Three tier chocolate layer cake (Happy birthday Julie and Merry X-mas everyone)

Raspberry chocolate layer cake

Finally catching up on some old posts!

I love cake (who doesn't) and I think layer cakes are the prettiest kind of cake there is. The day of our work X-mas party was also our co-worker Julie's birthday - so an excellent excuse to attempt this amazing creation.

Raspberry chocolate layer cake

Making the cake:

I used Lorraine's 'I can't believe you made that' cake recipe and (as usual) it worked out perfectly! Instead of making one cake, I doubled the recipe and made three.

Making the fillings and frosting:

I used the three frosting recipes from Sweetapolita's divine cake blog.

• Marshmallow Cream Cheese Filling (hurray for discovering Marshmallow fluff at Woollies!!)
• Pink Whipped Vanilla Cream Filling
• Chocolate Frosting

Decoration:

As per Sweetapolita's instructions I layered the fillings in between each cake, adding fresh raspberries to the pink whipped cream layer. I frosted the outside with teh chocolate frosting and added some more fresh raspberries to finish. Yum!

Chocolate strawberry overload (happy (belated) birthday Tessa)

Chocolate layer cake with chocolate frosting and a mound of strawberries!

I have been wanting to try this cake out since I saw Lorraine Pascal make on TV. Making a delicious birthday cake for my sister seemed like the perfect opportunity to give it a go.

Making the cake and frosting:

My mum assisted by making the cake base ahead of time (as I was arriving on an afternoon flight). She followed Lorraine's 'I can't believe you made that' cake recipe and it worked out perfectly!

Moist chocolate cake

Cut into two layers

I made the chocolate frosting from the same recipe.

Butter and sugar

creamed butter and sugar

added melted chocolate

Decoration:

For decoration we decided on heaps of fresh strawberries for the top, Arnott's Choc Fun Sticks for the sides and a final dusting of icing sugar.

Frosting was added between the layers as well and all around the top and sides

used these to decorate the edge of the cake

add strawberries (fresh, halved)

Final product, dusted with icing sugar.

Chocolate-on-chocolate (thanks & farewell April)

Chocolate buttermilk layer cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting

I love this cake recipe, it is decadent but the cream cheese frosting balances the sweetness of the cake perfectly - a perfect choice to say thank you to the lovely April who finished up at work this week.

Completed, frosted cake

Making the cake and frosting:

I used this Donna Hay recipe, but doubled the recipe as I had 20cm(ish) cake tins and just kept to two layers . In the past I have made the cake four layers (as per the recipe) however I needed to transport the cake in to work and more height = less stability and high chance of disaster!

step-by-step assembly and frosting

I used white chocolate writing fudge and some sugar flowers (pre-made) for decoration (my cake writing skills need a little work!).

Here is a pic (from a previous bake) with the four layers (it is super hard to slice the cakes evenly if anyone has tips on how to do this better I would love to hear from you!):

chocolate layer cake