Baker's Special - Raspberry Chocolate Cake

I never got around to blogging about it at the time, but we celebrated DJ's birthday last month. DJ and I decided to alternate years for celebrating each other's birthdays in extra special ways and since last year, it was DJ's turn for "extra special", this year, we celebrated on a smaller scale. But of course it still had to be special.

Since I know DJ loves chocolate combined with either cherries or raspberries, I decided to make a raspberry chocolate cake. Only this was no ordinary cake. I decided to go all out and do everything from scratch, cake, frosting, everything. I found recipes all claiming to make the best EVER cake/frosting/ganache. I thought I couldn't possibly go wrong if I used the best of the best for everything. I started out with the moistest cake EVER. Each layer was separated with a homemade chocolate buttercream frosting with the very middle layer including a layer of juicy raspberries. I then iced the entire outside with a rich ganache and layered the top with additional juicy raspberries. It was heaven.

The whole process started out a little shaky though. First the cake didn't start getting made until about 6:00 pm. It then had to bake and cool. While baking, one pan of batter deciding to overflow in the oven, resulting in a slightly deflated cake. When the cakes were finally ready to frost,I whipped up a batch of the buttercream frosting, but it was not enough. So another batch had to be made. Thankfully I had enough ingredients. By this time it was nearing 9:30 or 10:00 pm. Surprisngly the ganache presented no problems whatsoever, and I was able to cover all flaws with a thick layer. After all was said and done, the flavor of everything combined was perfect and it made up for the long wait. I even have a witness who has stated that it is the best cake he has ever eaten. And it wasn't DJ.