Chocolate Cake with Nutella and Strawberries

Instructions for the Cake Base

• 1
  Line the bottoms of two cake pans with a diameter of 25 to 26 cm with baking paper, grease the sides with butter, and dust with cocoa powder.
• 2
  Sift the flour with cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
• 3
  Cream the butter with sugar until light and fluffy, then beat in the eggs one at a time. Finally, while continuously mixing, alternately add sour cream and dry ingredients by spoonfuls. This will create a thick batter. Divide it in half and spread each half evenly into the prepared cake pans. Smooth the surface and bake for 30 minutes in an oven preheated to 180°C. After baking, let cool in the pans on a rack. Once cooled, remove the cake bases from the pans.

Instructions for Nutella Cream

• 1
  Melt the chocolate in a water bath, mix well, and let it cool slightly.
• 2
  Whip the mascarpone together with Nutella into a smooth cream, gradually beating in the chocolate by spoonfuls. Chill the cream in the refrigerator for a while.

Instructions for Cream Cream

• 1
  Whip the mascarpone together with cream and sugar into a cream. Gradually increase the speed while whipping. Be careful not to overwhip and curdle the cream.

Instructions for Assembling the Cake

• 1
  Rinse the strawberries, remove the stems from half, and cut all in half. Finely chop five basil leaves.
• 2
  Place one cake base on a cake stand, spread with half of the Nutella cream, half of the cream cream, and top with stemless strawberries and chopped basil. Cover with the second cake base and repeat the process. Decorate the top with strawberries with stems and whole basil leaves.