My parent’s anniversary is Feburary 12th. How sweet is that? They can celebrate Valentine’s Day and their anniversary all in one!
Since I knew I was going to be home for it this year, I wanted to make them something special.
I went with chocolate cake. Nothing is quite as good as chocolate cake when it comes to celebrating a special occasion.
I found this recipe from Nigella Lawson’s website. Her recipe sounded like the best, and I wanted this to be an unforgettable cake. The original recipe was in grams and milliliters so I had to convert it. I was so nervous I was going to mess something up and not have the right ingredient amounts in my cake. But I think all went well, the cake tasted great.
I decided to skip the extra chocolate and use a blackberry jam to make a buttercream. I thought it would be pretty, and festive. If you don’t have blackberry, strawberry or another flavor jam would work wonderfully.
Chocolate Cake with a Blackberry Buttercream
Recipe adapted from Nigella.com
Cake Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups + 1 tbsp + 2 tsp all purpose flour
- 7/8 cup caster sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 40g cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 – 2 sticks softened butter
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 3/4 cup sour cream
Frosting Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 sticks of softened butter
- 3 tbsp shortening
- 3 tbsp blackberry jam
- 3-4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2-4 tbsp milk
To Make the Cake
- Pre-heat the oven to 350ยบ F and grease the cake pan. If you are using normal cake rounds, you will need 2.
- Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda.
- Beat in the butter until creamy. I ended up using 2 sticks of butter because my mixture wasn’t creamy with only 1 1/2 sticks.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the cocoa, sour cream, vanilla, and eggs.
- Pour the chocolate mixture into the butter mixture and beat until fully incorporated.
- Pour into your cake pans, and bake for about 35 minutes. Be sure to turn the pans halfway through the cooking time.
- The cake is done when a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Directions:
- Beat together the butter, shortening, and jam until smooth.
- Mix in vanilla and salt.
- Add the powdered sugar, 1 cup at at time, until the frosting reaches the desired sweetness.
- Mix in a little milk to achieve a spreadable consistency. I used coconut milk for the extra flavor.
Once the frosting is done, and the cake is cool you are ready to decorate. I only did one layer of frosting on the heart cake because that is all I had time for. There is enough frosting in this recipe for a middle layer if you want to make it a layer cake.
My finished cake!
About bigfatbaker
Ok, wow, that buttercream! Oh my – I have to give this a try as soon as I get in the kitchen! Thank you for the inspiration!
the blackberry buttercream is such a good idea… love the fruit-chocolate combo! happy anniversary to your parents, and happy valentine’s day!
I’ve never even considered blackberry buttercream, but it sounds fabulous! What a marvelous cake!!!
I wish your parent’s happy anniversary and to you Happy V-Day!
Your cake is so cute, and looks delicious!
Agreed–love the blackberry buttercream! Did you use seeded or seedless jam for that?
I used seedless, I didn’t want to mess with seeds for a frosting.
I love the sounds of a blackberry buttercream! So perfect with a rich chocolate cake. Happy Valentine’s Day!
What a wonderful flavor in the buttercream…yum! Looks beautiful.
Beautiful cake! Happy anniverasry to your parents, cheers
Love the idea of blackberry jam buttercream on a chocolate cake! Thanks for sharing – it looks great.
This looks great! I think the combination of chocolate and blackberry sounds delicious!
That is sooo sweet that you made this cake for your parents’ anniversary! And blackberry buttercream sounds simply amazing!