Double Chocolate and Raspberry cake

I'm being very bad and abandoning my blog again but time seems to get away from me so fast, I can't believe its soon time to start thinking about Christmas baking, ok I might have already started thinking about it haha.

Any way the list of cakes I've made and not had a chance to post about yet is growing so I thought that it's long overdue for an update.

Over the whole of this summer I have had an abundance of raspberry's from the garden (and they're still growing) so quite a lot of the recipes I have tested have has a few raspberry's thrown in at some point.

Any way what seems like a long time ago now Asda posted a recipe to their facebook page for a Double Chocolate Raspberry cake and who couldn't pass up an opportunity for a chocolate and raspberry combination!

The same recipe is also posted on goodtoknow.co.uk so I'm not sure where it originally came from. It's not the best written recipe, for instance it doesn't say the quantities of which to divide the white chocolate but I made enough chocolate curls to cover the top then put about a good tablespoon of white chocolate into my filling (any more seemed to make it too runny) and then used the rest as drizzle.

Any way here's my cake:

And here's the recipe:

200g self-raising flour
25g cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
225g butter, at room temperature, plus a little extra for greasing
225g caster sugar
4 eggs

For the filling: 

200g white chocolate
300ml double cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
300g fresh raspberries

Preheat the oven to 160°C.
Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder into a bowl. Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl  until pale and fluffy.

Beat in 1 egg then a spoonful of the flour mix. Continue adding eggs and flour alternately until it has all been added and the mixture is smooth.
Spoon into your desired greased tins (i used 2 shallow 8 inch tins as it saved cutting the cake in half)

Smooth the top of the cake so it's level then bake for 35-40 minutes (as I used 2 shallow tins this was more like 30 mins) or until the top feels firm and a skewer comes out cleanly when inserted into the centre of the cake.

Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Meanwhile unwrap and soften the block of white chocolate in the microwave on full power for 10 seconds.  With the flat side of the block of white chocolate facing upwards, shave off chocolate curls by running a swivel-bladed vegetable peeler over the top. If the curls are very tiny, microwave the chocolate once more then try again. Chill the curls.

When the cake is cold, break the remaining chocolate into pieces and melt in a bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water.

Whip the cream in a second bowl then fold in two thirds (i used a couple of table spoons but not to much or the cream may go to runny) of the melted chocolate and the vanilla.

Cut the cake into two layers if needed, put one of the layers on a serving plate, spoon over half the cream then sprinkle with half the raspberries. Add the other cake half and repeat the layers.

Drizzle the remaining melted chocolate from a spoon in zigzag lines over the top of the cake and finish with the chilled chocolate curls.

and that's it chocolate and raspberry, perfect! And it didn't last long (cakes with white chocolate don't tend to around me). It's also a great looking cake that wows guests, if not a little tricky to cut with all that cream.

any way that's all for today, next time I will update you on my very first wedding cake I recently and nerve wreckingly made

cupcake Kris