chocolate and raspberry butter cake

Chocolate and raspberry butter cake recipe:

Ingredients for the cake:

·         250g butter, softened

·         1 cup caster sugar

·         1 tsp vanilla extract

·         3 eggs

·         2 cups (300g) self-raising flour

·         1/2 cup milk

·         2 tablespoons of Dutch cocoa

·         80g.of dark chocolate melted and slightly cooled - (melt it after you have made the cake batter)

·         1-2 teaspoons of pillar box red colouring—depending on how red you want it!

·         100g of frozen (or fresh) raspberries thawed and then pushed through a fine sieve so you end up with a smooth puree of fruit

Butter cream icing:

Ingredients:

·         370g of butter, softened

·         4.5 cups icing sugar mixture

·         4 tablespoons milk

·         1-1.5 teaspoons of red colouring

·    

Method:

Take the cold ingredients – butter, eggs, and milk  – out of the fridge to bring to room temperature. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line the base of two 20cm round cake pans.

Use an electric mixer if you have one or electric hand beaters to beat the butter, sugar and vanilla in a bowl until pale and creamy.  (You could do this with a wooden spoon and work up some muscles.). Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add the flour and milk, alternating, in batches, until just combined.  Divide the batter evenly into 2 mixing bowls; fold the cocoa and melted chocolate into one half, and the raspberries and red colouring into the other half.  Spoon out the batter into the 2 pans –chocolate in one and raspberry in the other, then smooth the tops with a palette knife or spoon and place the cakes into the oven.   Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centres comes out clean.  You may need to check them after 15 minutes and swap them around in the oven to ensure even cooking.

Remove cakes from oven and cool in pans for a few minutes before turning on to a wire rack to cool completely.  Make the icing while your cakes are cooling. 

Method for icing:

Beat the well softened butter in a bowl until pale. Gradually add icing sugar mixture and milk, beating well until combined.

Beat the colouring into the mix until well combined and the colour you want.

Now you can cut your cakes into even quarters-  I measured mine with a ruler to make sure they were exact- and place one layer on your serving plate.

Start by putting a red piece then a chocolate piece side by side (the pointy ends facing into the middle of the plate)  sandwiched together with some of your icing, then another red and another chocolate piece sandwiched  together.   You will now have one layer of cake in alternating colours.

Smooth a layer of the icing onto the top of the cake, then place your next layer of quarters on top of the bottom layer, making sure that you have a different colour on the top layer to the one on the bottom.   This means when you cut it,  you will end up with a piece of cake that has raspberry on one level and chocolate on the other.

Now smother the top and sides of the cake with the rest of your icing.  It will seem like alot but it really makes the cake delicious.  Put it into the fridge for 20 minutes so the icing can firm up,  then take it out and add whatever bling you wish.  You can add white chocolate numbers as I did to make it into a clock face,  or add a name or happy birthday in white chocolate fudge writing.   Add cachous or hundreds and thousands,  whatever takes your fancy.

(I adapted this recipe from one on Taste.com.au for a basic butter cake.)

I actually made this cake over 2 days; I made the cakes on one day then decorated them the next.   I now understand how the Masterchef cooks must feel when they have to do it all in one short burst of energy and time.   It must be exhausting and stressful!