Chocolate Raspberry Cake

Hubby asked for a chocolate raspberry cake for his birthday this year. After scouring the Internet for some good recipes for about 2 hours and coming up empty handed I decided to make up my own..

First we start off with my FAVORITE chocolate cake recipe.. I kinda made up this cake to incorporate my favorite things.. After a few misfires I've finally perfected this recipe and I have to say it's AMAZING! But then again how could yo ever go wrong mixing chocolate, coffee, and bourbon?!?! We're going to call this one Coco-Loco Cake because well.. my hubby defiantly thought I was loco when I was trying to figure this one out! Hahah One great thing about this cake mix is that there is no need for a mixer! You can just whisk everything together:)

Coco-Loco Cake
What you will need:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1 3/4 cup hot coffee
5 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, cut into small pieces
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup bourbon
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

What you will do:
In one bowl mix the dry ingredients flour, baking soda, and salt. Then make sure you have your butter and chocolate chopped into small pieces and put them in another bowl. Pour the hot coffee over the chocolate and butter making both melt and stir/let sit/stir until all of it is melted together. Add the bourbon and sugar and whisk the sugar quickly so as to avoid it clumping and then let the coffee mixture cool until it's room temp. Mix the dry ingredients into the coffee and bourbon mixture in 2 parts and then add the eggs and vanilla and give it a few more whisks until everything is good and mixed together.

Now usually what I do is coat 2 round 9in pans and then when they are done stack them on top of each other but because I wanted this one to be 3 smaller layers I just used one of my 3in tall baking pans and baked this in 1 cake pan. However you decide to use it.. this cake mix is pretty flexible! So you will want to coat the pans with vegetable spray and then line the bottom with parchment paper before adding the cake mix. Then  pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake at 275 for 45 minutes(for 2 9in rounds) baking time may need to be adjusted for other pans but basically bake it until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean :)

When they are done baking your going to want to let them cool completely on wire racks in the pan. I find it's much easier to decorate after the cake is completely chilled so after they cool on the counter in the pan I put them in the refrigerator,  in their pans, wrapped in plastic to cool even more. Once chilled completely take a knife and run it along the inside edges of the pan and then turn it upside down and tap the bottom the cake should slide out pretty easily. :) SO like I said for this cake I put the entire cake batter into one 3"tall 8"round cake pan and I separated it into 3 layers by knife :)

So, we have the chocolate cake as requested now to add the raspberries. Unfortunately, raspberries are not currently in season... Yea, wonderful time to start craving them huh! LOL So, I had to do something with frozen raspberries. Here is what I did

Raspberry Filling

What you need:

1 bag of frozen raspberries (I think it was 12 ounces?)

1/3 cup sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon lemon juice

What you will do:

Thaw and drain the raspberries saving the juice from the berries. Add enough water to the juice drained from the berries to equal 1 1/4cup of juice. Add liquid to pan with sugar and cornstarch and heat until bubbly and think. Remove from the heat and add lemon juice then fold in berries and chill until ready to use.

Swiss Buttercream Frosting

What you will need:
5 large egg whites
1cup + 2tablespoons sugar
4 sticks of butter softened and cut into chunks
2 teaspoons of vanilla
pinch of salt

What you will do:

Arm you mixer with a whisk attachment. Take the mixer bowl and make sure it is thoroughly cleaned because in this recipe just a little bit of grease will kill you! take the 5 egg whites and sugar and whisk them together. Then take the mixer bowl and make it a water bath.. Like this.....

Heat up the egg white and sugar mixture until the sugar is dissolved then transfer to the mixer with the whisk attached and put it on high for about 1-2 min until the eggs whip up thick like this

Then switch your mixer to the paddle attachment.....

Add the cubes of butter and continue to mix until the frosting is smooth and silky. If it starts to curdle just keep mixing! After it's all mixed together add the pinch of salt and the vanilla and quickly mix that in as well. Then frost the cake like normal!

Lastly it's time for the finishing touches! For this cake I took chocolate sprinkles and put them around the bottom of the cake Then put a chocolate ganache over the top. for the ganash I just took one of the monster Hershey's bars, I think they are like 4.4oz or something? Put it in my double boiler with about 1/4 cup of heavy cream and melted the chocolate.

Once melted you want to let it cool (this it the tricky part) you don't want it to cool so much that it starts getting hard again but enough so that it won't melt you icing and make an ooey-gooey mess running all over you counter. So.. When you think the chocolate is cool enough to pour over the top than do so by keeping the chocolate in the middle of the cake. Take a spoon and spread out the chocolate to the edges of the circle but then let gravity take it's course after that by dripping down the side of the cake :) Once it's all done.. I have to say it's one yummy cake, inside and out!