Cake Madness - Day 18

Cake of the Day: Chocolate Raspberry Birthday Cake

As it is a good friend's birthday tomorrow, I was honored to be asked to make his birthday cake. I was planning something multi-layered, but was waiting to hear back from his wife as to which kind of cake he would want. She requested something chocolate and raspberry, so I turned to "Chocolate Cake" by Michele Urvater. I found a recipe for raspberry mousse filling, Sweet Devil's Food cake, and of course with Devil's Food cake, I had to use the recipe for "Wicked Chocolate Frosting" . . .yum. 

My adaptation of an ice bath since I didn't have any ice. I used this to cool the raspberry mousse. 

Assembling the layers

Putting it all together

The Devil's Food cake wasn't as cake-y or chocolate-y as I would have hoped (it turned out a little flat), but it was still tasty and worked well with the frosting and filling. The layers split easily which aided in a nicer presentation. The decorating took a long time to finish and we were a little late to the party (everyone thought we had a "cake emergency") but I'm just too picky when it comes to the appearance of my cakes I guess. 

My husband tried to fashion a tool out of a ruler and some plastic to get the ridged edges, but the zig-zag scissors we have made too shallow of zig-zags, so I ended up using an old Pampered Chef  "Slice 'n Serve" which had deeper grooves on the edges (meant for cutting pies, etc.). It isn't perfect, but I think it worked out okay. 

In the end I thought the presentation looked pretty professional, the cake tasted good, and everyone at the party (including the birthday boy) liked the cake. My best comment (from a sweet little 4 year old) was: "Can we borrow one of your cakes?" Cute :)

Happy Birthday Bill