Chocolate cake with raspberry awesome

Yes, once again I have made up a title, but I made up a recipe (except the cake part which came from a cake recipe we made as kids that we found in some cookbook that came in the mail—long story), so I figure the two go hand in hand. So, I made this for Stef’s 30th birthday because she requested it and I had no idea how to make it but I figured it out.

Stef gives it a 10. A 10! Maybe she is getting generous in her old age—HAHA! So, here is Stefani with her cake:

Here is a close up of the cake:

And here is what the layers look like on the inside:

 

Recipe:

Here comes the math. I used the same chocolate cake recipe from the chocolate mousse cake earlier this fall (same mystery one from my childhood), and increased it by 25% so I could have cupcakes leftover. Here is the recipe, for those of you that don’t want to go back and find it.

Cake:

¾ cup cocoa

1 ½ cups boiling water

2 cups flour + 1 Tbs.

¼ + 1/8 tsp. baking powder

1 ½ tsp. baking soda

1 ¼ cups sugar

¼ + 1/8 tsp. salt 1

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cube butter and 4 Tbs. canola oil

3  eggs

Combine cocoa with boiling water, cool completely. Sift flour with baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In mixer, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light (about 5 minutes). Beat in flour mixture (in fourths) alternately with cocoa (in thirds), beginning and ending with flour. Do not overbeat. Great and flour 2 9” x 1 1/2 “ round layer cake pans. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes; until top springs back when gently pressed with fingertip. Cool in pans 10 minutes before removing

Then, I made raspberry buttercream. I couldn’t find a recipe I liked, so I made this one up, and it was pretty good:

1 cube butter

2 oz. cream cheese

powdered sugar to taste

vanilla to taste

12 oz. raspberries, pulsed in food processor until they lose their shape

Now, I originally added milk and it made this too thin. The raspberries have WAY more liquid than you think, and you could actually strain some out beforehand. This was also a lot of raspberry taste, so if you want it more subtle, cut the berries down.

Outside frosting—Chocolate Cream Cheese frosting:

equal parts of butter and cream cheese (I think I used for each batch 1 cube of butter and 4 oz. cream cheese), powdered sugar to taste, vanilla to taste, and cocoa (probably about 1/4 cup) for 1 batch (I used two to cover the whole cake)

So, you take your 2 layer cakes and cut them in half, put raspberry filling in between each layer, and frost the whole thing with chocolate frosting. YUM!