Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cake + Decorating Tutorial

Doesn't this cake look awesome??!!!

It's so easy to make, it's almost embarrassing.

I'm serious.

I have the step-by-step for each part of this cake-- the baking, the decorating and the making of those cute flower toppers--here in this post. ANYONE can make this cake, I promise!


The cake.......

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here)
Dark Chocolate Cake (Yield 3, 9" layers)
Adapted from Sweetapolita's Rich & Dark Chocolate Cake

2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups dark cocoa powder, such as Hershey's Special Dark
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup strong black coffee
1 cup whole milk, room temperature
1/2 cup melted butter, cooled
1 tablespoon vanilla extract




Step #1- Preheat oven to 350*F.

Step #2 - Mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Step #3 - In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, vanilla and butter. 
 
Step #4 - Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and fill it with the egg mixture.
As you stir, slowly add in the milk and coffee. When you are done, the batter will be soupy and look like liquified Oreos.

Step #5 - Bake layers for 30-35 minutes at 350* F. Cake is done when a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool layers on a wire rack.

The Icing...

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup fresh raspberries, washed and dried
5 cups confectioners sugar

Beat all butter, raspberries and sugar together with a mixer until well combined.

The Decorating...

 You will need....
- Cake Layers
- Round wafer cookies, such as Pirouline (Aprox 6 cookies per inch of cake width-- pictured is a 6" cake, it took 36 cookies to go around the whole outside)
- Icing
- 2-3 cups fresh raspberries, washed and drained
- Ribbon
- Cake toppers
- Paper tag

Backing up to before I made the cake, I used some regular old stickers and cooking skewers to make some super cute flower cake toppers. All I did was buy two sheets of the same stickers (these were from the $1 bin at JoAnn Fabrics) and affix one sticker to each side of the skewer. Instant cake/cupcake toppers!!

To assemble the cake.........

Place bottom cake layer on the plate/board and cover in a thick layer of icing. On top, layer fresh raspberries, squish them when necessary to make sure the surface stays flat. Cover in more icing.

Add on the second cake layer and cover the entire cake with a layer of icing. It doesn't have to be pretty, you are going to cover it with cookies. Chill cake until icing is just set. Once icing is set, apply cookies to the outside of the cake as if building a fence.

Cover the top in raspberries.

Wrap ribbon around the cake and tie a knot. Make sure you tie the ribbon taught and firm so that it both helps suspend the cookies up right and stays in place. If you are using a gift tag for a note, now is the time to tie it on. Tie the tag right on top of the knot, and then trim excess string from the tag. (I used Martha Stewart tags from JoAnn Fabrics.) Tie the ribbon in a bow and trim any excess from the ends.

Top with the cute flower cake toppers and you are all set!! Store this cake in the fridge, but serve at room temperature.