There are a lot of birthdays for us this time of year so I found myself making another cake. Not that I’m complaining or anything, any time is a good time for cake and a birthday is just a good excuse to indulge.
The Birthday Honoree requested raspberry and chocolate so this is what I came up with. I started with my go-to Chocolate Cake recipe. I’ve been making it for years now and it’s never failed to come out rich and moist. If you’ve got your own favorite recipe use it instead.
Cutting two layers into four gave me plenty of cake surface to slather in raspberry and chocolate goodness. I’d planned to sprinkle the top with a big bunch of fresh berries and dust the whole thing with a bit of powdered sugar. Unfortunately, fresh raspberries were nowhere to be found so I had to pick a few frozen ones from the bag to use for a garnish.
First, the raspberry filling:
- Frozen Raspberries, 2 bags
- Sugar, 1/2 to 2/3 cup
- Corn Starch, 2 tablespoons
- Raspberry Jam or Preserves, 1/4 to 1/3 cup
In a large heavy saucepan, combine the berries, sugar and cornstarch. Stir it all together and heat over low to medium-low heat.
Let it cook for maybe 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it begins to thicken.
Remove it from the heat and stir in a little jam to thicken it a bit more. Don’t worry if it still looks too runny to spread on a cake. It’ll continue to thicken as it cools.
While it’s cooling, move on to the Chocolate Frosting:
- Semisweet and/or Bittersweet Chocolate, 12 ounces (I was emptying my pantry stash so I’ve got a mismatch here. It didn’t matter.)
- Sugar, 1/2 cup or more to taste
- Butter, 3 tablespoons
- Heavy Cream, 1/2 cup, room temperature
Break the chocolate into chunks. Melt it carefully in the microwave by heating on 50% power for 45 to 60 seconds at a time and stirring in between. It doesn’t have to melt completely on it’s own. It’ll still hold some of it’s shape but will finish melting as you stir.
While the chocolate is still nice and warm, stir in the sugar and butter. Continue stirring until the butter is melted. Adjust the sugar to taste.
Stir in the cream until it’s fully incorporated. Set it aside and let it continue to cool.
Now to put it all together:
Slice each cake layer in half using a serrated knife. The toothpicks inserted in the middle of the layer make a handy slicing guide.
Place the first layer on a cake plate. Wax paper or foil strips under the edges will keep the plate clean while you work. Spread a generous amount of raspberry filling all the way to the edges.
Ignore my horribly uneven slicing job.
Add the next layer and spread with chocolate.
Repeat with the remaining two layers.
Garnish with a handful of raspberries and enjoy!
{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
beautiful cake and i’m in love w/the photos Karen – wowie!!
What a great combination of raspberry with chocolate – I can only imagine how delicious this birthday cake is!! That photo of the chocolate in the green bowl makes me just want to dive in head first!!
That looks so delicious!
It reminds me of Double Big-Mac…in some ways…
If I am to do this I might switch raspberry to strawberry to make the taste sweeter.
Here is another chocolate recipe you might be interested.
http://www.fourgreensteps.com/community/recipes/desserts-a-goodies-/chocolate-cupcakes-with-chocolate-frosting
Yum, chocolate raspberry combos sound delicious. Reminds me of my favorite chocolate raspberry truffles. And that picture of your cake with all that jam oozing out of the sides, oh man, that is something good. I have a linky party on my blog every Saturday called “Sweets for a Saturday” and I’d like to invite you to stop by this weekend and link this up.
Love the frosting/layering job. Love it!!!!! You are my inspiration.
yums! the cake is gorgeous! thanks for the toothpick tip. so handy!
How many ounces in one of your bags of raspberries? This looks sooooo good!
Oooh, good question but I’m not sure. Just looked in the freezer to see if I had a bag on hand but no such luck. They’re smallish bags so I’m guessing maybe 8 ounces.
OMG! That looks incredibly delicious! My hubby’s bday is coming up and I think this may be the perfect cake!
Great blog; happy I found you!
Mary xo
Delightful Bitefuls
this looks amazing i can just imagine how good it would taste!
I might be fainting. Please hold me! Or well just adopt me?
Another delicious looking option.
Another delicious looking option.
So glad pioneer woman featured your recipe….I love this combination!
http://www.abusynest.com/
I don’t know where I went wrong but my “frosting” is more of a gritty glaze. I double checked your recipe and pictures which both called for “sugar” in the frosting and not “powdered sugar”. This cake was a lot of work so I am somewhat disappointed that I cannot serve it to my guests. Other than that, the cake would be good.
I’m sorry it didn’t work out! I think the key is to have the chocolate warm enough that the sugar dissolves. Powdered sugar might work but I’ve never tried it.
I am sorry it didn’t work out, too. I think the sugar crystalized. I don’t know why. The actual chocolate cake recipe is wonderful! It will now be my “go to” recipe for layered chocolate cakes. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
I do love that cake recipe. Sometimes the old classics, like that one from The Joy of Cooking, really are the best. Chocolate Buttercream is another alternative. It’s a lot more work but it’s oh-so-divinely CHOCOLATE!
WOW! I had to make a cake for our church’s Easter lunch and I chose this one, of course I used a box cake mix and icing, but it is FABULOUS! Will definatly make this again, and next time I’ll try to do it from scratch all of the way! Hubby asked for this to be his new birthday cake, vs the homemade cheesecake!
I’m currently making this for my husband’s birthday. We both love chocolate/raspberry cakes. My problem is my chocolate cakes got stuck in the pan- I used butter instead of Pam b/c I didn’t have Pam around…I guess that may be key?
I halved the frosting/raspberry parts because there’s no way I can cut the two halves in half without TOTALLY making a mess out of the cake. I think it will taste fab no matter what it looks like!
I’ll post a pic of the finished cake on my blog once it’s all done
Last time I ran out of baking Pam and used shortening I had stuck cakes too. I’m hooked on Pam on a nonstick pan. I’m sure it’ll taste great no matter what. Come back and post a link to your finished product here?
Whenever I bake a chocolate cake I lightly grease the bottom and sides of the cake pan (with whatever I have on hand, usually butter) and then “cocoa” it, i.e. shake about 1 T cocoa powder into the pan, and holding the pan over the sink, I gently tap the pan while rotating it so the cocoa spreads evenly over the bottom and sides. It works like a charm every time even with sticky/moist cakes (and somehow little fingers always end up wiping the pans clean after the cake is out!)
Mine stuck too, but I think I know why…for me, at least. With cakes, they are supposed to cool for about 10 min in the pan, then get them out to cool the rest of the way. And I forgot that step, and left them to cool all afternoon….and they were stuck tight. Managed to pry them out w minimal damage. Not the prettiest cake after all that, but oh sooo yum!
Just a sidenote… I find Baker’s Joy spray flour works wonders for pan preparation as well. I’ve used it for quite a while and when I was unable to locate Pam for Baking, I used it again for this cake, and as always, it worked beautifully.
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