Recipes: Triple Chocolate Raspberry Cake

Let them eat chocolate (with a little cake)!  Around the office chocolate reigns supreme, and for this month's "corporate birthday celebration" the cake is a pleasant combination of chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, raspberry, and cake.  

It's a rich, moist, dark chocolate cake, filled with a raspberry jam/ compote, iced with a chocolate ganache, and topped with shards of, you guessed it, chocolate.  

Triple Chocolate Raspberry Cake

 RECIPE: Triple Chocolate Raspberry Filled Cake

Ingredients:

For the cake:
-2 cups white sugar
-1/2 cup vegetable oil
-1 tsp. kosher salt
-1 cup whole milk (at room temperature)
-2 eggs and 1 egg yolk (at room temperature)
-1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
-3/4 cup dark chocolate cocoa
-1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
-1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
-2 tsp. vanilla extract
-1 cup boiling water with 1/8 tsp. espresso powder

For the Raspberry Filling:
-1 can raspberry pie filling
-5 oz. raspberry preserves
-5 Tbs. Tennessee whiskey (aka Jack Daniels)
-1/2 tsp. kosher salt

For the chocolate ganache:
-2 oz. dark chocolate chips
-3 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
-5 oz. dark rum
-10 Tbs. unsalted butter (cut into tablespoon size pieces for convenience)

For the Chocolate Shards:
-See the dedicated post here: Recipe and Directions for Easy Chocolate Shards


Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Lightly grease the inside of two, 8 inch metal cake pans (I use a spray-on no stick cooking spray for convenience).  Place a custom cut sheet of parchment paper inside each of the pans, right on top of the greased surface.   

Oasis Moment: To cut the parchment paper, place a cake pan over the parchment paper, and trace the outline using a sharp utility knife.  Repeat for the second pan.

Then spray the entire pan with an additional layer of grease, so that the parchment paper is covered.

Sprinkle a liberal amount of cocoa into the inside of each pan, and shake vigorously until the entire inside of the pan is covered with a thin layer of cocoa.  This will significantly improve the odds of the cake separating easily from the pan after baking.

Mix the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and baking soda in a large bowl.

In another bowl, or the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the oil, sugar, and salt.  Mix until combined.  Add the eggs.  Mix until combined.  Add the milk.  Mix until combined.

Working in quarters, add the dry ingredients to the wet.  Combining after each addition.  Add the vanilla.

When the water is boiling, add it to the batter, making sure to scrape the sides.

Pour an even amount of batter into each pan.  Bake in the center of the over for 30-33 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out free of batter.

Cool the cakes on a wire baking rack for 10-15 minutes.  Remove from the pans.   

Oasis Moment: To remove from the pans, quickly run a knife on the outside edge of the pan, trying not cut the cake.  Place a large plate upside down, on top of the cake.  Invert the cake pan and the plate, so that the cake pan is upside down and the plate is right side up.  The cake should easily fall out of the pan.

Allow the cake to cool to room temperature before proceeding.

While the cakes are cooling, start the compote.  Combine the raspberry pie filling, preserves, whiskey, and salt in a small sauce pan.  Heat until everything is well mixed and the salt has fully incorporated.  Allow to cool to room temperature. 

When the cakes have cooled, cut off the domed portion of the cake top so that the top is level. 

Oasis Moment: I find that long serrated knife (a.k.a a bread knife) works the best for this task.  Simply position the knife directly under the domed portion and carefully slice off the top.  Repeat with the second cake.

On one of the cakes, make a small 1/4 inch indention, leaving approximately 1/2 of cake on the sides (see below image)

Technique for filling cake

Fill the hollowed-out cake with the filling.  Place the second cake round on top of the base.

To make the ganache, use a double boiler (a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water works fine) to melt the chocolate with the rum.  Remove from heat, then working in tablespoon sized pieces add the butter.  Make sure to stir until each tablespoon of butter has melted before adding the next.  Allow to cool until spreadable, stirring occasionally.

Cover the cake with the ganache, and decorate as you desire.

Eat good food.  Drink good beer.  And above all, stay classy!