Dark Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Filling

I'd like to take full credit for this cake, but my sweet Lily did more than her fair share.  I wonder if she will ever remember "learning" to cook, or will she be like my Mom and consider that its just something that she's always known... because she never remembers a time when she WASN'T helping out with kitchen activities.  Cooking with my children has been such a gift to me, and I hope they will regard it the same when they are adults.  I've always thought of it as a way to spend quality time together, teach them valuable lessons and techniques, and of course we are building precious memories along the way.  So... while you probably don't NEED to see every step of this process, I will go ahead and include the step-by-step photos if for no other reason than to allow my daughter, years from now, to see herself involved in this project in an integral way.

For my husband's birthday, he requested a dark chocolate cake with raspberry filling - two tastes that he really enjoys together.  All of the components to this cake are from scratch and yields a cake that is three cake layers tall... however; for a short cut version, you could certainly use a boxed devil's food chocolate cake mix.  That would cut your prep time down significantly!! 

Click Here For Printable Recipe (without photos) 

Ingredients -

     Double Chocolate Cake Layers:  Adapted from Gourmet, March 1999   

• 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips 
• 1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee
• 3 cups sugar 
• 2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups dark cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups well-shaken low fat buttermilk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

     Raspberry filling:

• 1/2 cup raspberry preserves 
• 1/3 cup fresh raspberries, finely chopped
• 2 Tbsp corn starch

     Chocolate Ganache:

• 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup heavy cream 

     Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:   Adapted from Pure and Yummy

• 3 3/4 sticks butter, softened
• 3 3/4 cups powdered sugar
• dash of salt
• 1 Tbsp vanilla
• 3 Tbsp heavy cream

Fleur de lis decorations:

I simply molded them out of fondant, pressed together with a drop of water, and added a (non-edible) bead from an old decoration.  I did these the day prior so they could harden.

Fondant can be molded, rolled, etc into basically any shape you want.  Use a little confectioners sugar to keep it from sticking.  (The Snapple Peach Tea is NOT part of the recipe.  Ha!)

Don't be intimidated by this.  It's really no different than playing with Plah-Doh!

Just a bead off of an old decoration.  Make sure everyone knows these are not edible.

 
Cake: Written instructions only

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
2. Prepare 3, 9" cake pans - I use cooking spray and granulated sugar. And then I added round cutout pieces of parchment paper.
3. In a bowl, pour the hot coffee over the chocolate chips. Let them stand for a few minutes and then stir until the chocolate is all melted.
4. In a large bowl (because there will be a lot of this), sift together: sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
5. In a stand mixer, beat the eggs until they are lemon colored and thickened slightly (about 3 minutes with a stand mixer, about 5 minutes for a hand held mixer).
6. Slowly add the oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to the eggs, continuing to beat until well combined.
7. Add all the dry ingredients a bit at a time, and combine on medium speed until just combined.
8. Divide the batter evenly between the three cake pans.
9. Bake on the middle oven racks until a tester comes out clean from the middle of the cake. This was about 50 minutes for mine.
10. Cool the layers completely in pans set on wire cooling racks.
11. Once cool, invert the layers and wrap each individual layer tightly in plastic wrap.
12. Freeze the layers a few hours (up to 24 hours) so they are firm when you are handling them.

Cake:  Step-by-step

Prepare 3, 9" cake pans - I use cooking spray and granulated sugar, then parchment paper.

Sugared and prepared cake pans

In a bowl, pour the hot coffee over the chocolate chips. Let them stand for a few minutes and then stir until the chocolate is all melted.

Use 1/3 cup DARK chocolate chips for this.

1 1/2 cups HOT brewed coffee (Yes, I just popped it in the microwave.)

If any of you have watched enough Food Network, you have surely seen Ina Garten preaching about using coffee in your chocolate to bring out the chocolate flavor further.

Stir to combine and melt the chocolate.

In a large bowl (because there will be a lot of this), sift together: sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

3 cups sugar

You will want to sift all of the dry ingredients to avoid having lumps in your batter.

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups dark cocoa powder

Lily had some problems with the sifter, so patting it on the sides worked just great to move the ingredients through the sieve.

2 tsp baking soda, 1/8 tsp salt

3/4 tsp baking powder

Mix to combine.

In a stand mixer, beat the eggs until they are lemon colored and thickened slightly.

3 large eggs

This will take about 3 minutes with a stand mixer, about 5 minutes for a hand held mixer.

Slowly add the oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to the eggs, continuing to beat until well combined.

3/4 cup vegetable oil, 1 1/2 cups well shaken low fat buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla

Melted chocolate, coffee mixture.

Add all the dry ingredients a bit at a time, and combine on medium speed until just combined.

Of course you should taste it to make sure...

Divide the batter evenly between the three cake pans.

Bake on the middle oven racks until a tester comes out clean from the middle of the cake. This was about 50 minutes for mine.

Cool the layers completely in pans set on wire cooling racks.

Remember to remove the parchment paper.

Once cool, invert the layers and wrap each individual layer tightly in plastic wrap.

Now pop them into the freezer!

Raspberry Filling:  Written instructions

1. In a small saucepan, heat all ingredients until heated through.
2. Pour into a small bowl and set aside in the refrigerator to cool.

Raspberry Filling:  Step-by-step
In a small saucepan, heat all ingredients until heated through.

1/2 cup raspberry preserves

1/3 cup fresh raspberries, finely chopped

2 Tbsp corn starch

Pour into a small bowl and set aside in the refrigerator to cool.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:  Written instructions

For this frosting, you need to use cool, softened butter. The butter needs to be set out at room temperature a couple of hours prior to making the frosting.

1. In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat butter at medium-high speed until smooth, about 30 seconds.
2. Slowly add the salt and powdered sugar and beat at medium-low speed until most of the sugar is incorporated, about a minute or more.
3. Scrape down the bowl and beat at medium speed until the mixture is fully combined, about 30 seconds.
4. Scrape the bowl down and add the vanilla and heavy cream. Beat at medium speed until incorporated, about 30 seconds.
5. Then increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, scraping the bowl down once or twice as needed.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:  Step-by-Step
In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat butter at medium-high speed until smooth, about 30 seconds.

3 3/4 sticks butter, softened

Slowly add the powdered sugar and salt and beat at medium-low speed until most of the sugar is incorporated, about a minute or more. 

dash of salt

3 3/4 cups powdered sugar

Scrape down the bowl and beat at medium speed until the mixture is fully combined, about 30 seconds.

Scrape the bowl down and add the vanilla and heavy cream. Beat at medium speed until incorporated, about 30 seconds.

1 Tbsp vanilla

3 Tbsp heavy cream

Then increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, scraping the bowl down once or twice as needed.

Yumm.

Chocolate Ganache: Written instructions

1. In a small saucepan, heat the heavy cream until warm. Be careful to NOT boil it.
2. Add in the chocolate chips and stir until completely blended.
3. Pour into a small bowl and set aside to cool and thicken to at least room temperature or more.

Chocolate Ganache:  Step-by-Step
In a small saucepan, heat the heavy cream until warm. Be careful to NOT boil it. 

3/4 cup dark chocolate chips

Add in the chocolate chips and stir until completely blended.

Pour into a small bowl and set aside to cool and thicken to at least room temperature or more.

Assembly:  Written Instructions

1. Remove cake layers from freezer. You will unwrap them one at a time.
2. Use a piping bag with a medium circular tip filled with frosting to pipe a circle around the top of the cake layer to act as a barricade to confine the filling.
3. Spread half of the chocolate ganache onto the cake inside the circle.
4. Spread half of the raspberry filling on top of the ganache.
5. Add the 2nd cake layer and repeat the process.
6. Add the 3rd cake layer and cover the cake with frosting. You may wish to refrigerate everything again at this point... just to get it all cohesive.
7. For my cake, I sprayed it with a gold frosting spray (Wilton), decorated with fresh raspberries, and small mint leaves. You can certainly decorate with whatever else your mind comes up with. I also added candied "silver balls" and fleur de lis that I made out of fondant. Chocolate curls would be pretty on top as well.

Assembly:  Step-by-Step

Remove cake layers from freezer. You will unwrap them one at a time.

Use a piping bag with a medium circular tip filled with frosting to pipe a circle around the top of the cake layer to act as a barricade to confine the filling.

Making a frosting barricade.

Spread half of the chocolate ganache onto the cake inside the circle.

Spread half of the raspberry filling on top of the ganache.

Add the 2nd cake layer and repeat the process.

Add the 3rd cake layer and cover the cake with frosting. You may wish to refrigerate everything again at this point... just to get it all cohesive.

For my cake, I sprayed it with a gold frosting spray (Wilton), decorated with fresh raspberries, and small mint leaves. You can certainly decorate with whatever else your mind comes up with. I also added candied "silver balls" and fleur de lis that I made out of fondant. Chocolate curls would be pretty on top as well.

Adding the candy "silver" balls and fleur de lis fondants.

Adding the raspberries.

Add small mint leaves amongst the raspberries.

You can see here that we are all tired.  It was a long and busy day around the house.  But this cake was a very nice ending to a day of family time!

And that is one proud little baker girl sitting there!!! :)

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Written Directions

     Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
2. Prepare 3, 9" cake pans - I use cooking spray and granulated sugar.
3. In a bowl, pour the hot coffee over the chocolate chips.  Let them stand for a few minutes and then stir until the chocolate is all melted.
4. In a large bowl (because there will be a lot of this), sift together:  sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
5. In a stand mixer, beat the eggs until they are lemon colored and thickened slightly (about 3 minutes with a stand mixer, about 5 minutes for a hand held mixer).
6. Slowly add the oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to the eggs, continuing to beat until well combined.
7. Add all the dry ingredients a bit at a time, and combine on medium speed until just combined.
8. Divide the batter evenly between the three cake pans.
9. Bake on the middle oven racks until a tester comes out clean from the middle of the cake.  This was about 50 minutes for mine.
10. Cool the layers completely in pans set on wire cooling racks.
11. Once cool, invert the layers and wrap each individual layer tightly in plastic wrap.
12. Freeze the layers a few hours (up to 24 hours) so they are firm when you are handling them.

 Raspberry Filling:

1. In a small saucepan, heat all ingredients until heated through.
2. Pour into a small bowl and set aside in the refrigerator to cool.

Chocolate Ganache:

1. In a small saucepan, heat the heavy cream until warm.  Be careful to NOT boil it.
2. Add in the chocolate chips and stir until completely blended.
3. Pour into a small bowl and set aside to cool and thicken to at least room temperature or more.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:

For this frosting, you need to use cool, softened butter.  The butter needs to be set out at room temperature a couple of hours prior to making the frosting.

1. In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat butter at medium-high speed until smooth, about 30 seconds.
2. Slowly add the powdered sugar and salt and beat at medium-low speed until most of the sugar is incorporated, about a minute or more. 
3. Scrape down the bowl and beat at medium speed until the mixture is fully combined, about 30  seconds.
4. Scrape the bowl down and add the vanilla and heavy cream.  Beat at medium speed until incorporated, about 30 seconds.
5. Then increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, scraping the bowl down once or twice as needed.

Assembly:

1. Remove cake layers from freezer.  You will unwrap them one at a time.
2. Use a piping bag with a medium circular tip filled with frosting to pipe a circle around the top of the cake layer to act as a barricade to confine the filling.
3. Spread half of the chocolate ganache onto the cake inside the circle.
4. Spread half of the raspberry filling on top of the ganache.
5. Add the 2nd cake layer and repeat the process.
6. Add the 3rd cake layer and cover the cake with frosting.  You may wish to refrigerate everything again at this point... just to get it all cohesive.
7. For my cake, I sprayed it with a gold frosting spray (Wilton), decorated with fresh raspberries, and small mint leaves.  You can certainly decorate with whatever else your mind comes up with.  I also added candied "silver balls" and fleur de lis that I made out of fondant.  Chocolate curls would be pretty on top as well.

Crock Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup

I think soup, in all its forms, may be one of the best food groups there is! Every ancient text and historical account has people gathering around a big pot of communal soup - warm, nourishing, healing, and practically magical.  Remember the story of "Stone Soup" that we were told as children?  The great thing about soup is that you can use practically any ingredient in a wonderful marriage of slow cooked flavors, and its a great way to stretch a dollar!  

I have adapted my "normal" stove top soup recipe for this dish into a slow cooker recipe for all of you who are super busy with kids, work, after school activities and appointments, and all the wonders of life that make your family tick.  The "morning prep" for this recipe takes only 10 - 15 minutes and will pretty much be ready and waiting for you when you walk in the door in the evening.  

The morning prep is basically an open-and-dump fun fest where everything just gets thrown into the slow cooker.  You can speed that up as well, if you keep chopped onions and garlic in the freezer.  The finishing touches include options (don't we love options?!).  You can eat as is after shredding the chicken, or take it a few steps further if you'd like.  I pureed my soup in the food processor as my kids are really picky about having vegetables in their food.  As for toppings, I like fried tortilla strips, shredded cheese, chopped cilantro (a must!), and a squeeze of lime.   A dollop of soup cream and slice of avocado are lovely with this as well.

The soup is very flavorful, but not hot (spicy).  After its all said and done, you have a very healthy,  economical, and fast dish.  For just the soup part (exclusive of the toppings), there is almost no fat at all, a lean protein from chicken, and tons of vegetables (vitamins, minerals, healthy fiber) from all the tomatoes, corn, and beans.  Feel free to substitute fresh tomatoes, corn, home made chicken stock, etc., but I chose these items in the canned version for the speed of putting the soup together in the mornings.

Click for Printable Recipe
Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes
• 1 can mild enchilada sauce
• 1 cup diced onions
• 1 can diced chilis
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 4 cups low sodium chicken broth (1 box)
• 2 tsp cumin
• kosher salt and black pepper to taste
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 small can sweet corn niblets, drained
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• corn tortillas (2 for soup, more for garnish)
• 1 can tomato paste

Step-by-step

To Prep - Dump all of the above stuff into the crock pot.  Set on high for 4 hours (or low for 6-8 hours) depending on your crock pot.  

fire roasted, diced tomatoes

enchilada sauce (mild) - but kick up the heat with a spicier one if you wish.

chopped green chilis

drained and rinsed black beans and sweet corn niblets

low sodium chicken broth

1 cup diced onion

2 large garlic cloves, minced

2 rounded tsp cumin

1 dried bay leaf

2 large chicken breasts

kosher salt to taste

black pepper to taste

2 corn tortillas, cut into small squares

one small can of tomato paste

Cover and cook!

This is at the end of 4 hours on High.  Ready to eat!

To Finish -  Remove chicken when cooked and shred with a fork.  If you are pureeing the soup, keep the chicken out and covered to stay hot.  Add a little of the liquid to prevent it from drying out.  If not pureeing, add the shredded chicken back to the soup, and you are ready to eat.

Don't forget to pull out the bay leaf.

Shred the chicken with a fork

Add some liquid over it to keep it from drying out.

Cover to keep the meat hot.

If you want, puree the soup in a food processor.  DO NOT TRY this in a BLENDER!!

Now we have a smoother, but still textured soup where EVERYONE eats the veggies!

Add the chicken pieces back.

For the tortilla strips - Cut tortillas into uniform strips.  Drop carefully into hot oil.  The oil should IMMEDIATELY start sizzling when you add them.  Once light/golden brown, remove them with a spider or slotted spoon, drain on a paper towel lined plate, and sprinkle immediately with salt. 

Cut tortillas into strips.

Fry in canola or vegetable oil.

Salt them immediately while draining.  Make extra because they are addictive!

Garnish - Because you might as well do it up right!!!  Fried tortilla strips, shredded cheese, a squeeze of lime, a dollop of sour cream, chopped cilantro, a slice of avocado.

A gorgeous, healthy soup!

 
I serve my chicken tortilla soup with cheese quesadillas, as I enjoy having something to dip into my soup! :)

Serve with cheese quesadillas.  (I sprinkle more cumin in with the cheese during assembly!)

Written Directions

To Prep - Dump all of the above stuff into the crock pot.  Set on high for 4 hours or low for 6-8 hours depending on your crock pot.  

To Finish -  Remove chicken when cooked and shred with a fork.  If you are pureeing the soup, keep the chicken out and covered to stay hot.  Add a little of the liquid to prevent it from drying out.  If not pureeing, add the shredded chicken back to the soup, and you are ready to eat.

For the tortilla strips - Cut tortillas into uniform strips.  Drop carefully into hot oil.  The oil should IMMEDIATELY start sizzling when you add them.  Once light/golden brown, remove them with a spider or slotted spoon, drain on a paper towel lined plate, and sprinkle immediately with salt. 

Garnish - Because you might as well do it up right!!!  Fried tortilla strips, shredded cheese, a squeeze of lime, a dollop of sour cream, chopped cilantro, a slice of avocado.

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Bacon Pancakes

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