Chocolate Raspberry Cake

I made this cake last March for my stepdad's birthday. It sounded like it would be really yummy with 3 layers of chocolate cake, and layers of chocolate sour cream filling and raspberry jam. But it was just okay. I really like sour cream frosting, but if you don't know this is sour cream frosting and take a bite, I'm not sure if you'd like it. (It tastes a bit sour, shockingly!) I like this sour cream frosting better though. The cake was quite dense, and is best at room temperature so it can soften a bit and isn't quite so crumbly.

Fresh raspberries would have been nice on top, but at the time they weren't very available so I went with the red berry candy. I seem to have lost my desire to make layer cakes like this so this may be the last one you'll see for a while! (Though I haven't been posting layer cakes very often anyway.)

If this sounds good, you might also like:
Black Forest Mousse Cake
Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Cake
Chocolate Beet Cake with Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting
Orange Chocolate Chunk Cake

Chocolate Raspberry Cake
Adapted from The Complete Canadian Living Baking Book

1 1/2cups butter, softened
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
1/4 cup thawed raspberry cocktail concentrate
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups sour cream

Filling and Icing:
1 lb (454 g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate , chopped
2 1/3 cups sour cream
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup seedless raspberry jam

Preparation
Grease sides of three 9-inch (1.5 L)round metal cake pans; line bottoms with parchment paper. Set aside.

In large bowl, bet butter with sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, then raspberry concentrate and vanilla. In separate bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt ; sift again. Stir into butter mixture alternately with sour cream, making 3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of sour cream. Scrape into prepared pans, smoothing tops.

Bake in centre of 350°F (180°C) oven until tester inserted in centre comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool in pans on racks for 20 minutes. Turn out onto racks; let cool completely. Remove paper.

Filling and Icing:
In large bowl over saucepan of hot (not boiling) water, melt chocolate, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Whisk in half of the sour cream; whisk in remaining sour cream until smooth. Whisk in sugar and vanilla.

Brush off any crumbs from cake layers. Place 1 layer on flat cake plate. Spread top of layer with 1/3 cup icing. Spread jam over bottoms of remaining 2 layers. Place 1 layer, jam-side down, over icing.

Spread 1/3 cup icing on top of second layer; top with third layer, jam-side down. Spread remaining icing over side and top of cake. Refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.