Chocolate Raspberry Cake

The dessert saga continues with chocolate raspberry cake. We were somewhat suspicious of the frosting, but it was so very fitting for this cake. We actually would probably recommend putting some frosting in between the layers as well - not just on top and sides of the cake. Overall, this turned out to be a beautiful and delicious dessert.

Here is the original recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/1140966/chocolate-raspberry-cake

So much chocolate and raspberry!

Ingredients:

CAKE
Vegetable-oil cooking spray
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 tablespoon raspberry liqueur
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (61 percent cacao), melted and cooled

FILLING
4 packages (6 ounces each) fresh raspberries (a scant 6 cups)
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
Pinch of coarse salt
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Chocolate Frosting for Chocolate-Raspberry Cake
2 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
Pinch of coarse salt
6 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
9 ounces bittersweet chocolate (61 percent cacao), melted and cooled
3/4 cup creme fraiche or sour cream

Directions:

Cake:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Lightly coat three 8-by-2-inch round cake pans with cooking spray. Line bottoms with parchment. 3. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
4. In another large bowl, beat butter with sugar on high speed until light and fluffy, 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in liqueur. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with buttermilk in two batches. Beat to combine, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in melted chocolate.
5. Divide batter evenly among prepared pans, smoothing tops with an offset spatula.
6. Bake, rotating pans halfway through front to back and top to bottom, until a tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 25 minutes.
7. Let cakes cool in pans on a wire rack 10 minutes. Run a small sharp knife around edges, then invert onto rack. Remove parchment and let cool completely, about 25 minutes.

Filling:
1. While cakes are baking, stir together 3 cups raspberries, sugar, salt, and lemon juice in a medium saucepan. Cook over high, stirring frequently and mashing with the back of a spoon, until mixture comes to a boil, 2 minutes. Continue to cook, stirring, until mixture thickens and clings to spoon, 7 to 8 minutes more. (You should have 1 1/3 cups.) Let cool 30 minutes. Stir in 2 cups raspberries, reserving remainder.


Frosting:
1. Sift together sugar, cocoa, and salt. Beat cream cheese with butter on medium-high speed until smooth. Reduce speed to medium-low; gradually add cocoa mixture and beat until combined. Pour in chocolate in a slow, steady stream. Add creme fraiche; beat until combined. Frosting can be stored in refrigerator up to 5 days; bring to room temperature and beat before using.

Assemble:
1. Place first layer of cake onto stand. Spread half of filling over it. Top with second layer; spread remaining filling over top. Top with final layer, cut-side down. Refrigerate, covered, at least 1 hour and up to overnight. Spread frosting over top and sides of cake. Garnish with remaining raspberries.

What we liked:

It was really really really good. 

What we didn't like:

Nick does not like the raspberry seeds...so perhaps we could strain those next time as this cake is full of them in the filling part. 

What Kaspian thought about it:

He thought it was a wonderful dessert. So did Astrid. 

Next time:

No changes needed

Raspberry Chocolate Mousse Cups

To continue our dessert making saga, we came into the possession of 6! Raspberry boxes last week. So, we had to make delicious desserts. What goes better than chocolate and raspberry!?
We also had that giant (1 lb) Trader Joe's 72% Cacao Chocolate bar that we bought for covering the Black Forest Torte we made...so we had chocolate around the house, and raspberries, and cream. So, this is what happened.
We did not make the chocolate cups, as we also had those around the house since we picked them up to make something extra yummy. They served well.

Here is the original recipe: http://www.homecookingadventure.com/recipes/raspberry-chocolate-cups

Ingredients:

1 box (6 oz) fresh raspberries
1/4 cup  sugar
7 oz  dark chocolate (55-70% cocoa)
1 1/4 cup heavy cream, cold
whole raspberries for decoration (optional)

Directions:

1. Place the raspberries and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer until the mixture thickens. Sieve the mixture to separate and discard the seeds.
2. Melt chocolate in a double broiler. Add in the raspberry sauce from step 1.
3. Whip the cream and add in the chocolate mixture in slow stream.
4. Place into chocolate cups or glass cups. Decorate with raspberries if desired.
5. Refrigerate for at least an hour 

What we liked:

This mousse is sooo good. 

What we didn't like:

After refrigeration some of the chocolate re-solidified as chocolate chunks and the mousse lost some of it's smoothness

What Kaspian thought about it:

He loves the chocolate. 

Next time:

Try combining the 1/3 whipping cream into chocolate first and then the rest into the whipping cream. We meant to do that, but got carried away because we were also making the chocolate raspberry cake at the same time. 

Chocolate Raspberry and Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes

We had a party on Saturday and these are the cupcakes we made for it. They were delicious. The frosting was perfect. We are still learning to pipe frosting and do decorative stuff, but we tried.
We made a batch of chocolate cupcakes and a batch of the lemon ones. Then, we doubled the recipe for the raspberry frosting to cover both batches. We ended up with 35 cupcakes total.
The strange thing was that the chocolate ones "fell" (had dimples in the middle) after cooking. But the lemon ones did great. We upped the temperature by 5 degrees for the lemon ones (they cooked second), just in case the oven temp was off.
These not only taste good, but also look wonderful... even with our ahem, "creative" frosting job.

Here are the original two recipes:
http://www.cookingclassy.com/2016/01/dark-chocolate-cupcakes-with-raspberry-buttercream-frosting/
http://www.cookingclassy.com/2015/01/raspberry-lemonade-cupcakes/

Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes

Cupcake Tiers

Chocolate cupcakes close up

Exciting decorations 

Stored in a covered tall cookie tray

these are the tips we used

Some have hidden raspberries!  

Cupcakes

Frosting

Ingredients:

Chcolate Cupcakes:

2 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp (124g) all-purpose flour
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp (38g) unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup (220g) granulated sugar
1/4 cup (56g) unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup (124g) sour cream
1/2 cup boiling water

Lemonade Cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp lemon zest (zest of 2 medium lemons)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
2 large egg whites
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup + 3 Tbsp buttermilk
1 1/2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
Simple Syrup (top the cupcakes with after cooking)
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp sugar

Raspberry Buttercream Frosting:
2 (heaping) cup fresh raspberries
1 cup unsalted butter, nearly at room temperature
1/2 cup salted butter, nearly at room temperature
5 1/2 to 6 cups powdered sugar (until right consistency is reached)
1 tsp vanilla extract
~30 fresh raspberries, for topping (depending on how many cupcakes are made and if you want a raspberry in the middle, under the frosting)

Directions: 

Chocolate Cupcakes:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 24-cup cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
2. Melt chocolate in a microwave safe bowl on 50% power in 20 second intervals, stirring between intervals until melted and smooth, set aside to cool slightly. We needed almost 2 minutes for the chocolate to melt.
3. In a mixing bowl whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt for 20 seconds, set aside.
4. In the stand mixer, with the paddle attachment, mix together sugar and butter until combined. Mix in egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract. Mix in melted chocolate then mix in sour cream. Add half of the flour mixture and mix on low speed until combined then add remaining half and mix until combined. Add about 1/5 of the boiling water at a time, mixing until combined after each addition. Once water has all been mixed in mix batter on medium-low speed for 1 minute.
5. Divide batter among prepared muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full (it's about 1/4 cup of batter). We got 16 cupcakes out of this batter.
6. Bake in preheated oven until set and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 17 - 20 minutes. Remove from oven, transfer to a wire rack and cool. Once cool frost with Raspberry Buttercream Frosting and top with raspberries. Store in an airtight container in refrigerator.

Lemonade Cupcakes:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Whisk together all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and whisk 20 seconds.
3. In a food processor, pulse together 3/4 cup granulated sugar with lemon zest until finely ground, about 1 minute.
4. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, with the paddle attachment, whip together butter with lemon sugar mixture until pale and fluffy. Add in egg, egg whites, and vanilla.
5. Whisk together buttermilk and lemon juice.
6. Working in three separate batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture, add 1/3 of the flour mixture alternating with 1/2 of the buttermilk mixture and mixing just until combined after each addition.
7. Divide batter among lined cupcake cups. We got 17 out of this batter.
8. Bake in preheated oven until toothpick inserted into center of cupcake comes out clean, about 18 - 20 minutes. While the cupcakes are coking - prepare the simple syrup by mixing the 1 tablespoon of sugar with 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.
9. Remove from oven and allow to cool several minutes in muffin tin, then transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly. Brush the simple syrup on the warm cupcakes and allow to cook completely. After cooled, frost with Raspberry Frosting.

For the frosting:
1. Puree raspberries in a food processor until well pureed then force through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl to remove seeds.
2. Heat mixture in a saucepan set over medium-low heat until reduced by half. Cool completely.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip butter until very pale and fluffy. Mix in 1 cup powdered sugar then mix in reduced raspberry puree and vanilla. Add remaining powdered sugar and mix until light and fluffy.
4. Add one raspberry to top of each cupcake if desired, then pipe frosting over raspberry and top with another raspberry. Store in an airtight container.

What we liked:

These were SOOO good. The chocolate ones were exceptionally good. 

What we didn't like:

Took a really long time to make. The frosting got too "soft" and we had to put it in the fridge for a little bit to harden. Although, it seems like if the frosting hardened too much then it wouldn't stick to the cupcake. We are still figuring out frosting. 

What Kaspian thought about it:

He LOVED the chocolate cupcakes. He did not like the raspberries. He helped to line the cupcake pan with the cupcake liners. All the green cupcake liners were cupcakes with no raspberry topping and no raspberry under the frosting. He actually ate all of the cupcakes given to him. (a lot of the times, he will just start a cupcake but never finish, these he loved enough to finish). 

Next time:

Work on figuring out frosting. Maybe only make the chocolate ones - everyone seemed to love those more.