I’ll never forget the first time I had a chocolate raspberry cake. It was about 6 or 7 years ago, and my family had a small gathering for my aunt’s birthday at a little lunch bistro in my hometown. My aunt’s absolute favorite cake is chocolate raspberry, so they had one made for us to celebrate and enjoy… Well, it wasn’t a very good experience. The chocolate cake was okay, and they used raspberries that still had the seeds in them. I took one bite of the cake, made a funny face, and put my fork down. I thought that maybe it was me, until talking about that same raspberry cake with my cousin one day recently…and she felt the exact same way about it. So, I set out to make one myself.
Definitely make a little dam with icing around the edge of the cake when you’re putting your layers together. This helps keep the filling from oozing out, just make sure you don’t put too much filling! Learned my lesson on that one!
If you’re picky when it comes to texture and prefer not to have the seeds in this cake, definitely use the seedless raspberry jam instead of the pureed raspberry. The flavor is still the same, but without that gritty texture that drives some people crazy (me included). 😉 But, if seeds don’t bother you or you prefer the real pureed raspberries, stick to the real thing. I love choices.
I think I could have eaten the icing all by itself, and I’m more of a cake fan than icing…but this was an exception to the rule. Same goes with the white chocolate icing. Maybe it’s just the chocolate that gets me…
Chocolate Raspberry Cake Recipe:
1 box Duncan Hines dark chocolate fudge cake mix
1/2 cup oil
3 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
12 oz. frozen raspberries, thawed and pureed OR 1 (12 oz.) jar seedless raspberry jam
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients well, beating at medium speed until batter is well blended. Spoon into 3 greased 9-inch round cake pans, bake for approximately 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean, and cake is slightly pulling away from sides of pan. Set pans on cooling rack for 12 minutes, then turn out onto cooling racks to cool completely. Spread filling in between layers of cake, cover with chocolate cream cheese icing. Store in refrigerator.
Chocolate Raspberry Filling:
12 oz. frozen raspberries, thawed and pureed OR 1 (12 oz.) jar seedless raspberry jam
1 cup chocolate cream cheese icing
Whisk together ingredients until well blended, spread in between layers of cake.
Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing:
2 sticks butter, softened
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 lbs. powdered sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup milk
Beat butter and cream cheese with electric mixer at medium speed for 4-5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients, continue beating for another 5 minutes.
**Store this cake in the refrigerator!!**
