Dark Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Buttercream and Sour Cream Chocolate Ganache
The raspberry filling and the dark chocolate cake are perfectly matched in flavor and texture. The sour cream ganache is intense – use it as an accent more than a full-on component. I’m not a cake-and-ice-cream kind of guy, but I’ll admit that this Chocolate Raspberry Sour Cream Cake begs for a scoop of vanilla.
1 Darker-than-Black, Profoundly Chocolate Cake
1 batch Raspberry Buttercream (find recipe, below)
1 batch Sour-Cream Chocolate Ganache (find recipe, below)
Fresh raspberries, for garnish
- Slice each cake into two equal layers.
- Divide the buttercream between three of the layers, and stack them.
- Place the remaining cake layer on top, and frost the sides and top of the cake with ganache. You likely will not need to use all the ganache.
Neoclassic Raspberry Buttercream
It’s not too sweet. It’s not too tart. A raspberry-and-cream flavor that’s more muted than you might expect, but is utterly fantastic with chocolate cake. Long-term storage needs to be refrigerated, but the texture is luxuriously dreamy and creamy only at full-on room temperature, so plan for that.
Ingredients to fill a 9-inch, four-layer cake OR to frost and fill a 9-inch, two-layer cake:
6 egg yolks
5.25 oz. (3/4 cup) sugar
5.75 oz. (1/2 cup) corn syrup
1 lb. (2 cups) butter, softened
1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam
Red food coloring, optional
How to make the raspberry buttercream:
- Have an oiled, 1-cup glass measuring cup at the ready.
- Beat the yolks (on speed 4 of 10) until light-lemon in color, 3 or 4 minutes. Meanwhile, work on the syrup.
- To make the syrup, place the sugar and corn syrup in a small, non-stick pot, and heat it over a medium flame, stirring constantly, until it begins to boil. Cease stirring, and allow the mixture to come to a full, rolling boil. (Bubbles will cover the entire surface of the liquid and pile up on top of one another, and the sugar will be completely dissolved.) Immediately pour the syrup into the prepared measuring cup.
- Pour a small amount of syrup into the yolks, and immediately beat (speed 4) for 5 seconds. Pour in a larger amount, and beat again for 5 seconds. Pour in an even larger amount, and beat again for 5 seconds. Continue to do this until you’ve emptied the measuring cup, and have used a spatula to get as much syrup as possible out of the cup and into the yolks. Continue to beat the yolk mixture until it no longer feels warm (which you can ascertain by placing your palms on the outside of the bowl), 5 minutes or so.
- Beat in the butter, a bit at a time, making sure each addition is fully incorporated before adding more. (Each addition should incorporate in less than a minute.)
- Beat in the jam (and 12 or more drops of food coloring) until fully incorporated, about 30 seconds.
Raspberry Notes:
I’m quite satisfied with the proportions of filling-to-cake using the entire batch of buttercream to fill this cake. However, I’d probably be equally pleased with 25% less filling.
The color is dusty rose. Red food color will deepen it if you feel it’s necessary.
This recipe is a modification of “Classic Raspberry,” from The Cake Bible, by Rose Levy Beranbaum. New York: William Morrow, 1988; pg. 233. 
(5 / 5) I used the “neoclassic” method (pg. 230), which, because of the use of corn syrup, doesn’t require a candy thermometer. The jam was my idea.
Sour-Cream Chocolate Ganache
Yes, that’s right: there’s no sugar in this frosting’s ingredient list. This is bold and intense! It’s best used as an accent, otherwise it will dominate. I’d recommend a crumb coat, and then another equally-thin final coat. (Less than I used for these photographs.)
Ingredients to frost 1 nine-inch, 4-layer cake, OR to fill and frost 1 two-layer, 9-inch cake:
12 oz. bittersweet (53%) chocolate
14 oz. sour cream
How to make the ganache:
- Melt the chocolate in a double boiler, stirring constantly.
- Off heat, whisk in the sour cream until smooth.
Ganache Notes:
Note that there isn’t any sugar in the ganache except for what’s already in the chocolate. If you go as high as 60% cacao, you’re going to have a ganache that almost doesn’t register as sweet – which can be remarkable if there’s enough sugar in your cake and/or filling to balance it. (It’ll work for this cake so long as you use it sparingly.) If you can’t find a bittersweet at 53%, mix some milk chocolate into your bittersweet.
You don’t have to be in a big rush to use the finished ganache, but it sets more quickly than a cream ganache.
This recipe comes from “Sour Cream Ganache,” from The Cake Bible, by Rose Levy Beranbaum. New York: William Morrow, 1988; pg. 275.
Chocolate Raspberry Sour Cream Cake:
Dark Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Buttercream and Sour Cream Chocolate Ganache
Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! Thank you, Kesor. This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything.
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A beauty to look at and I’m sure tasty to eat. I’m with you regarding the scope of ice cream. I’m not big on desserts, but I sure wouldn’t turn this one down. So how did you cut it without smearing the buttercream over the chocolate cake? Did you cut it frozen? Great detail in your images.
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Thanks, Ron! I shot the cake after it had been refrigerated, simply because – as you suggest – you get cleaner-looking slices (using a knife dipped in very, very hot water and then wiped down after each slice). As is the case with many of the things I post, this was a real-life cake that I served to people and I wanted it whole for the initial presentation. So the pictures are of the leftovers. Sometimes, if I make a cake early enough in the day, I’ll have ample daylight for shooting it whole before serving it, but this one … I think I made it pretty late in the evening and served it the next afternoon.
You are quite a baker, Jeff. The layered cake looks fabulous! I am so intrigued with that raspberry cream.
angiesrecipes recently posted…Black Radish Salad with Radicchio and Cucumber
The raspberry cream was wonderful. I’d make it again in an instant.
Another gorgeous cake. We love chocolate and raspberry together and what a lovely way to combine the two, cake and buttercream. I also love a good sour cream Ganache, the way the sour plays against the chocolate.
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Thanks, Eva!
This is a beautiful cake. I’m sitting here with my first cup of coffee of the day and can’t tell you how much I wish a (big) slice of this was sitting next to it. This will likely be on my mind until I try it. I have a friend who loves nothing more than raspberries and chocolate and I’m sending this her way. 🙂
Thanks so much, Valentina. I had a slice with a cappuccino for several mornings after making it!
Interesting. I just made a French buttercream the other day, and I had forgotten how much of a pain it is. The addition of corn syrup here is a nice shortcut…although you still have the problem of that darned syrup hitting the blade of the mixer and turning into candy! Either way, I see that you’ve been busy lately, Jeff. This cake is a stunner. Love it!
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Ah! David! Quick fix: don’t pour the syrup in while the whisk is moving. Pour in just a bit, then run the whisk for 5 seconds. Pour in a larger bit, and run the whisk for 5 seconds. Keep doing this, with larger amounts each time, until you’ve poured in all the syrup and scraped as much out as you can with a spatula. All in all, I think it might take me five additions to get a full cup of syrup into the buttercream. Once it’s all in, then you can whip to your heart’s desire.
This cake is so yummy. I am cake lover and I always find new new recipes, I must say this one is looking very yummy.
Thank you, Naveen!
Wow. This looks amazing. Yeah, I can see using a bit less filling, but why? More is good. Always. 🙂
John / Kitchen Riffs recently posted…The Queen Elizabeth Cocktail
I know! I liked that much filling! But my insulin levels probably don’t need the extra workout.
Sour cream is my favorite frosting… Love this cake 🙂 spongy,moist with refreshing flavors. perfect cake for spring.
Thank you, Priya!
Oh Jeff, your cake looks fabulous, I love the combination of chocolate and raspberries and you really made it so elegant with all the layers of buttercream and topped with sour cream ganache…perfect!
Thanks for the recipe…and I hope you are having a fabulous week!
Thanks, Juliana!
Wow! You are talented! This is quite the cake. It sound really delicious.
Thank you so much, Mimi!
This is begging for me to pour some cream over a slice! Lovely!
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I wish I could!
That is a beauty…I think you should call you the “cake prince”.
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Ooh! I approve!
Oh, Lord! This cake is beautiful. The second image is showing all those tender crumbs and I want chocolate cake!
I have to say, Muna, even if you don’t make either of the frostings, this is a killer cake recipe. It’s really cupcake batter, in cake form – but only if it died and went to heaven.
Damn! It looks so delicious so how it would be in taste..
Spectacular!