Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and line with parchment paper 3 round cake pans – 8 or 9 inch
Cream:
½ C oil – I use canola
2 C sugar
Add and mix:
2 eggs
2 t vanilla
Carefully add and mix:
¾ C cocoa
2 C flour Alternate the dry ingredients
2 t baking powder with 1 C milk
1 ½ t baking soda
1 t salt
1 ½ t espresso powder
Add and mix well:
1 C boiling water
Make sure you scrape down the sides of the bowl when mixing.
Pour evenly in the three prepared pans.
Bake about 25 minutes – always check with toothpick – make sure you don’t overbake.
Let cool about 12 minutes and then remove from pan – loosen the cake from the edge with a knife before flipping them over.
Make sure cake is totally cool before frosting.
Raspberry Cream Frosting
Cream:
1 C room temperature butter
1 8 oz. room temperature cream cheese
Add and mix well:
2 t vanilla
½ t salt
6 T seedless raspberry jam
Slowly mix – a little at a time:
7 C powdered sugar – I sift mine to make sure there are no lumps
When the frosting starts to get too stiff add:
2 T milk
Mix really well scraping the side of the bowl.
If your cakes are rounded, level them off with a serrated knife.
Assemble - cake, 1/3 frosting, cake 1/3 frosting, cake and the final 1/3 frosting
Garnish with raspberries. – If not serving for a while you may want to wait to add the raspberries, so they don’t bleed.
