Time for Sweet Melissa Sundays! We've been on a break and are just starting back up baking through the remaining 16 recipes of The Sweet Melissa Baking Book. Our pick this week is Hazelnut Raspberry Layer Cake, chosen for us to try by Candy of Candy Girl, thank you Candy! You can find the recipe here at Candy's site if you do not have the book.
Although this was a fun baking project, this is a pretty complicated cake and took lots of time and patience to complete. It is definitely one of the more complicated cakes I've ever baked, and I've baked a lot! It is also very indulgent with 5 sticks of butter and 15 eggs between the cake and Italian buttercream (meringue cooked with hot sugar syrup) frosting -- you're probably thinking, "Whoa!," and that would be a correct statement regarding this cake :)
The cake features hazelnuts and raspberries, a combination I don't think I've had before (possibly in cookie form but never in a cake). Believe it or not, picky husband actually likes both hazelnuts and raspberries so I didn't feel too guilty making this, knowing he would at least try it, and I'm sure the kids will love it.
My five year old daughter declared the cake "so beautiful" and asked me to make it for her next birthday, still months away -- I told her that if after she tried she liked it, I would love to make it again for her special day :)
The raspberries in the frosting are soaked in a raspberry liquor before being blended into the buttercream.
This was a fun baking project even if it led me out of my comfort zone a little bit. I accidentally let the hot sugar syrup for frosting get 10 degrees higher than called for. It still seemed to come together just fine, I hope it didn't mess something up taste wise. We haven't tried this cake yet, it is for dessert after dinner, but I thought I'd better get it posted while I have a minute... 
The only tiny change I made to the recipe was to use three 9 by 1 1/2 inch pans instead of two 9 by 2 inch pans since I was a little worried the 9 1/2 inch pans I have wouldn't be tall enough for only two layers that needed to be sliced. So with that change my cake has only three layers and I didn't have to split any of them, whew!
I'll have to report back later on my family's reaction to this one but I have a feeling it will be positive, if not, just look at how pretty it is, that will have to be enough :)
The only tiny change I made to the recipe was to use three 9 by 1 1/2 inch pans instead of two 9 by 2 inch pans since I was a little worried the 9 1/2 inch pans I have wouldn't be tall enough for only two layers that needed to be sliced. So with that change my cake has only three layers and I didn't have to split any of them, whew!
I'll have to report back later on my family's reaction to this one but I have a feeling it will be positive, if not, just look at how pretty it is, that will have to be enough :)