Chocolate and raspberry cake, such a wonderful combination.
I find that once you add any sort of berry to chocolate, the flavours reach a
whole new level of yumminess!
So on Sunday the Wharfedale Clandestine Cake Club met at the
Old Cock in Otley for our Naughty but Nice event. Whenever I think of naughty
cakes I always think of chocolate. It is the most amazing thing but I always feel slightly guilty after eating
some no matter how yummy it was. At first I thought let’s make and triple
chocolate heart attack on a cakestand but then I decided I would try and make
it a wee bit healthier by adding fruit (yes I know the cake is full of calories
but humour me here please) so my chocolate and raspberry cake was born.
To start with, out comes the trusty chocolate cake recipe.
Part of me feels guilty that I always use this as my base in any chocolate cake
but I know it works so if it aint broke why fix it? I did have a minor disaster
making the cake when I realised I was all out of cocoa but the corner shop came
to the rescue even though I ended up paying too much for the tiniest tub of
cocoa.
Anyway – recipe. It’s fairly quick, very easy and tastes
good. All important factors when making a cake.
Chocolate and Raspberry Cake
2.5 cups SR flour
2tsp baking powder
1 cup of coca
2 cups of sugar
1.5 cups of milk
1 cup of vegetable/sunflower oil
3 eggs
1tsp vanilla extract (optional)
- Preheat oven to 160c (fan)
- Grease and line 3 x 20cm cake tins
- Pour all the ingredients into a bowl and whisk until smooth
- Divide between the 3 tins and place in the oven for 20-25mins until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
- Place on a wire rack to cool.
The Filling/Decoration
750g icing sugar
250g unsalted butter (softened)
2 x punnets of raspberries (I used the 2 for £3 ones from
Asda)
3 tbsps of seedless raspberry jam (more may be required)
100ml double cream
100g dark chocolate
- While the cakes are cooling time to start on the buttercream and chocolate ganache.
- Heat the cream until it’s warm but not bubbling (mine took about 45secs in the microwave)
- Break the chocolate into chunks and add to the warm cream and leave to melt
- Once the chocolate has melted, stir until it is smooth and glossy and set aside to cool.
- Whisk the butter and icing sugar together for a few minutes and then add the jam to help combine. Add more jam if the raspberry taste isn’t strong enough and add a little bit of milk at a time to loosen the mixture a bit so it spreads easily. Keep whisking for a good 5 minutes until well combined and light and fluffy.
- Once the cakes are cooled level off the tops if required then sandwich each layer together with a good dollop of buttercream and a handful of raspberries cut in half.
- Coat the rest of the cake in the remaining buttercream and decorate with the remaining raspberries.
- Fill a piping bag with the chocolate ganache and pipe around and down the top, bottom and sides of the cake.
- Drizzle the remaining ganache over the top of the cake and dust with icing sugar.
And that’s it – told you it was easy. Perfect for many an
occasion.
Enjoy!!!
0 comments