food hits and misses

Spincop and Banjo have a baby on the way and I volunteered to make a cake for the shower. Initially my plan was to make cup cakes, then Spincop decided that was her area of expertise. So I went with a chocolate cake instead.

Chocoberry Layer Cake

For the cake
100g dark chocolate
250g butter
125g sugar cup
2 eggs
1 tspn vanilla
200g cup SR flour
50g cocoa
125ml cup buttermilk

For the filling
150g frozen raspberries
100ml orange juice
125g cream cheese
150ml cream
125g icing sugar

Ganache and extra raspberries to decorate

Method

Preheat the oven to 170 Celsius. Grease a 20 cm cake pan and line the base with baking paper. Melt the chocolate. Stir through half the butter and set aside to cool slightly. Cream the remaining butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well. Add the vanilla, then the melted chocolate. Beat well to incorporate lots of air. Sift together the flour and cocoa. Add one third to the batter and mix well. Follow with half the buttermilk. Alternate adding the remainder of the flour and milk. Place in the prepared pan and bake until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean - around 1 hour. Cool in the pan before turning out.

Meanwhile place the berries and orange juice in a saucepan. Sprinkle with a little extra sugar and bring to the boil. Cook until the berries are in a thick syrup. Whip the cream and stir through the icing sugar. Beat the cream cheese until soft, adding the berry mixture a little at a time. Combine with the cream and chill until needed.

Slice the cooled cake into two layers. If the cake cracks, "glue" the pieces together using ganache. Spread the raspberry cheesecake mix over the base of the cake, then place the other layer on top. Decorate with ganache and sprinkle with additional raspberries, or serve with extra cream and berries.