This rich, moist, deeply-chocolate cake has layers of raspberry jam and silky, mousse-like French Buttercream. It is the perfect way to say “I love you.”
This cake is a bit of a labor of love. It took me about 6 hours from start to finish. You can break it up over a couple of days, or make it a weekend project.
If you choose to break up the steps, each element can be made ahead of time. The cake can be made one month in advance. Just wrap the cake tightly in plastic wrap, once cooled completely, and freeze until you are ready to assemble the cake. The jam can be made a couple of weeks in advance and refrigerated until ready to use. The frosting texture is best at room temperature the day it is made, but can be made and refrigerated 5 days in advance. If you make the frosting ahead of time, bring it to room temperature and re-whip it until it is silky-smooth.
One Bowl Chocolate Cake
Wet ingredients:
- 1 cup (230 grams) cane sugar
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) brown sugar
- 4 eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup (250 grams) canned coconut milk, or milk of choice
- 1/2 cup, plus 2 Tbsp (130 grams) avocado oil
- 1/2 cup (105 grams) mayonnaise
- 1/3 cup (69 grams) brewed coffee, warm but not hot (you can also use 1 tsp instant coffee and 1/3 cup warm water)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
Dry ingredients:
- 3 cups (330 grams) almond flour
- 3/4 cup (93 grams) tapioca flour
- 3/4 cup (84 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa powder*
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp fine grain sea salt
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
Toppings:
- fresh raspberries
- Raspberry Jam (recipe follows)
- Chocolate French Buttercream (recipe follows)
*I usually prefer to use natural unsweetened cocoa powder in my baking, but it just doesn’t give this cake enough of a “chocolate flavor.” To give this cake a deeper, chocolate flavor I use Dutch-processed cocoa.
Directions for the cake:
- Preheat oven to 350F. Oil three, 8- inch cake pans with avocado oil, or palm shortening. Line the cake pans with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the sugars and eggs together until pale and fluffy.
- Add the rest of the wet ingredients. Whisk until well blended.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and whisk until completely mixed.
- Pour the cake batter into the cake pans and even it out. Bake for 27-33 minutes. (Insert a toothpick to check the doneness of the cake. The toothpick will have a few crumbs, but should not have any wet batter when the cake is ready.)
- Remove the cakes from the oven and allow them to cool in the pans for 10 minutes.
- Flip the cakes onto a large plate, board, or baking sheet. Allow to cool completely.
- Once the cakes are completely cool, top each layer with raspberry jam and French Buttercream (recipes below).
- To top each layer, spread about 1/3-1/2 cup of raspberry jam across the top of each layer. Don’t spread the jam to the edge of the layer or it may leak out; leave about 1 inch of space between the jam and the edge of the cake.
- To frost the cake, pipe a border of frosting around the outer edge of each layer. Then, pipe frosting across the rest of the cake layer.
- Stack each layer of cake on top of each other. Top with the remaining frosting over the top and sides of the cake. Smooth out the frosting with a flat spatula.
- Top with fresh raspberries if desired.
- Serve and celebrate!
Raspberry Jam
- 12 oz. (340g) organic frozen raspberries
- 1 1/4 cup (262g) sugar
Directions:
- In a 4 quart saucepan, stir the raspberries and sugar together over medium heat until the sugar dissolves.
- Boil the jam until it reaches 215-220F. (Stir occasionally to prevent the jam from scorching on the bottom.)
- Skim off the foam. Pour the jam into a mason jar and let it cool.
- Store in the fridge.
Test Kitchen Notes:
I like to use frozen raspberries. When raspberries are frozen, some of the water in the raspberries evaporates resulting in a stronger and sweeter raspberry flavor.
Raspberries have a lot of natural pectin so you don’t need any extra pectin to make this jam set.
I leave the seeds in my jam, but you can strain it through a fine mesh strainer to remove the seeds.
This recipe makes about 16 ounces of jam.
Chocolate French Buttercream
- 3- 3 1/2 (165 grams) large eggs
- 1 1/3 cup (263 grams) granulated sugar
- 2 1/3 cups (526 grams) salted butter, softened
- 2/3 cup (80 grams) powdered sugar
- 4 tsp (20 grams) vanilla extract
- 1/8 tsp fine sea salt
- 6 oz. dark chocolate, melted and cooled
Directions:
- Fill a 4-quart saucepan with 1-2 inches of water. Set the pot over medium heat and bring it to a simmer.
- Use a heat safe bowl that fits over the pot, but doesn’t touch the water, to create a bain-marie.
- Add the eggs and granulated sugar to the heat safe bowl.
- Whisk the eggs and sugar together over the bain-marie until the sugar dissolves and the mixture reaches 160F.
- Once the mixture reaches 160F, remove it from the heat. Pour the egg mixture into a heat proof bowl to cool.
- Cool the mixture until it is room temperature, about 72-75F. (It will take about 30-60 minutes for the mixture to cool. You can speed up the cooling a bit by placing the egg mixture in the fridge.)
- Once the egg mixture is cool, beat the butter in a stand mixer with the whisk attachment. Beat the butter on medium speed until it is lighter and fluffier, about 2 minutes. (Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.)
- Add the powdered sugar to the butter and beat on medium speed for an additional 2 minutes. (Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.)
- With the mixer on low, slowly stream in the egg mixture until it is all incorporated. Beat at medium speed for an additional 1-2 minutes.
- Mix in the vanilla and sea salt.
- With the mixer on low, slowly stream in the melted chocolate. (The chocolate should be melted, but no longer hot.) Mix until the chocolate is fully incorporated. (Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.)
- Switch to a paddle attachment and mix on medium speed for 2-3 minutes, until the frosting is completely smooth. (Switching to the paddle attachment at the end will help smooth out the frosting and prevent you from having large air pockets when frosting the cake.)
- Frost your cake and enjoy!
Test Kitchen Notes:
To melt chocolate in the microwave: microwave it in 20 second increments, stirring in between each interval, until all the chocolate is melted and smooth.
To melt chocolate over the stove: place the chocolate in a small saucepan. Heat the chocolate over the lowest heat setting, stirring constantly, until all the chocolate is melted and smooth.
Let the chocolate cool before adding it to the frosting so that it does not melt the butter. But don’t let the chocolate cool to the point of re-hardening.
