SMS: Hazelnut Raspberry Layer Cake

Sweet Melissa Sundays are back with cake! Hazelnut Raspberry Layer Cake, to be precise. I’m surprised this recipe hadn’t been selected yet and it’s a great way for the group to begin 2011. My birthday was Wednesday and Josh is planning on making me a cake and I briefly considered letting this be my birthday cake since I thought it sounded so good, but decided to “save” my special cake for a later date. And don’t worry – we celebrated with cupcakes on my actual birthday!



There is a raspberry icing recipe in Rose’s Heavenly Cakes that I absolutely love (and so does everyone who tries it), so I thought about using that and then decided I should try the recipe in the Sweet Melissa book. However, the original recipe called for a mixture of whole raspberries and raspberry liqueur to be mixed in and the idea of whole raspberry seeds in the frosting was kind of off-putting to me. I saw Tracey had made a whole raspberry-free frosting and was inspired to stick with my initial instinct and eliminate them as well. I used a scant half cup of seedless raspberry preserves for the raspberry flavor and color, which essentially made it like recipe I usually make. Oh, and Melissa’s recipe does not specify to let the egg/white sugar syrup combination cool down before you add the butter (the syrup is 240 degrees when it goes in), but I recommend chilling it briefly before adding the butter.

We rated this recipe an 8.5 for Deliciousness and I gave it a 4.5 for Effort (it may have been slightly higher if I’d had to ice the cake, but Josh was nice enough to do it for me), for an EDR of 1.88. Many thanks to Candy of Candy Girl for a delicious selection. You can find the recipe here on Candy's site and visit the Sweet Melissa site to see how the rest of the group liked this cake.