Over the weekend we celebrated my little’s birthday, and we have this tradition where she gets to choose whatever menu she wants ... then I whip it up for her.
I’ve spoken before about how I love cooking, and am one of those people who shows my love through food.. and well, birthdays are like the olympics for this - I make it all from scratch, and she gets to choose every detail.
This year she chose - Lasagna, Tomato Cucumber Salad, Homemade French Bread and a Chocolate Raspberry Cake.
All these items I’ve made quite a few times, so I had the recipes all ready to go... except the cake.
After some brainstorming on flavor combos I played around with my go-to chocolate cake recipe to make it perfect for layers, and ended up with one of the best cakes I’ve ever made...
So I figured I should probably share it with you guys.
A fudgey chocolate cake with chocolate ganache and raspberry preserve filling that was topped with a light and airy chocolate cream cheese frosting... 🤤
Ingredients 🍫
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Chocolate Cake
- 1 3/4 Cups All Purpose Flour
- 1 3/4 Cups Raw Cane Sugar
- 3/4 Cup Cocoa Powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Soda
- 2 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- 1 teaspoon Sea Salt
- 2 Large Eggs
- 1 Cup Milk
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla
- 1 Cup Boiling Water
Raspberry Filling
- 3 Cups Frozen or Fresh Raspberries
- 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
- 1/4 Cup Raw Cane Sugar
- 1 Tablespoon Cornstarch
- 1 Tablespoon Water
Chocolate Ganache Filling
- 9 oz (1 1/2 cups) Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate
- 3/4 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1 Cup Butter, room temp
- 8oz Cream Cheese, softened
- 12 oz Semi Sweet Chocolate, melted
- 5 tbsp Cocoa Powder
- 4 cups Powdered Sugar
- 10–12 tbsp Heavy Whipping Cream
Directions 🥣
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Alright - all these components are pretty easy to make on their own, then we just put them all together. I didn’t get process photos of all the items.. as I’m a horrible blogger, and was seriously coming up with this all as I went along.. so I was focused on flavors. BUT, I did get some!
The Cake
This is the easiest thing ever, seriously. One bowl and a wooden spoon.
Add the Flour, Sugar, Cocoa Powder, Baking Powder, Baking Soda, and Sea Salt into a large bowl and stir until combined.
Add in Eggs and Milk, Stir until combined.
Then add in the boiling water and mix. Batter will be thin, it’s supposed to be.
Divide batter equally into three buttered/floured cake pans.
Tap pans on counter to release any air bubbles.
Bake at 350F for about 30 mins or until center is firm.
Let those cool while you work on the other components.
Raspberry Filling
Combine berries, lemon juice and sugar into a pan and cook over low heat until juices release and you get a good consistency.
Then combine your corn starch and cool water in a separate cup and stir until corn starch dissolves. Pour into raspberry mixture and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and let cool.
Chocolate Ganache Filling
- Add cream and chocolate in a pan over low heat, stirring frequently until chocolate melts. When mixture comes together, remove from heat.
Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Beat your softened butter and cream cheese in mixer until combined and smooth.
Add melted chocolate and mix until combined.
Add about half of powered sugar, and half of the cream and mix.
Add rest of powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
Add in rest of cream, little by little until you get the right consistency and beat for 2 mins.
Frosting should have a mousse-like consistency.
Sorry for no photos...
Assembling The Cake 🎂
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Ok now that you have all the goodies done, your cakes should be cooled and you can start putting it together.
Of course I didn’t take any photos of assembling the cakes.. because that would have been silly. 🤦🏻♀️ So we shall use descriptive words and our imaginations! Sound good? Ok great!
Alright - remove one cake out of it's pan and set on your serving dish of choice.
You are going to use your cream cheese frosting to make a “dam” all around the layer. I use a gallon zip lock bag for this. I just put some of the frosting in a bag, remove air and seal, cut one of the corners and then you have an okie pastry bag.. feel free to use a real pastry bag if you want..
Then inside the circular dam you just made pour about 1/4 cup Ganache Filling and spread to edges.
Add about 1/2 cup of raspberry filling over the Ganache and spread to edges.
Add next layer of Cake and Repeat Fillings.
Frosting the Cake
Now that you have your layers assembled you just want to do a “crumb cover” around the edges. I use the same bag to fill the gaps between the layers with frosting, then take a butter knife to smooth the edges.
Then just cover the rest of the cake with your cream cheese frosting and give it a good swirl with your knife.
Drizzle the top with remaining Ganache (optional)
For decoration I just piled some fresh raspberries on top with a simple sign. You can of course get as creative as you want here 😉
And there you have it!
I’m not going to lie - this Cake was ridiculous. A perfect combination of indulgent chocolate and tart berries, with a not too sweet whipped frosting. I even had orders placed at the party to make the cake for their upcoming events ☺️
Now I just have to come up with excuses to make it on a regular basis...
Like maybe a Wednesday 🤷♀️
Hope you are having a lovely week... and you know, cake can only make it better... 🍰
Much Love,
Justine