In Love With The Cocoa

I love the combination of chocolate and raspberry in pretty much anything – cake, candy, ice cream, so for this cake I just wanted to create something simple and sweet using those flavors!  I have no training in cooking or baking (at all!), so my cakes are just little ideas that I want to try and I hope for the best!  I thought this one came out looking great and it tasted amazing!

Not everything in my cakes are made from scratch – sometimes I just want an easy cake that I can decorate in a fun way and try something new!  For this cake I used a box of cake mix, which I personally love!  But you can use the cake you prefer for this!

What you’ll need:

Box of White cake mix 

Hershey’s Chocolate Frosting

• 1/2 cup butter or margarine (1 stick – softened)
• 2/3 cups Hershey’s cocoa.
• 3 cups powdered sugar.
• 1/3 cup milk.
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Raspberry Filling

• 2 cups of rasberries
• 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar

Tools I used:

• Cake turntable
• Icing Spatula
• Icing Smoother

To start I used one box of cake mix – you can use yellow or white – and split the batter between two, 6″ pans.  Grease pans well, so the cake slides right out! Once cakes are cooled, level the cakes, so they are about even.

I used the recipe for Hershey’s Chocolate Frosting because I really liked the taste.  I made one batch and had more than enough for this entire cake!  Put all ingredients (butter, cocoa, powdered sugar, milk, vanilla extract) in a bowl and mix with a mixer on low speed.  I add a little extra milk if the frosting doesn’t seem creamy enough!

Time to make the raspberry filling! Put two cups of raspberries in a small pot over low heat and add two tablespoons of granulated sugar.  Stir/crush raspberries until the mixture is smooth – this only took a few minutes.  I let the filling sit until it was cool before adding to the cake.

Now you have fresh cake, frosting and filling and your ready to build the cake!

I put a small amount of the chocolate frosting into a pastry bag to use for a buffer layer of icing to keep the raspberry filling from oozing over the edges. On the bottom layer of cake, on the top flat surface, squeeze a thin layer of icing (about a half inch thick) around the edge.

Next, add raspberry filling inside the ring of chocolate frosting.

Put the top layer of cake on – upside down, so the top of the cake is flat.

To ice I plopped a big scoop of icing on top to ice the entire cake then smoothed the sides with the Wilton Decorate Smart Icing Smoother.

Last minute I decided to top off the cake with a few left over raspberries!