A rich, chocolatey cake that's great for Christmas or any other festive occasion. Cake may be made in advance and stored frozen for up to 2 months.
Ingredients:
1 cup sugar, divided
1/2 cup water
1 8-oz pkg unsweetened chocolate
1 8-oz pkg semisweet chocolate, divided
1 cup butter or margarine, at room temperature
3 Tbsp raspberry liqueur
5 eggs
1 cup frozen unsweetened raspberries
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 oz white chocolate
fresh raspberries and mint sprigs for garnish (optional)
Preheat oven to 350░F. Butter 9" springform pan. Wrap outside of pan with foil. In small pot over high heat, combine 3/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water. Bring to a boil; cook 5 minutes. In large heat-proof bowl over pot of hot, not simmering, water, melt unsweetened chocolate with 4 oz. of the semisweet chocolate. Remove bowl from pot; whisk in hot sugar syrup. Gradually whisk in butter and liqueur until mixture is smooth and glossy, about 2-3 minutes. At high speed beat eggs and remaining sugar until light yellow and tripled in volume; fold into chocolate mixture. Gently fold in raspberries. Pour batter into pan; place in large roasting pan set on rack in center of oven. Pour enough hot water into roasting pan to come halfway up sides of springform pan. Bake 40 minutes or until edges are just set and center is slightly soft. Immediately remove springform pan from water bath; remove foil and loosen outer ring of pan. Chill cake, uncovered, 1 hour.
* If freezing cake for later, at this point wrap cake in plastic after chilling; freeze up to two months. When ready to use, let cake thaw in refrigerator at least 4 hours before applying glaze.
For glaze, in small pot over high heat bring cream to a boil. Remove from heat; whisk in remaining semisweet chocolate until melted. Cool 10 minutes. Place chilled cake on wire rack set over baking sheet. Pour glaze over cake, using spatula to smooth glaze out toward edges. Allow excess glaze to drip off. Transfer cake to serving plate. Melt white chocolate; pour into heavy plastic sandwich bag. Snip one corner of bag to pipe decorative border on cake along edge. Garnish center with fresh whole raspberries and mint sprigs, if desired.
Serve at room temperature. Slice with knife rinsed in hot water.
Makes 24 servings
Time: 50 minutes to prepare; ready to serve in 2h 45m + freezing