Chocolate Framboise Layer Cake

This gluten-free chocolate cake is dressed up in Framboise flavored whipped cream and topped with fresh raspberries – and brought to you by great and easy desserts. Incredibly versatile, you could serve this cake at a dinner party and yet it would be right at home hanging out at a backyard barbecue.

This might even qualify as the little black dress of cakes. You can add any accessory (like raspberries) to this cake and it will be even more delicious. The flavor is guaranteed to make any chocolate lover happy.

The deep, dark, dense chocolate cake goes together in a few minutes although the batter has to hang out on the counter for a little bit. You won’t be sorry you made it. There is nothing like the flavor of the deep dark chocolate of this cake and the perfume from the framboise liqueur makes the raspberries taste even more raspberry – were that possible.

The raspberries were falling over themselves at the market the other day and who could resist? They were that perfect shade of raspberry – where you know they have to be eaten post-haste or else.

Adding some more framboise liqueur to the whipped cream gives it a subtle flavor and color that works for this cake. (If it had 6 inch heels, I almost expect it to start strutting down the runway about now…)

Seriously. I have no witty story to tell you that goes with this cake. But I can tell you that the photo shoot was painfully long because both of us were wanting to take the forks in the photo and just start eating the thing. Before Cap’n Awesome could finish getting the words “I think we got it” out of his mouth – as he was looking through the images – I was already eating the piece of cake while it was still sitting on the photo studio table. I’ve never done that before. I swear.

Let’s just say that piece never made it back to the kitchen and the leftover cake looked like it met a bunch of crazed hungry teenagers on the way to the ~~prom~~ kitchen.

The only thing I can say is that I am glad I made a spare back up cake. Not for the photo shoot. But to eat. You might want to do that, too.

This may look familiar because it is also the base for cocoa cupcakes, but with a twist or two for the cake version. This recipe only makes two small 6 inch cakes. If you want to make a larger cake you will have to double the recipe. Bake it accordingly.

Ingredients

Cake
3 tablespoons really excellent unsweetened cocoa
6 tablespoons unsalted butter cut in cubes
1/2 cup full-bodied brewed coffee
180 grams superfine white sugar (about 1 cup)
60 grams of GF flour (a mix of brown and white is fine)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch kosher salt
1 large egg
63 grams full fat yogurt or sour cream (about 1/4 cup)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon (raspberry) framboise liqueur
About two pints raspberries
Whipped Cream
One pint container heavy cream
about 90 grams superfine white sugar (about 1/2 cup or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons framboise liqueur

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 to start. Butter two 6 inch cake pans and flour them with unsweetened cocoa. Shake out excess. Set aside.
Place the cocoa, butter, and coffee in a medium saucepan and simmer on low just until the butter is melted. Remove from the heat and add the sugar and mix thoroughly. Set aside. Weigh flours in a small bowl and add the baking soda and salt and mix to combine. Add the flour mixture to the saucepan and mix thoroughly. Add in the egg and mix again. Add in the yogurt or sour cream, vanilla and the framboise and mix well. Let the batter sit for 20 minutes undisturbed.
Stir once more and fill each prepared cake pan evenly. Bake at 350 for 5 minutes and turn oven to 325 degrees. Bake about 30 minutes more or until the cake is springy in the center and a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes – loosen the sides and turn the cakes onto a rack to cool completely. Best baked a few days ahead and stored wrapped in plastic wrap in the refrigerator after being cooled completely. Flavors continue to mingle and develop more after 24 hours.

Whipped Cream

Add all the ingredients to a large bowl. Using a whip attachment beat on high until soft peaks form. Taste and adjust by adding more sugar or liqueur. Continue beating until the mixture forms stiff peaks.
Spread half the cream on top of a cake layer. Place raspberries fat side down on the whipped cream, rather close together. Place the top layer gently on the first layer. Cover the top with the other half of the whipped cream and place raspberries close together in a pattern. Serve immediately while whipped cream is still chilled (cake can be room temperature).