Mocha Raspberry Cake

This Mocha Raspberry Cake has two layers of moist chocolate cake, a layer of sweet raspberry filling, frosted with silky mocha buttercream and topped with fresh raspberries! This impressive cake is perfect for celebrating. 

Birthday cakes are a thing around here. I talk about my housemates a lot, and one of the perks of being my housemate? A custom-made, just-for-you birthday cake.

My friends are the best resource I have when it comes to brainstorming baked goods. The other night, a few of us were sitting on my bed. I mentioned I wanted to make something with M&Ms. All of their eyes got wide as they sat, debating ideas and the pros and cons of each, barely taking a breath as every M&M dessert idea they had was thrust at me. I didn’t say one word for about five minutes as they did this.

Finally, they slowed down, and someone turned to me and said, “you probably already have an idea for this that’s better than all of ours, huh?”. I proposed the idea for the Oatmeal M&M Peanut Butter Skillet Cookie, and they all agreed. It was the winner.

But, my ideas are definitely not always the winners. When it comes to birthday cakes, the flavor choices are all theirs.

My friend Mariah’s birthday was a few weeks ago, and I’ve known her favorite flavors since we became friends four years ago. Dark chocolate (not milk chocolate), caramel, coconut, coffee, and raspberries. Her birthday cake two years ago checked off the first two with this ridiculous chocolate layer cake. I sandwiched both homemade caramel AND caramel buttercream in the center, and the whole thing was topped with chocolate ganache. Check out the throwback Instagram picture to see.

So, naturally, I had to pick other flavors to do this year. She requested something mocha-flavored, and I went back and forth until the cakes had already been baked as to whether I wanted to do raspberry with the mocha. I couldn’t decide if it’d be weird. Guys…it’s sooo not weird.

Let’s make a Mocha Raspberry Cake!

The cake layers are use my go-to chocolate cake recipe. It comes together so quickly & easily, and produces a super flavorful and moist chocolate cake. However, I did switch out the water for coffee. It doesn’t come through too strongly, but it does amp up the chocolate flavor and brings out the mocha frosting.

The raspberry filling uses raspberry jam to get that fruity flavor. Use seedless jam for a totally smooth buttercream.

Once you get the cake and filling assembled, you’ll put a thin crumb coat of our mocha frosting on it. This frosting is a creamy super chocolatey frosting that has instant coffee granules added for a kick of coffee flavor. My instant coffee granules dissolved pretty easily right in the frosting. If yours are more granular and you want a completely smooth frosting, you’ll want to dissolve them in the heavy cream. Feel free to play with the amount as well. I left it so the coffee flavor is subtle but definitely there. You can add more or less depending on preference.

How to decorate the layer cake

After you crumb coat the cake and place it in the fridge to set, you’re going to slather it with the rest of that frosting. I was not a perfectionist in my frosting method. I used my offset spatula to make a vertical stripe pattern by pulling the spatula up the sides of the frosted cake. Easy peasy. Decorate as you please! After frosting the cake, arrange the raspberries on top. I adore the way that the raspberries look on top of the cake and the dusting of powdered sugar to dress it up.

This cake is perfect for celebrating and is definitely a show stopper. The birthday girl declared that this cake is what dreams are made of. I couldn’t ask for more than that. Enjoy!

Want more layer cake recipes?

• The Ultimate Snickers Cake
• Midnight Binge Cake
• Banana Layer Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
• Mom’s Favorite Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting

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