Saturday, December 13, 2008

Double Chocolate Layer Cake with Raspberry Filling

Another update, finally! Mike finally got a day off work, and I was in a baking mood, so I let him choose. And he picked this cake, from chaos in the kitchen. I had a hard time with the recipe-- chaos in the kitchen had batter recipe for three layers, but filling for one layer, but frosting for three... so whatever you want to do is up to you. I only made two layers (after all, I only had two cake pans!). But it turned out really tasty (even if the frosting was a little messy. I am not good at frosting cakes). Actually it was shockingly good. It was really chocolatey, but not too sweet, and the raspberry added a sweet little treat in the middle! Mike ate almost the whole thing in a week, and Kaitlin tried it and reaffirmed her claim that I will be doing the baking for her wedding (whenever that is!). So here it is... dum da dum!!!



Chocolate Cake
3oz semi-sweet chocolate (I used chocolate chips)
1.5 cups hot brewed coffee
3 cups sugar
2.5 cups flour
1.5 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1.25 teaspoons salt
3 eggs
3/4 cup oil (I used olive)
1.5 cups buttermilk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla

Grease three cake pans and line the bottoms with rounds of wax paper and parchment paper, then re-grease. Chop up the chocolate, put in a bowl, and pour the hot coffee over. Let the mixture stand, stirring until the chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth. In another bowl, combine sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In YET ANOTHER bowl, beat the eggs with an electric mixer. Slowly add the oil, buttermilk, vanilla and chocolate/coffee mixture. Beat until combined. Add the dry ingredients and beat on medium until just combined. Divide the batter between the pans. Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F. Stick the pans in the middle of the oven and bake until a toothpick comes out clean-- about 40 minutes with my oven. Cool the layers completely on racks.

Chocolate Ganache Frosting
1/2 pound semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
2 tablespoons chopped butter

Chop the chocolate. In a pot or saucepan, bring cream, sugar and corn syrup to a boil over moderately low heat, whisking until the sugar has dissolved. Remove the pan from the heat and add the chocolate. Stir until chocolate is melted. Add the butter, and whisk until smooth. Transfer the frosting to a bowl and cool, stirring occasionally, until spreadable. If it gets hard you can heat it up again a little bit 'til you can spread it.

Raspberry Filling
1 10oz bag frozen raspberries
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch.

Thaw raspberries and puree in a blender. Strain to remove the seeds (I didn't and it was fine). Heat the puree, sugar, and cornstarch to a boil, stirring constantly, until thick. Cool completely before spreading it over the cake.


This cake took ALL DAY. Not kidding. All the cooling and baking and setting took me all day! It was crazy, but so worth it.

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