Prep: 30 minutes Chill: 30 minutes Bake 30 Minutes

I wanted to return to desserts and I found this one in my Taste of Home cookbook. I haven’t worked much with fruit in cakes, and even less so with chocolate cakes. This was going to be a fun things to try. Easy to put together but does need the time it says. This was a fluffy great time.

Ingredients

• 1 box devil’s food cake mix

• 8 oz sour cream

• 3/4 cup water

• 3 eggs

• 1/3 cup canola oil

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 1 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

• 1 cup regular size chocolate chips

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream

• 1 tbls butter

• 10 oz frozen raspberries, thawed (I had only fresh so I put them in the freezer before hand)

• 3 tbls sugar

• 4 tsp cornstarch

Prep

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (177 C)

2. I’m going to tell you how to do this in a order that makes use of your/chilling time to maximize everything and be efficient.

3. Start with the Raspberry cream since it needs to chill at least 30 minutes

4. Grab a bowl and put a strainer over it

5. Add the raspberries and use something to mash them over and over to get the juice and mush but leave the seeds behind. I used a spoon but then switched to a fork and this worked much better

6. Add to a pot with the cornstarch and sugar

7. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly

8. Reduce to low heat and stir until it thickens

9. Pour into a bowl and chill 30 minutes

10. While this is chilling, grab a large bowl and add the cake mix, eggs, sour cream, water, canola oil and vanilla.

11. Beat this until smooth and mixed well for a creamy mixture

12. Fold in the mini chocolate chips which will give fun surprise bites

13. Grease three 9 in round baking pans and pour equal amounts of the dough into it

14. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes until done through and toothpick test is clean

15. Add to wire rack to cool at least 10 minutes

16. While those are baking and the raspberry is chilling, have yet another bowl

17. Add the regular chocolate chips to this

18. Boil 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream in a pot and pour this over the chocolate chips

19. Whisk this until it’s smooth and add the butter and keep whisking

20. Add to the fridge and chill until you need it but go back to stir every so often

21. With everything chilled now it’s time to put it together

22. Add the first layer of cake to a plate or wherever you want it to start

23. Add the chocolate ganache in a layer

24. Add the next cake layer

25. Add the last 1/2 cup of whipping cream into a bowl and whip this until it becomes whipped cream

26. Take the raspberry mixture and fold it in with the whipped cream to make a fluffy whipped raspberry cream

27. Add this over the next cake layer

28. Add the third and final cake on top

29. Top with any left over chocolate and decorate as you’d like

Afterthoughts

This was my first chocolate cake with fruit or something not just icing and I did love it. I didn’t whip the cream enough so my raspberry was more liquid than I wanted it to be but it was still super tasty. It was not too sweet as I would have thought, I don’t know how, but it worked out great. This was airy and light to eat and the chocolate chips were great inside the cake. I liked the way the chocolate and raspberry mixed together. I highly recommend this. It takes a bit of time overall but if you time things right(I didn’t) it’s not as long as it could be to provide. I think that this is easy and great for families to love together or to surprise a loved one. Or shove a hated ones face in. Do what you need to.