Perfect Chocolate Cake

This beautiful cake has been my husband's favorite cake for as long as I can remember. It is deliciously rich. He would quickly tell you that there is no such thing as too rich, but a little of this cake goes a long way for me. It is chocolate upon chocolate. One layer is split and filled with a rich chocolate ganache and the other two layers are filled with raspberry cream, then it is iced with butter- cream that reminds me of See's chocolate buttercream candy. The original recipe comes from The New McCall's Cook Book. I changed the filling from vanilla to raspberry, my husband's favorite fruit, and add the chocolate ganache, a recipe that I clipped out of a Woman's Day magazine many years ago. This special cake has been a birthday tradition in our family for as long as I can remember. Blessings...

Recipe:

Cake:
1 cup unsifted unsweetened cocoa
2 cups boiling water
2-3/4 cups unbleached flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
2-1/2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1. In a medium bowl, combine cocoa with boiling water, mixing with wire whisk until smooth. Cool completely; this takes a few hours.
2. Sift flour with soda, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
3. Grease well and lightly flour three 9 x 1-1/2-inch layer-cake pans or line pans with parchment paper. Set aside.
4. In large bowl of electric mixer, at high speed, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla, scraping bowl occasionally, until light - about 5 minutes.
5. At low speed, beat in flour mixture (in fourths), alternately with cocoa mixture (in thirds), beginning and ending with flour mixture. Do not overbeat. Divide batter in pans making one layer a little thicker than the other two. This layer will be split for the ganache filling.
6. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake the two thinner layers together for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating pans halfway through baking time, until toothpick comes out almost clean. Bake thicker layer for 25 to 30 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking time, until toothpick comes out almost clean. Cool layers in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Carefully loosen sides with spatula; remove from pans; cool completely on racks.

Raspberry Filling:
1 12-oz. pkg. frozen, thawed raspberries
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1 cup whipping cream

1. Puree thawed raspberries in a blender and put through a mesh sieve to remove seeds. Push the puree with a wooden spoon or rubber scrapper to speed up the process.
2. Add a small amount of the puree to the tablespoon of cornstarch and stir until smooth. Stir the purees together in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat; boil and stir one minute or  until thickened. Cool completely in the refrigerator.
3. Whip the whipping cream until stiff; blend in the raspberry puree until completely incorporated. Store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Chocolate Ganache:
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 ounces (6 tablespoons) whipping cream

1. Place the whipping cream in a small saucepan and slowly heat to scalding (there will be small bubbles forming around the edge of the pan when this happens), being careful not to scorch the cream.
2. Remove the pan from the heat and add the chocolate chips; cover and allow to sit for 5 minutes to melt the chocolate. Stir until smooth. Cool completely in the fridge, stirring every 15 minutes until mixture is thick enough to spread. This will take about 1 hour. If the mixture gets too thick, just heat it for a few seconds to loosen it.

Frosting:
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup light cream or milk
1 cup butter
2-1/2 cups unsifted confectioners' sugar

1. In a medium saucepan, combine chocolate chips, cream, butter; stir over medium heat until smooth. Remove from heat.
2. Stir in the confectioners' sugar.
3. Place the saucepan in a bowl of ice and some water and beat with an electric hand mixer until the frosting holds shape. It will only take about 5 minutes to set the frosting.

1. To assemble the cake, place one of the thin layers on a serving plate. Top with half of the raspberry cream.
2. Split the thicker layer and place one layer on the raspberry cream layer. Top with the chocolate ganache and top with the remaining split layer.
3. Top this with the remaining raspberry cream and then the remaining cake layer. Frost the cake and enjoy. This cake must be stored in the refrigerator. Remove the cake from the refrigerator at least two hours before serving to bring it to room temperature.

Yield: 16 servings (or more)