Inspiration for the recipes I make comes from all over the place. Cookbooks, websites, restaurants, and sometimes just the people in my life. This cake is an example of the latter. My dad’s fiancée is one of the few people I know that loves chocolate on the same scale as I do – kindred spirits, I tell you. I started dreaming up this birthday cake for her a long time ago. All the components of the cake evolved over several months in my mind, and I was finally able to see it come together in this wonderful creation. The perfect cake for her needed to be super chocolatey, but also a pretty layer cake. For the cake itself I used one of my favorite chocolate cake recipes. When deciding on a filling, I was inspired to use both dark chocolate ganache and raspberry filling between the layers to make a cake reminiscent of a dark chocolate raspberry truffle. I was originally planning a chocolate frosting or ganache coating for the outside, but then I thought a raspberry buttercream with the chocolate drizzle effect from the tuxedo cake would make for a fun presentation. Some swirls of ganache and fresh raspberries adorning the top of the cake completed the look and effect I was going for.
Of course, I ended up being unable to make this for the birthday girl on her actual birthday because I was busy going into labor on that very day with my sweet baby girl. I got around to making it a couple of weeks later and I was thrilled when I finally tasted a bite of this cake I had been dreaming up for so long. It sliced beautifully and it really did taste like a chocolate raspberry truffle. And as for the birthday girl, well, she loved it just as much as I was hoping she would. This really is one decadent dessert. Make it for a chocolate lover in your life and get ready to watch them smile :)