Struggling to decide if the flavour profile will work, birthday cake!

[dontcomeatme]

It's my younger DSis birthday on Monday and I wanted to make her a cake. She loves chocolate and strawberrys, particularly Nutella and or diary milk melted.
I wanted to make a three tier cake with multiple sponges, bottom vanilla, top chocolate and a mix in the middle. Image attached of the design of the sponges I see in my head when she cuts it. Then use this recipe
https://charlotteslivelykitchen.com/nutella-buttercream/
to make a Nutella buttercream for in between the sponges and a thin layer around the cake, with sliced strawberrys between every layer and decorative on the top.
My question is, for quickness I was just going to buy a vanilla sponge mix and a chocolate sponge mix for the cakes, however, I know Nutella is a very particular flavour profile, would I need to make the chocolate sponge Nutella as well, I'm worried a "normal" chocolate cake with Nutella buttercream will just taste wrong? Or am I over thinking it?

Make a strawberry coulis to serve it with and strawberries on the side. Delicious.

Oooh this sounds promising. I did pick up some freeze dried strawberries while at the shops and people have said that is lovely mixed in with some buttercream for the inside layers so that could work instead of fresh?

I wanted to do the strawberries dipped in chocolate but I was reading how to do it and got a bit scared they would look awful and I would ruin it haha.

I was just reading about making a strawberry glaze. Good suggestion! Especially now I've been persuaded to make a batch of cupcakes too 😅 they are juts going to be vanilla sponge with Nutella buttercream for decor, so having the strawberries on the side means people can add however they wish. Thank you!

Okay so it's made !! Birthday girl isn't here yet but I am so happy with how it turned out 😍 I made a bunch of cupcakes too for anyone not fancying strawberries.

I'll upload reviews and how I made it later on if anyone is interested. All the individual pieces taste amazing so 🤞🤞

Wow!!!! Looks amazing.

Wow! That is a very impressive looking cake!!!

That looks amazing! It’s my birthday in a couple of weeks … just saying 🤣

Ooof that's a STUNNER of a cake @dontcomeatme , well done!
Cupcakes too!
Magnifique. And it will all taste amazing I'm sure. 😍😋

Aww thank you everyone 🥰 it's definitely the best cake I've made so far! Very proud of myself.

And oh my goodness it tastes AMAZING and inside looks just as I imagined! Photos and how to copy to follow soon 😍

Okay, its been tasted by about 8 people so far and they all said it was beautiful. The strawberry jam/coulis I made was a little tart, but paired with the Nutella buttercream that was sweet they just worked really well together. The vanilla and chocolate sponges were the perfect decision. The middle layer that I wanted a lighter brown I just mixed vanilla and chocolate cake mix together 😅 it could have done with more vanilla than chocolate because it didn't come out as light as I wanted, but you still got the full effect.
The flavours really compliment each other and it went down a treat with everyone! There's only 2 slices left haha. It was very very lovely if I do say so myself. The birthday girl said its now her favourite cake ever 💖

I ended up making a home made jam for the inner layers, I used this recipe
https://olivesnthyme.com/strawberry-glaze/#ingredients
and it was gorgeous 😍 sweet, tart, and the strawberry flavour was unbelievable.

I used betty crocker vanilla cake mix and tempting chocolate mix. Mixing the 2 together for the middle layer.
The jam was a little runny so I put a small amount of buttercream on the top and bottom of every layer of sponge to try and prevent as much soggy cake as possible.
Then I piped and added the strawberries and red glitter spray 🥰 will definitely be making this again. I'm thinking for Christmas day pudding, the colours were vibrant and would look gorgeous on the Christmas table.

Just wow! 🎂