Chocolate Cake with Marshmallow Icing and Blackberry filling

Chocolate Cake (photo: R Marinho)
Chocolate Cake (photo: R Marinho)

For Raphael’s 27th Birthday I decided I would be a good wife and make him a homemade cake. Well actually my birthday is 8 days after his so I knew I had to butter him up to get what I wanted for my birthday. So I came up with this cake. I try as much as I can to stay away from cake mix but sometimes it happens. In this case I found a recipe for a moist cake that had a little twist. I’m not a huge fan of chocolate cake and so I’m always looking for something else. This cake has a cup and a half of coffee in it and the icing comes out to be marshmallowy which is not as sweet as the traditional powered sugar icing. As for the filling, we went to visit my aunty Azar and her kids in Victoria for a week over the summer. One night we went and picked blackberries and the next morning we woke up and made blackberry jam. I brought home about 6 jars so I thought I would add the jam to the centre of the birthday cake. Of course you could use any kind of jam, fresh fruit or icing that you want (Nutella would be great too). This recipe would work great for cupcakes too.

Cake Batter

  • ½ cup fine-quality semisweet chocolate such as Callebaut
  • 1 ½ cups hot brewed coffee
  • 3 cups white sugar
  • 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 ½ cups unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • ¾ teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 ¼ teaspoons salt
  • 3 large eggs
  • ¾ cup vegetable oil
  • 1 ½ cups well-shaken buttermilk (Notes and Tips)
  • ¾ teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 300°F.
Line bottoms of 2 10-inch round cake pans with wax paper and grease paper.
Add chocolate chips in a bowl and combine with hot coffee. Let mixture stand, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.
Into a large bowl sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
In another large bowl with an electric mixer beat eggs until thickened slightly and lemon colored (about 3 minutes with a standing mixer or 5 minutes with a hand-held mixer).
Slowly add oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to eggs, beating until combined well.
Add sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined well.
Divide batter between pans and bake in middle of oven until a tester inserted in center comes out clean, 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes.
Cool layers completely in pans on racks. Run a thin knife around edges of pans and invert layers onto racks. Carefully remove wax paper and cool layers completely. Cake layers may be made 1 day ahead and kept, wrapped well in plastic wrap, at room temperature.

Notes and Tips: Did you know buttermilk doesn’t actually have butter in it? You can make your own by putting 1 tablespoon of vinegar into a 1 cup measuring cup and add milk until it reaches one cup. Mix and let stand for a few minutes. 1 cup of milk/vinegar mixture is the same as 1 cup of buttermilk.

Icing

  • 2 large egg whites
  • ½ cup sugar
  • ¼ cup light corn syrup
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Combine frosting ingredients with a pinch of salt in a metal bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water and beat with a handheld electric mixer at high speed until frosting is thick and fluffy, 6 to 7 minutes.
Remove bowl from heat and continue to beat until slightly cooled. Use frosting the day it is made.

Homemake Blackberry Jam

  • 2 cups fresh blackberries
  • 2 cups of sugar
  • 2 tsp. of lemon juice

In a large pot cook blackberries, sugar, and lemon juice on high heat for 5 minutes.
Reduce to medium heat and cook for 20 minutes while stirring.

Let it cool completely.

Notes and Tips: Or you can just use pre-made jam from the supermarket.

Assembly

You can start assembling once everything has cooled.
Put one layer of the cake on the dish you would like to serve your cake in.
Spread jam a couple centimeters thick over the first layer.
Make sure you don’t spread the jam too close to the edge because then it will mix with the white icing.
Add the next layer of cake on top of jam.
Now you can ice the cake.
You can decorate the cake however you like.
I added MMs because that Raphael’s favourite.

Recipe for cake and icing are from: http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/02/homemade-devil-dog-ding-dong-or-hostess-cake/

Raphael's Birthday Cake
Raphael’s Birthday Cake
Aunty Azar Picking Blackberries
Aunty Azar Picking Blackberries
Fruits of our labour
Fruits of our labour

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