noosh's dark chocolate raspberry birthday cake

It's tough to have a birthday in the midst of final exams. Noosh's birthday happens to fall under this criteria. Fortunately, neither of us had any exams scheduled today, so it was all good. And baking/celebrating was a nice break from the seemingly endless, mind-numbing, constant stream of studying that we've been doing for the past week or so. [I may have gotten kicked out of Starbucks yesterday after erratically spending six hours there...]

Plus, when it comes to my friends, the celebrations start well before their actual birthday [evidence by the box of Dunkin Donuts we devoured for dinner last ni- I mean, what?].

Yesterday night I began baking Noosh's birthday cake. Luckily for me, Noosh is the type of person [and we've been biffles long enough for this to be the case] that tells me exactly what she wants, not only for a gift, but also for her cake. Though, at this point, I can pretty much confidently guess her cake of choice: any sort of chocolate and raspberry combination [and, to be honest, who doesn't love chocolate and raspberry together?]. So, naturally, I wanted to go with something rich, decadent, and sugar-coma-inducing.

Triple layered, dark chocolate cake with a bittersweet raspberry chocolate ganache and raspberry preserve filling.

Yes. 

Inspiration for this recipe actually comes from 17 and Baking's blog, though I did make a few slight modifications.

Triple Layer Dark Chocolate Layer Cake with Raspberry Ganache

For the cake, you'll need:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/8 cups unsweetened cocoa
• 2 3/4 cups sugar
• 2 tsps baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup canola oil
• 1 cup sour cream
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 tbsp distilled white vinegar 
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten

For the raspberry chocolate ganache and filling, you'll need:

• 16 oz semisweet chocolate 
• 1 cup [2 sticks] butter
• 2 cups frozen raspberries

• 3/4 cup raspberry preserves 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour 3 8-inch round cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper [make sure to grease and flour the surface of the parchment paper as well].

In a stand mixer bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt until thoroughly combined. Pour in canola oil and sour cream and mix until blended. Slowly pour in water, vinegar, and vanilla and mix. Finally, add in eggs and mix until just combined. Divide batter evenly among the three pans. Bake for 35 minutes, until center of cakes are springy to the touch. Let cool for at least 20 minutes before inverting cakes on a wire rack to cool. Let cool to room temperature, and then refrigerate while preparing ganache.

To make ganache, microwave raspberries for 3 minutes, at increments of 1 minute. Mash raspberries with a spoon in between microwaving to release juices. Once raspberries are mashed, run through a strainer. You should have about 1/3 cup of juice. While raspberry juice is cooling, heat butter and chocolate slowly in a microwave or over a saucepan, whisking for an even sauce. While whisking, slowly pour in cooled raspberry juice. Let ganache cool completely, firming to spreading consistency, before frosting cake.

 
To assemble cake, spread half the raspberry preserves on top of the bottom layer and spread out, leaving a border around the outside edges of the cake unfrosted [once the layers are stacked, the filling will spread to the edges of the cake]. Spread a thin layer of raspberry ganache on top of the preserves, being careful not to mix the two. Stack the second layer on top and repeat with the preserves and ganache. Place final layer on top, bottom- [i.e. flat-] side up. Scantly frost the top and sides of the cake, so that ganache layer is almost see-through, and refrigerate cake for 10 minutes before frosting fully. [Refrigerating the cake will allow for a more even frost.] Use the remaining ganache to finish frosting the cake.

Decorate as desired and refrigerate until time to serve. Cake can be made up to one day in advance and stored in the fridge. If frosted, cake does not need to be wrapped or covered in the refrigerator.

Noosh's parents came down for the afternoon and we all went out for lunch together to this darling little restaurant called The Boat House. Oh man, I hadn't had real food outside the realm of Chipotle's or the occasional Tara Thai or Boylan burger in what seemed like ages, so this was quiiiiiiite nice. Plus, I always love seeing her parents. I've known them forever too, after all.

mussels steamed in a walnut butter sauce with toasted french bread

Definitely a welcome break, I'd have to say. And who isn't automatically in a fantastic mood when it's a friend's birthday, AND you get to eat mussels and bread? [Especially when the only food in your apartment is half a canister of oatmeal and a bag of all-purpose flour.]

And now, to my darling, immature, not-really-that-old, sister from another mister, best apartment mate ever, Noosh,

Happy 20th birthday! I hope it [and the cake] turned out as amazing as you are! 

Love from me, always 

good thing we saved that 'happy birthday' pop-up from september...

In other news, my love for the piano has increased tenfold over the past week. Mainly because I rediscovered my favorite solo artist [Kyle Landry - check him out, he's absolutely amazing] on youtube and have been listening to his incredible improvised piano arrangements and wishing I had an ounce of his talent. Consequently, my fingers have literally been twitching all week in anticipation of going back home to my beloved upright. Not that I'm particularly good in the least, but I've got about 30 pages of untouched sheet music waiting for me to butcher 'em up sitting on my piano bench. Just two more finals standing in the way of me and my music. Ugh.