Mini Chocolate Raspberry Cake

My mom’s birthday was a few weeks ago, and to celebrate, I woke up early to start baking her a cake. One of our favorite shows to watch together is The Great British Bake Off (or for some reason called The Great British Baking Show when aired in the USA). We had been watching the most recent season of the show over the last few weeks and I was itching to bake something different and special. In the opening credits of the show there is a luscious looking chocolate cake with raspberries on top that we always drool over.

I thought it would be fun to take some inspiration from this cake and so I came up with a mini chocolate raspberry cake. This two-layer cake is chocolate flavored, with a spread of dark chocolate ganache on top of each cake layer, and topped with raspberry cream cheese frosting, with fresh raspberries and chocolate shavings to finish it off. Hopefully this cake would have received positive remarks from Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry (the judges on the show!).

Here is how I made it!

Pan: Two small round cake pans (I used a 5.5 inch pan and a 7 inch pan)

Oven prep: Bake at 350˚ F

What You’ll Need:

Cake: 

• 1 cup flour

• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

• 1 cup sugar

• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• Pinch of salt

• 3/4 cup mik

• 1/3 cup cooking oil

• 1 tsp. vanilla

• 1 egg

Ganache:

• 1 bar dark chocolate* (I used a 3.5 oz bar)

• 1/2 cup heavy cream

Frosting:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter, room temperature

• 8 oz (1 package) cream cheese (I used the 1/3 less fat package)

• 3-4 cups powdered sugar (I started with 2 and slowly added more until it thickened)

• 3 tbsp. raspberry jam* 

• 1 tsp. vanilla

• Pinch of salt

• Few drops of red food coloring

Decoration:

• Fresh Raspberries

• Chocolate for shaving 

* Here are the two special ingredients I used: Cadbury Royal Dark Chocolate Bar and Smuckers Natural Red Raspberry Fruit Spread

Directions:

Cake:

1. While the oven is preheating to 350˚ F, geese two small cake pans. I used a 5.5 inch pan and a 7 inch pan to create a tiered layer cake.

2. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 

3. Once the dry ingredients are stirred, add milk, oil, and vanilla. Use a mixer to beat the batter until combined, slowly increasing your speed. 

4. After mixing for about two minutes, add your egg. Beat for another two minutes until shiny and smooth.

5. Pour your batter into your pans and shake the pans to evenly distribute the batter.

6. Bake your cakes beginning for about 25 minutes. If you were like me and used two different sized pans, you will have to be careful to check when the smaller cake is ready. Mine took about 30 minutes. The larger cake took closer to 45 minutes. Each cake is ready when a wooden toothpick is inserted into the center of the cake and comes out clean. 

7. Cool the cakes for about 10 minutes until removing from the pan and transferring each cake to a plate. Completely cool before adding the ganache in the next steps.

Ganache:

1. Begin making the ganache by loosing chopping up/breaking your chocolate bar and placing into a medium bowl.

2. Add your cream to a saucepan and bring to the beginnings of a boil. 

3. Remove your cream from the burner and pour over the chocolate in the bowl.

4. Let the bowl sit for a few seconds before stirring with a spoon. Stir until the chocolate is fully melted and the mixture become smooth, shiny, and completely combined. 

5. Let the ganache cool for several minutes so it can thicken up a bit. It should still be in a thick liquid form, and not solid. 

6. Carefully pour the ganache over the cakes and smooth, trying to avoid too much dripping or  going over the edges.

7. Allow the cake and ganache to cool again.

Frosting: 

1. With the cake and ganache cooling, begin your frosting by creaming your butter and cream cheese until smooth.

2. Add your pinch of salt as well as the vanilla and raspberry jam (you can also puree fresh raspberries, but I had trouble finding fresh raspberries the week I made this and needed the package I had to decorate the cake) and blend the frosting until incorporated. 

3. Begin adding the powder sugar one cup at a time. I began with two and slowly added more until it was about 3 1/2 cups. The frosting should be thick and creamy. I then added a few drops of red food coloring to add a little more pink raspberry color to the frosting.

4. With your frosting finished, it is time to assemble the cake! I began by transferring my larger cake cake layer the plate I wanted to present it on. I then put a dollop of frosting on the top and spread it around. I then placed the smaller cake layer on top of the frosting. 

5. With the cake assembled, I frosted the rest of the cake using a butterknife. With it being two different sizes, it took a little work to get the frosting everywhere and evenly, but knew I was done when it looked presentable. I did have quite a bit of frosting left over, but it also makes for a good fruit dip!

Decoration:

1. Clean/wash a handful of fresh raspberries. I used an entire small container. Pat them down so that they are as dry as possible, being careful to not break them.

2. Arrange the raspberries where you want, I placed them along the bottom layer and also around the top edge of the cake. 

3. In the middle of the raspberries on top, shave a portion of a chocolate bar (I didn’t have any more chocolate bars so had to use chocolate chips) on top using a grater. Finally, enjoy your perfect little cake! 

Here are some photos of the final product: