Chocolate Cake/Cupcakes with Raspberry Mousse Filling and Buttercream Icing

I decided on this combination for Eliana's cake and cupcakes for her 1st birthday and was thrilled with how well everything turned out. Of course my icing roses surrounding the cake weren't perfect but the overall effect in my opinion at least was. And seeing as it was my first attempt at making these roses I was happy, though I of course learned a few things!

Both the cake and the cupcakes were chocolate cake with a raspberry mousse filling and topped with buttercream icing.

To make cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare two muffin tins with liners and then spray with PAM. Make the Extreme Chocolate Cake recipe and pour into each muffin cup. The easiest and non-messiest way I have found to do this is to fill up a large 2 or 4 cup measuring cup with the batter and then pour the batter in to each cup. Be sure not to fill each cup more than 3/4 full as they will overflow and spread flat (instead of making a nice round top like most cupcakes/muffins). Bake the cupcakes for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.

Remove cupcakes from the pan and cool on a metal rack. Once cooled, fill with the raspberry mousee filling or you can of course use chocolate ganache and then frost with buttercream icing.

To make a 6 inch cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare two 6 inch cake pans by lining the bottom with waxed paper and spreading shortening around the sides of the pans (note: you can also use 8 or 9 inch cake pans and cut your cake down to the size you want or you can make an 8 or 9 inch cake). Make the Extreme Chocolate Cake recipe and pour into the prepared pans filling them approximately 3/4 full. (You will have some extra batter which you can use to make some cupcakes.) Bake the cakes for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Remove the cakes from the pan and cool on a metal rack. Once cooled, put one cake on your cake stand / plate and then pipe around the outside edge of the cake with some buttercream frosting (this will keep the filling from coming out the sides of the cake). Then fill with the raspberry mousse filling and top with the second cake and frost with buttercream frosting.

The Best Buttercream Icing
I found this recipe online and tested it out on St. Patrick's Day to see if it was what I wanted to use for Eliana's cupcakes. I didn't think it tasted quite right so I called my sister Rachel, the professional cake decorator. She confirmed my suspicions that the problem was the recipe called for all shortening and no butter and that instead I should use half shortening and half butter. After making it with half butter I decided that I don't like an all shortening icing but like the flavour SO MUCH BETTER when it's half shortening and half butter. I also used a little less of the heavy cream to make the icing a little thicker and easier to work with as far as making the roses.

1 cup shortening, room temperature
1 cup butter, room temperature
8 cups powdered/icing sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp vanilla
1/2 cup of heavy cream or whipping cream

In a Kitchen Aid or a large bowl with a mixer cream shortening and butter until fluffy. Add sugar 2 cups at a time until well blended. If the frosting gets too thick at any time you can add some of your heavy cream. Once all the sugar is mixed in add the salt, vanilla and heavy cream and mix until combined. Then mix on high until the frosting is light and fluffy. If you need additional cream you can add up to another 2 tablespoons, however don't do this until you've mixed the frosting on high to first see the consistency. As far as the consistency and taste of the icing goes, it is MUCH easier to add more of the heavy cream than to make it too thin and have to try to add more powered /icing sugar.

The frosting can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks. To use after it's been in the fridge let it return to room temperature and then mix it again for a couple minutes. Then frost as usual.

Note: This recipe can be easily halved if you don't want to make as much.


Rose Icing Technique
Tip used is Wilton tip 1M, a large flower tip.

If using this technique to cover a cake with the roses you will need to cover the entire cake with a thin layer of icing first, so the roses have something to stick to. If you are doing individual roses on cupcakes you don't need to worry about this step.

Starting at the centre of the cupcake make a little dollop which will be the centre of your rose and then working outward swirl around your centre two or three times to finish off your rose.

If you are covering a cake with the roses, I recommend starting on the sides from the bottom up and then doing the top of the cake. You can vary the sizes of your roses and fill in extra space with some little swirls (going in the same direction as the roses beside them).

You can of course use food colouring to make the roses different colours or you can use icing spray tint to spray the entire cake with a colour after you're done.


Raspberry Mousse Filling
Whipping cream, whipped up with a little bit of powdered/icing sugar.
Raspberry pie filling

Whip the whipping cream with the powdered/icing sugar then fold the raspberry pie filling in to it. Ratio is about 3 whipping cream : 1 raspberry pie filling