Chocolate Raspberry Cake

Chocolate Raspberry Cake that’s wonderfully rich, tender and moist with layers of luscious raspberry jam and silky chocolate mascarpone all enveloped in rich dark chocolate ganache AKA the best Chocolate Cake you will ever have!

 This Chocolate Raspberry Cake is one of my favorite cakes on the planet and always a showstopper (perfect for Mother’s Day!)  The combination of deeply-chocolaty cake and fresh raspberries is indulgently rich yet fresh at the same time. You can either use homemade or store-bought raspberry jam (directions included for both) and the cake stays moist and fresh for days for an ideal make ahead, stress free dessert!

Chocolate.  Does it get any better?  From Chocolate Covered Strawberries, Chocolate Fondue, Chocolate Eclair Cake, and on and on,the obsession is real.  But my favorite?  Chocolate + Raspberries!

My dad and I share a love for dark chocolate and raspberries so when he was in town from Germany last month, I made him this Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cake for his birthday – AKA the cake of his dreams and the cake of my dreams.  We celebrated with my sister’s family which meant a total of 11 pieces of moist Chocolate Raspberry Cake and 11 plates licked clean.  I asked everyone if they would change anything about the recipe and I was answered with a unanimous emphatic “no.”  And I think you’ll agree.

I wanted this Chocolate Raspberry Cake to be reminiscent of a raspberry filled dark chocolate candy bar – you know the ones – with a thick chocolate exterior giving way to oozing raspberry filling.  Mission accomplished.

In our moist Chocolate Raspberry Ganache Cake, the richness of the dark chocolate cake and dark chocolate ganache are complimented by the layers of light, silky smooth chocolate mascarpone and the fresh raspberry jam and fresh adorning raspberries for for deeply-chocolaty, silky, raspberry-filled bite after bite after bite.

This Chocolate Raspberry Cake has a few steps (fewer if you don’t make your own raspberry jam), but each step is easy.  I’ve detailed the steps below with helpful tips and tricks.  It’s more than you need to know, but everything you would ever want to know for imminent success!  Happy Indulging!

Chocolate Raspberry Cake Recipe Ingredients

FOR THE CHOCOLATE CAKE

• Flour: All-purpose flour is the best for this recipe, although gluten free 1 to 1 baking flour can also be used.
• Cocoa powder: Use unsweetened cocoa powder, no need for fancy Dutch processed. Cocoa powder is the best (and easiest!) way to have the greatest chocolate flavor impact. Cocoa powder is the dried leftover solids from cacao beans after the cocoa butter has been extracted, that have been fermented, roasted, and processed.
• Vegetable oil: Its neutral flavor and high fat content create an ultra-moist cake, and a tender and crumb, moister than butter-based cakes. It also helps the cake stay moister longer. You may also use coconut oil.
• Buttermilk: This is a must for providing a rich, tender, and moist chocolate cake. It also helps to activate the baking soda to leaven the cake.
• Baking powder and baking soda: These leavening agents work together to helps tenderize the cake and make it rise in the oven. Make sure they’re fresh so they work!
• Sugar: Use granulated sugar to let the chocolate flavor really shine.
• Eggs: In baking, eggs should be at room temperature. If you forgot to put them on the counter, submerge them in a bowl of warm tap water for about 20 minutes before mixing into the batter.
• Vanilla extract: All desserts need a little oomph of vanilla. The better the quality, the better it tastes, so go as quality as you can.
• Salt: Use regular table salt. It enhances the flavors and cuts through the sweetness.
• Raspberries: Use ripe, but not soft-ripe for topping the cake – the more the better!‌

FOR THE RASPBERRY JAM

Making raspberry filling is straightforward with this recipe, or you can use store-bought jam.

• Raspberries: The riper, the more flavorful! You can use fresh, very ripe raspberries or thawed frozen raspberries. When purchasing frozen raspberries, take care they do NOT have any sugar added.
• Sugar: Granulated sugar please to sweeten the raspberries into jam.
• Lemon juice: Fresh is best but you may use bottled. Lemon juice enhances the fresh berry flavor and balances the sugar.
• Cornstarch: Thickens the jam; without it, you need twice the sugar and reducing time!

FOR THE CHOCOLATE GANACHE

• Chocolate: Use quality bittersweet baking chocolate not to exceed 61% cacao or it will be too bitter. Baking chocolate is cooled, hardened chocolate liquor with a higher percentage of cocoa butter than chocolate chips because it’s intended to be baked with and therefore melts more seamlessly.
• Heavy Cream: Please only use heavy cream. The higher fat content of the cream creates a rich and stable ganache, otherwise it will be too thin and grainy.
• Corn syrup: This keeps the ganache shiny, smooth and pliable, so please don’t omit.

CHOCOLATE MASCARPONE FILLING

• Mascarpone: This is a creamy and mild Italian cheese sold in tubs with the specialty cheeses. It creates a rich, velvety, luxurious, filling that blends beautifully with some reserved ganache.
• Heavy cream: This adds creamy volume that thickens up as the filling ingredients are whipped together.
• Confectioners’ sugar: This sweetens the filling without becoming grainy.
• Vanilla: Use quality extract for the best flavor.

How to make Raspberry Filled Chocolate Cake

Our Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cake is super simple, so simple, you don’t even need a mixer because we don’t have to cream any butter!  It’s based off of Hershey’s classic recipe but we use dark cocoa powder and buttermilk for maximum flavor and melt-in-your-mouth texture.

How to make homemade jam for Raspberry Chocolate Cake

Making your own homemade Raspberry Jam is strictly optional. You are welcome to use your favorite seedless Raspberry Jam instead.  You will need approximately 1 cup but are welcome to use more for even more raspberry pop.

If making homemade raspberry jam, use frozen raspberries for best results because frozen raspberries are picked at peak ripeness which means they often have more flavor than store bought raspberries which can be a gamble. When purchasing your frozen raspberries, take care your frozen raspberries do NOT have any sugar added.

To make homemade raspberry jam:

1. Add raspberries (and any juices from thawing) to food processor and puree.

2. Add puree to a fine mesh sieve over a bowl to discard seeds. Press down on the puree with the back of a spoon or spatula, until only seeds remain. This will take several minutes.  Take care to wipe the back of your sieve to get all of the puree. You should end up with about 1 ¼ cups of puree.

3. Add raspberry puree, cornstarch, sugar and lemon juice to a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, stirring constantly then reduce heat to medium (medium-low if your stove runs hot) and continue to cook and stir continuously until puree is thickened.  Refrigerate until completely chilled.

How to make ganache frosting for Chocolate Raspberry Cake

While my family and I were devouring our slices of Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cake, my 14-year-old niece said she wanted a whole slice of just the ganache because its so indulgently rich.  Don’t let the word “ganache” scar you – I promise it’s even easier to make than frosting with only 2 ingredients!

Just a quick note, you don’t want to start making your chocolate ganache until your cakes are cooled because we will use part of it within 20 minutes to frost our cooled cakes and still want it to be lukewarm.

To make your chocolate ganache: Add heavy cream to a large microwave safe bowl.  Microwave until just boiling, about 2 – 3 minutes.  Remove from microwave and add chopped dark chocolate.   If you don’t like dark chocolate, you can also substitute semi-sweet chocolate.

Let stand 1 minute, then whisk vigorously until ganache is melted and smooth then whisk in 1 tablespoon corn syrup.  The corn syrup helps the ganache stay silky.   How easy was that?  Next, remove a heaping ½ cup ganache to use in our Chocolate Mascarpone.

Why Chocolate Mascarpone instead of Chocolate Mousse?

Because it’s dreamy and easier!  If you aren’t familiar with mascarpone, it can be found in the specialty cheeses section of your grocery store and is absolutely sensational.  Mascarpone is a rich, creamy cow’s milk cheese that is somewhere between butter and cream cheese in terms of both texture and flavor.  I particularly love it with chocolate because its delicate, subtle flavor adds richness without distracting from the chocolate flavor.  I combined it with nutella in my S’mores Nutella Pie and just wanted to devour the filling!    I also love mascarpone because while it is smooth like butter, it is much less “melty” so it whips up like a dream and holds shape beautifully.

Immediately after making your ganache, start making the chocolate mascarpone so you can start to assemble your cake before your ganache cools completely.  To make, simply beat the mascarpone, cream, sugar and vanilla with a hand held mixer on low until no lumps remain.

Add the reserved ganache and increase speed to medium high and beat until thick peaks form – it should look like thick whipped cream. You don’t want to overbeat or the mixture will break and curdle but you want it to be quite thick.

Assembling a Chocolate Raspberry Layer Cake

• Take care that your cakes are completely cool before cutting in half horizontally.
• Place cakes on sturdy cutting board.
• Use a serrated knife.
• Score cakes in half all the way around before cutting. This way, you are not slicing straight through the cake and coming up uneven on the other side.

• For easy frosting cleanup, place four strips of parchment paper around the edges of cake stand/cake platter to create a square frame then add cake to the center of the square so the edges are overlapping the parchment. This keeps the frosting on the parchment paper which you remove once you’re done frosting and keeps the cake stand clean.
• If your store bought jam is too hard to spread, microwave it for 10 seconds.
• The Chocolate Mascarpone will seem like a lot but pile it on because its soooo good.

• Frost the cake with 1 cup ganache to create a crumb layer then freeze the cake to set the ganache for 30 minutes. This keeps crumbs from getting all in the frosting and allows you to create a smooth second layer that stays in place.

• Garnish with lots of raspberries!  The fresh raspberries make this Chocolate Raspberry Cake exponentially better even when you didn’t think it was possible.  In fact, I recommend buying raspberries not only to garnish your cake extra raspberries to serve alongside your cake – because they are that good and cut through the richness of the dark chocolate.
• EAT!

Chocolate Raspberry Cake Recipe Tips

• Don’t pack flour: Whenever you measure flour, don’t scoop it into the flour bag/container or else the flour will compress and packed flour yields denser, drier cakes.  Rather, scoop flour into measuring cup and then level.
• DIY Buttermilk: I never keep buttermilk on hand but it is crucial in this recipe for the melt-in-your mouth tender crumb and for the lactic acid to react with the baking soda to leaven the cake.  Fortunately, I find DIY buttermilk is just as effective. To make your own buttermilk for this recipe, measure 1 tablespoon lemon juice or white vinegar into a measuring glass or one cup measuring cup.  Add enough milk to equal one cup.  Give it a stir and let sit 5-10 minutes.  The milk will curdle so you know it’s ready.
• Room temperature eggs: It is essential that you use room temperature eggs for this recipe or your cake will not rise properly. Room temperature eggs whisk to a higher volume because the egg whites and yolks whisk together more easily.  This promotes more even distribution into the batter resulting in light, fluffy cake (because eggs trap air).  Cold eggs result in a more dense cake.  To quickly bring eggs to room temperature, fill a bowl with warm water (not hot) and add eggs and let sit 10-20 minutes.
• Don’t substitute butter: Butter is often used in cakes for its wonderfully buttery flavor.  In this Chocolate Raspberry Cake, however, we want the chocolate flavor to shine through and not be masked by the butter, so oil is the best choice.  Oil also results in sensationally moist cake.
• Why use boiling water? In several tests by Baking Illustrated, they concluded that boiling water intensifies the chocolate flavor of the cocoa powder. Cocoa powder + boiling water resulted in a stronger chocolate flavor than even real chocolate and much more moist.
• Batter will be thin: Once you add the hot water to your cake batter, the cake batter will be thin, so don’t panic! This thin batter will bake and rise beautifully into an extra moist cake.
• Don’t overmix:  Overmixing your cake batter will result in a dense, tough, dry cake. Mix just until combined.
• Bake on middle rack: The cake layers should both be baked on the middle rack of your oven. If there isn’t enough room, then bake your cakes in two batches.
• Don’t overbake: There should be a few moist crumbs clinging to the toothpick for a moist, tender crumb.

How to serve Raspberry Filled Chocolate Cake

The cake is much easier to slice when chilled, otherwise, the cake can fall apart/layers squeeze out, under the pressure of the knife. After slicing, let the cake come to room temperature – warmed cake is 10X better! I like to microwave slices for 8-10 seconds.

How to store leftover Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Filling

The assembled and frosted cake should be covered with a cake cover or foil and refrigerated. It may be stored for up to 5 days, but is at peak freshness the first two days. Slice the cake, then bring to room temperature before serving or microwave individual slices for 8-10 seconds.

How to Freeze

To freeze individual cake layers: Tightly wrap the individual cake layers in plastic wrap and freeze for up to three months.

To freeze crumb coated cake: Tightly wrap the set cake in a couple layers of plastic wrap followed by a couple layers of foil, freeze for up to two months.

To freeze frosted cake: Flash freeze the cake until solid, then tightly wrap in a couple layers of plastic wrap followed by a couple layers of foil, freeze for up to two months. Remove the plastic wrap, transfer to a cake container, and allow to thaw overnight in the refrigerator before slicing. After slicing, let come to room temperature before serving.

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