T-minus 2 days until Halloween! I’m so excited! I still have to go to school, but I’m sure I can find something fun to do. I really want to hand out candy to trick or treaters, but we don’t live in town so no one comes to our house. I have a fun costume, but if anyone has a suggestion for an interesting Halloween activity on a school night, I’m all ears.
As I’m editing this, I’m watching The Nightmare Before Christmas in my Halloween pajamas and sipping on some tea. sigh. I just love this time of year. But it always goes by so quickly, and I feel like I had so much more I wanted to do.
Anyway, we’ve had some fun spooky recipes this month and I can’t believe October is almost over! I already have a list of recipes for next spooky season. AND I’m doing them a lil differently, so I’m pretty pumped.
I’ll do a Halloween post on the actual holiday, but today is all about cake. But not just any cake, this cake. Because this is SOME cake.
What Even is Black Velvet cake?
Ok, so I have recently discovered the existence of black velvet cake. I love chocolate cake, it’s definitely my favorite kind. But I really don’t like red velvet. It’s technically a kind of chocolate cake, but I really don’t like it. So I didn’t really know what to expect with this one. But it’s so yummy. It’s made with black cocoa powder, which gives it a smoother and darker chocolate flavor. It’s rich, and a little smokey, and has that gorgeous black color.
Describe this Cake to Me
Taste: The cake is rich and dark, with smokey notes from the black cocoa. It has a little vanilla in there to mellow it out, as well as plenty of salt, sugar, and buttery flavor. The raspberry filling provides a sweet and refreshingly fruity addition to the cake. The frosting highlights those smokey black cocoa flavors, so it isn’t overpoweringly sweet.
Texture: The cake is fluffy, moist, and spongey. It has a little crumb when you cut it so it isn’t dense, but it also isn’t super dry. The raspberry filling adds this juiciness, and the frosting brings some creaminess.
Ease: I would say that this cake is of medium difficulty. The batter is quick and easy, the filling is simple, and the frosting is also pretty quick. What can make this a little bit challenging is the decorating. There’s a lot of intricate piping details, and you have to make sure you have your frosting consistency just right. But on the other hand, this is your cake! I chose to do a lambeth design but it’s really up to you. You could make it more or less complicated.
The Cake layers
Let’s talk about this cake. It’s fluffy, moist, and packed with flavor. It’s got a rich and smokey chocolate flavor from the black cocoa but isn’t overly dense or dry. There’s one trick that really makes all the difference when making chocolate cake, especially black velvet. You have to bloom the cocoa powder. This is done by mixing the cocoa powder with a warm liquid of some kind. This gets rid of lumps of coca, and really brings out that fudgy flavor. For this recipe, we mix together boiling water and black cocoa powder, let that cool down, and then add it to our batter. This gives you a smooth batter which yields a flavorful and moist cake.
The Filling
The filling is definitely my favorite part of this cake. It’s a raspberry compote, which is a little like jam but less sweet. It adds this refreshing fruity sweetness to offset the rich cake. Plus, the additional pop of red amidst all of the black looks super cool and festive. It’s super easy to whip up, you just cook some raspberries with water, sugar, and a little cornstarch to thicken it up. Let that cool down and then you can sandwich it between your cake layers.
The Frosting
This frosting is a pretty standard frosting. It’s also a black velvet frosting, so it uses that same cocoa powder. And there’s a lot of it to give you a deep color and make sure it’s not overly sweet. We’re also using vegetable shortening and butter. Butter is there for flavor, while the shortening gives you a strong and sturdy frosting, made for layering and piping. When it comes to decoration, I went for a lambeth cake design. This is pretty much just a bunch of swoops and swirls all over the cake, so you can really get creative here. What I love about this is that you don’t have to dye multiple colors of frosting, just the black.
So I was in a bit of a rush when I was decorating this cake and I forgot to add the white pearls! In my first testing, I added white pearl sprinkles where the lil swoopies on the side of the cake meet. It looks really pretty, so I recommend doing that!
And thus concludes our final spooky recipe of the season! Like I said earlier, I have so many cool ideas for next year that I am really excited to test. We’ve had some cool stuff, but this cake might be my favorite. Or maybe these truffles because they were so yummy. Anyway, I’ve had a lot of fun, and I hope you have to!
Raspberry Black Velvet Cake
Ingredients
Method
- Grease and line three 8 inch round cake pans with parchment paper. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 355℉.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the black cocoa powder and boiling water until smooth and there are no lumps of cocoa. Set aside to cool while we make the rest of the cake.
- In a large bowl using a hand or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the oil, butter, sugar, and salt on medium speed until light and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each. Add the vanilla, vinegar, and buttermilk and mix to combine. It should be very thin.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, and baking soda into the same bowl. Mix on low speed until just combined. Pour in the black cocoa mixture and mix until just combined.
- Divide the batter evenly among the previously prepared pans and bake for 16-18 minutes or until the cake is pulling away from the sides and bounced back when lightly poked. Let cakes cool completely in the pans.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the water and cornstarch with a fork until cornstarch has dissolved.
- In a medium saucepan, combine the raspberries, sugar, and cornstarch mixture over medium heat. Stir constantly, and the raspberries should just naturally break up. Let the mixture boil for about five minutes, stirring occasionally. It should thicken during this time. Add the vanilla and raspberry liqueur and cook for another two minutes before removing from the heat.
- Let the raspberry filling cool completely in the saucepan before using on the cake.
- In a large bowl using a hand or stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, cream together the butter and shortening on medium speed until creamy and combined. Add the confectioners sugar, black cocoa powder, vanilla extract, and salt, and beat on low speed for 30 seconds. Increase the speed to high and whip for 1-2 minutes until smooth and fluffy. If frosting seems too thin or greasy, add a little more sugar. If it's too thick add a tiny splash of milk.
- If desired, slice a thin layer off the tops of the cakes to create an even surface. I use a serrated knife for this.
- Place one cake layer on a cake stand. Spread a thin layer of frosting on top. Then, using a piping bag fitted with a large round tip, pipe a border of frosting around the top of the cake layer to create a ring. This will be like a moat for our filling. Spoon about ⅓ cup of raspberry filling inside the border and spread it out. Place another cake layer on top and repeat this process.
- Place the final cake layer on top. Spread a very thin and smooth layer of frosting all over the top and sides of the cake. It's ok if you can see the cake layers through the frosting, this is just the crumb coat. Place cake in the freezer for just 5-10 minutes to firm up.
- Once chilled, spread another layer of frosting over the top and sides of the cake. Try and get it nice and smooth. Add the remaining frosting to piping bags fitted with different shaped tips. I used a flat one and two different star like ones to create different designs. I just piped a bunch of different swoops and swirls all over the cake. You can't see in the pictures, but I like to put a few white pearl sprinkles around the cake to differentiate the different designs.
- Cake will stay fresh at room temperature for up to 4 days.
- Happy Halloween!
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