Neapolitan Bundt Cake

Now I know that the poll's winner (banana cream macarons) are long overdue and macarons have been absent from this blog for a while. Truth is, I made them yesterday and they failed :(. Being the pesky little cookies that they are, I've decided to put the macarons on hold for a few weeks... at least till my exam week is over.

However, a beautiful Bundt cake will take their place this week! I got the inspiration for this cake when I was eating licking a naepolitan ice cream a few weeks ago. It made me reminisce of the three-layered neapolitan cake I made when I just started this blog. A three-tiered cake seemed a little ambitious during 75˚F weather, so I went the easy way and combined the three neapolitan flavors into one big & beautiful Bundt cake. Rating: 4 out of 5.




Neapolitan Bundt Cake: adapted from Martha Stewart's Classic Pound Cake

Ingredients:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 sticks (1 ½ cups) softened unsalted butter, plus more for pans
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 6 large, room-temperature eggs
- 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
- ⅓ cup fresh strawberries, pureed
- 2 drops red food coloring

Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter a Bundt cake pan. Combine all-purpose flour and salt in a bowl; set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar with a mixer on high speed until pale and fluffy, for 4 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl. Reduce speed to medium, and add vanilla extract. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until combined. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture, beating until just combined.
- Divide the cake batter in three parts. Add cocoa powder to one of them, mix until just combined. Add pureed strawberries and red food coloring to the second cake batter batch, mix until just combined.
- Spoon the vanilla cake batter into the Bundt pan. Next, the strawberry cake batter, and final, the chocolate cake batter. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool, 10 to 15 minutes. Turn out the cake onto the rack to cool completely. Before serving, dust with confectioners' sugar, if using. Cake can be kept at room temperature, wrapped well in plastic, for up to 3 days.


“You don't think the strawberry center is too red?”
“Strawberries are red!”
“Oh, right.”

Despite my mother's confidence, I think I went a tad overboard
with the red food coloring. It's all or nothing for me ;)