolate layer
- Pour all 3 batters into the prepared pans
- Bake immediately in the preheated 350°F oven for 20-25 minutes OR when you gently press the centers they should be springy to the touch. Or do the toothpick test for moist crumbs.
- Cool in the pans until you can safely touch them without burning yourself then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool the rest of the way.
- Now prepare the buttercream recipe according to the instructions on that post
- Divide the buttercream in half and add the 6 Tablespoons of freeze dried strawberry powder to one half for the filling & decoration of the cake
- Assemble the cake as shown in the video
Notes
Neapolitan cake will stay fresh at room temperature for up to 3 days wrapped or covered loosely
For longer storage keep in the refrigerator covered to prevent drying out for up to 1 week
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Hi Gretchen – I’m deliberating on buying some 7 inch pans. Can you give your opinion on 7 vs 8 inch cakes? Is it totally about the appearance and decorating trends/preferences or do they bake up differently leading to better cakes, or maybe something else? If it’s appearance – can you share your thoughts on what makes lovely cakes? Especially when they would be a present to someone. thanks much
Miss gretchen how do i do a buttercream thats not too sweet. I’ve tried the regular buttercream but is too sweet
CLICK HERE for all the options, you may prefer to use a Swiss Meringue or Italian as those are not as sweet as traditional American style (AND you can adjust the powdered sugar on all recipes!)
Additionally, I have an ERMINE BUTTERCREAM RECIPE that is amazing!!!! CLICK HERE
Gretchen this looks amazing! Im not sure if I missed it, but what are the strawberries dipped in? Whenever I use fresh strawberries the juice ends up all over the buttercream. Thank you!
Thank you! I did overlook that point! Adding now! **it is melted apricot jam (any clear jam works though- orange, peach etc.. or strawberry of course LOL
This looks like so much fun!! Love your recipes over quarantine. 🙂
I loved this recipe. I made it for my husband’s birthday. The only draw back is that it says to do half of the strawberry cake recipe however the original recipe only makes a 9×9 cake so half of that was definitely not enough to be the same as the other 2 cakes. I should have put the whole recipe in one 8in round pan so it matched the size of the other cakes. Additionally I wished it would say how much buttercream I needed to separate out to add rhe strawberry compote to especially since it said I would only need the 2 tbsp. Of compote.
Thank you for pointing this out! I will update the recipe instructions to be more clear!
This looks like the perfect cake for my friends 61st Birthday celebration, this weekend. I don’t recall seeing, either in the recipe or during the video, how much of the strawberry buttercream you are making with the strawberry compote. Is it half of the recipe, or maybe two thirds? I want to be sure that I have enough of both flavors to finish this cake, inside and out, just the way that you did! I am up for the challenge.
Hey sorry for the confusion! I see how that is unclear, since I only used the strawberry BC for 1 layer inside the cake, I took about 1-1½ cups of the BC and added strawberry to that. I had enough leftover to make some rosettes on top too
I ended up using about half of the BC for the strawberry parts. I also did a Ganache drip on the edge since I had a fair amount of that left over after topping the strawberry layer. It looks wonderful! Thanks for the inspiration.