My mom turned 50 this year, so a special birthday calls for a special cake. If I can fly from the UK to Vancouver, Canada to celebrate her birthday, a cake seems like a small task, right? My mom decided, after consulting many Pinterest cake recipes with me, that she wanted a chocolate raspberry cake. Not wanting to take the easy route, I ended up combining and modifying two cake recipes, one from Annie’s eats and the other from parsley sage sweet. Here is the result! Warning: this cake is a calorie-laden beast. Share with friends and consume in moderation, or like me, the thought of eating any more cake will fill you with dread and shame.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups strong filter coffee
3/4 cup full fat sour cream
1 tbsp of vanilla (or, if you are like me, just pour from the bottle and hope it won’t be too overpowering)
1 1/2 cups softened unsalted butter
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
Raspberry Buttercream
I generally find that recipes yield far too much icing, so I halved the original recipe.
1 1/2 cups raspberries
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
A pinch of salt
2 cups (approx.) icing sugar
Chocolate Glaze
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate
1/2 cup whipping cream or heavy cream
1/4 cup corn syrup
2 tsp. vanilla
Fresh raspberries for garnish
Chocolate curls for garnish
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Grease and flour three 9 inch round cake pans and line them with parchment paper.
Combine cocoa powder and hot coffee and whisk until smooth. When cool, whisk in sour cream.
In a large bowl, combine butter and sugar with a beater for five minutes, or until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, and scrap the sides of the bowl. Add vanilla.
In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt.
On low speed, add dry ingredients in three parts to wet mixture, alternating with sour cream mixture, until incorporated.
Divide batter into pans. Bake 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the cakes cool on wire racks.
To make the buttercream, cook down the raspberries in a saucepan on medium heat. Strain the raspberries through a fine sieve into a bowl, and press out the excess juice. You should have about 1/2 cup of juice. In a clean saucepan, reduce the juice further to about 1/4 cup of syrup. Put the syrup in the fridge to cool.
In a bowl, beat butter until smooth. Add the icing sugar, raspberry syrup, salt, and lemon juice. Add more icing sugar if needed to make a thick, spreadable icing. If too thick, add a few drops of milk.
Spread in between the cake layers, and add a thin, even lay on the top of the cake.
To make the glaze, heat the cream on low heat in a saucepan. When hot, pour over top of chopped chocolate in a bowl. Let stand for a few minutes. Whisk the mixture until smooth and then add the syrup and vanilla and blend until smooth. Transfer to a measuring cup and let cool slightly. Then drizzle over the cake, making sure you get lots of drips down the sides.
Top cake with fresh raspberries and chocolate curls
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