If you’re a fan of See’s Candies Raspberry Cream chocolates, you’ll love this decadent Raspberry Cream Cake inspired by the beloved treat. Combining rich dark chocolate cake layers, tangy raspberry filling, and luscious chocolate fudge frosting, this dessert transforms a classic candy into a show-stopping centerpiece. Perfect for special occasions or simply indulging your sweet tooth, this cake is as stunning as it is delicious.
Why a Raspberry Cream Chocolate-Inspired Cake?
See’s Candies Raspberry Cream chocolates are a harmonious blend of rich dark chocolate and fruity raspberry and a family favorite at the Rich house. This cake captures that same magic by layering bold flavors and luxurious textures. It’s a perfect tribute to the candy, offering a sophisticated and deeply satisfying dessert experience.
Key Elements of the Cake
1. Dark Chocolate Cake Layers
The base of this cake is all about depth and richness.
- Bold Chocolate Flavor: Use dark cocoa powder, like Extra Brute Cacao Barry for intense flavor.
- Moist Texture: Ingredients like buttermilk, oil and water ensure a tender crumb and amplify the chocolate taste (this makes for a thin batter, but don’t let that scare you).
2. Raspberry Filling
The raspberry cream center is the star of this cake, offering a burst of tartness to balance the rich chocolate.
- Tangy and Sweet: Cook fresh or frozen raspberries with sugar and a touch of lemon juice to enhance their natural flavor.
- White Chocolate: Adding the warm raspberry compote over white chocolate, creates a delicious raspberry ganache.
- Freeze Dried Raspberries: The freeze dried raspberries help to enhance the flavor, while also create a dense, fudge-like filling, reminiscent of the candy.
3. Chocolate Fudge Frosting
The cake is crowned with a luscious chocolate fudge frosting, tying everything together.
- Rich and Velvety: Made with butter, cocoa powder, and melted dark chocolate, this frosting is indulgent and smooth.
- Deep Chocolate Flavor: Its bittersweet notes enhance the dark chocolate layers while harmonizing with the raspberry filling.=
How to Assemble the Cake
- Bake the Dark Chocolate Cake Layers: Let the layers cool completely before assembling to prevent melting the filling or frosting.
- Prepare the Raspberry Filling: Spread a generous layer of raspberry filling between each cake layer for a vibrant pop of flavor.
- Frost with Chocolate Fudge Frosting: Cover the cake with a thick coat of fudge frosting, smoothing it out for a professional finish.
Why This Cake Stands Out
This See’s Candies Raspberry Cream-inspired cake is more than just a dessert; it’s a celebration of rich flavors and elegant textures. The combination of dark chocolate and tangy raspberry offers a perfect balance that will delight both chocolate lovers and fruit fans alike.
Perfect for Any Occasion
Whether you’re hosting a party, celebrating a milestone, or simply craving something indulgent, this cake is sure to impress. Its stunning appearance and bold flavors make it a crowd-pleaser for any gathering.
Recreating the magic of See’s Candies Raspberry Cream in cake form is easier than you think. With its rich chocolate layers, tangy raspberry filling, and velvety fudge frosting, this cake delivers a luxurious dessert experience that you won’t forget.
See’s Candies-Inspired Raspberry Cream Cake
Ingredients
For the Dark Chocolate Cake
- 2 cups (240 g) all purpose flour
- 1 3/4 cups (350 g) granulated sugar
- 3/4 cups (88.5 g) dark cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons (8 g) baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon (3 g) baking powder
- 1 teaspoon (6 g) salt
- 1 cup (240 g) buttermilk, room temperature
- 1/2 cup (109 g) vegetable oil
- 3 eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons (8.4 g) raspberry emulsion
- 1 cup (236.6 g) hot water
For the Raspberry Filling
- 12 ounces frozen raspberries, thawed
- 8 ounces white chocolate
- 1 ounce about a cup, freeze dried raspberries
For the Fudge Buttercream
- 1 1/4 cups (282.5 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup (125 g) powdered sugar, measured then sifted
- 3/4 cup (88.5 g) dark cocoa powder
- 3/4 cup (276 g) light corn syrup
- 2 teaspoons (8.4 g) vanilla extract
- 10 ounces (283 g) dark or semi-sweet chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
- 1/2 teaspoons (3 g) salt
Instructions
For the Dark Chocolate Cake
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Spray three 8-inch round cake pans with nonstick spray, line the bottoms with parchment paper and spray again. Set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt on low speed until combined.
- In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, water, and raspberry emulsion.
- With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a spatula.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pans (about 16 ounces in each pan) and bake for 23 to 27 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs on it.
- Remove the cake pans from the oven and let the layers cool in pans for 10-15 minutes before inverting onto cooling racks to cool completely.Wrap the cake layers with plastic wrap and freeze for at least an hour before assembling the cake.
For the Raspberry Filling
- In a medium sauce pan, cook the frozen raspberries over medium heat. As they soften, use a potato masher or a fork to break up the raspberries to release the juices. Allow the berries to simmer on low for about 15 minutes to thicken and allow the water to evaporate. The berry mixture should coat a spoon when it's thickened a little.
- Once the berries have cooked through and juice has thickened a little, pour the berries into a fine-mesh sieve that is set over a bowl. Push the juices through to remove the seeds. You'll use about ¾ cup of the seedless juice but don't throw the rest away. Save it in an airtight container in case you need to thin your mixture later.
- In a microwave safe bowl, pour the hot raspberry puree over the white chocolate chips. Stir until the white chocolate chips melt. If needed, microwave for 30 seconds to melt the chips completely. Stir until smooth.
- In a separate bowl, crush the freeze-dried raspberries into a fine crumb. Push through a fine-mesh sieve to remove the seeds. Discard the seeds and add the raspberry powder to the ganache. Stir until blended.
- Allow to cool to room temperature before adding to the cake. The ganache will thicken as it cools. The texture of the raspberry ganache should be thick, but easily spreadable. If it's too thin when you want to assembly the cake, refrigerate it for about 20 minutes or so to set more. To thicken more, add more tablespoons of freeze dried raspberry powder.
For the Fudge Frosting
- NOTE: This frosting is quite a bit different than my chocolate buttercream. This texture is denser, more decadent and fudge-like. If you don't want that texture, you can search "chocolate buttercream" or "black buttercream" for alternatives. In a microwave safe bowl, heat the chocolate chips in the microwave for about a minute. Stir until smooth and silky.
- In food processor, combine the butter, powdered sugar, cocoa, and salt. Mix until smooth, about 30 to 60 seconds, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl about half way through.
- Add corn syrup and vanilla and mix until just combined, about 20 to 30 seconds.
- Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and then add the melted chocolate. Pulse until the mixture is smooth and creamy, about 30 seconds.
- This frosting will get darker as it sets.
Assembly
- Place the first cake layer, top side up, on a cake board or cake stand. Spread half of the raspberry filling over the top of the cake.
- Place a second chocolate cake layer on top and repeat with the filling.
- Cover the entire cake with a thin coat of the fudge frosting. Freeze the cake for 15 to 20 minutes and then continue to frost the cake with the remaining frosting.
Keywords: Raspberry chocolate cake recipe, See’s Candies Raspberry Cream cake, dark chocolate raspberry cake, chocolate fudge frosting, raspberry filling for cake, homemade layer cake recipe, gourmet chocolate dessert.
What is the raspberry emulsion listed in the recipe?
I use LorAnns
I usually do not comment until I made your recipe but this looks perfect! I’m definitely going to make this soon. Thank you for this and Merry Christmas 🎄.
Yay! Merry Christmas!
For the raspberry cream you mention adding a small amount of lemon juice to the raspberries but lemon juice is not listed in the recipe. How much would you add? Also, can the raspberry cream be made a day or so ahead and can I use raspberry powder in place of the freeze-dried raspberries? Thank you!
Hi Courtney this raspberry filling sounds delicious! Do you think it would work as a filling for NY style cookies too? Thanks!!
It might! I can’t say for sure because I haven’t tried it but with the white chocolate base it would probably melt nicely as it bakes and create a yummy, gooey center.
Okay I have made so many cakes from this website and have raved about it to so many people. This one however, left me very frustrated and very overtired, as I was up until 2:00 in the morning trying to make this for a customer after a serious disastrous experience trying to make the filling. I have made probably 20 recipes from this website, so I had no worries about making it for the first time for a customer. I don’t know what is going on with the filling recipe, but it was a total disaster. I did everything as per the instructions, and I have been baking for over 20 years, so I have tons of experience, including tiered wedding cakes, etc., and would consider myself an advanced baker. After pressing the raspberries through the sieve, which I have done several times over my baking career, and adding them to the white chocolate, the mixture was runny, almost watery. I will say that I used raspberry powder instead of dehydrated raspberries, but I already knew how how to convert the measurements, because I’ve done that before. Even after adding the raspberry powder, the mixture was completely runny, nowhere near the consistency of any sort of filling. I put it in the fridge to set up, and after an hour, it was plenty cold, but still completely watery. I had to keep melting more and more batches of white chocolate and trying to mix them in and chilling them to try to get it thick enough to be an actual filling. Then I had to add more raspberry powder, because the raspberry flavor was being diluted by adding so much white chocolate. This was tricky, because with the mixture being more cold now, the raspberry powder wasn’t dissolving as well, resulting in a texture that was a little more grainy. I very gently heated it in the microwave to try to warm the mixture enough to encourage the raspberry powder to dissolve, which it did, thankfully, but the mixture never quite got to my liking, still quite thing, nothing like the recipe describes. At midnight, when I knew that I still had the entire assembly of this cake to do, I stopped adding white chocolate, and hoped that the mixture would thicken further when it was in the fridge. At this point it was about the thickness of pudding. It definitely never arrived to anything close like you would expect for the filling of a truffle, as the recipe states that it will. This is extremely time-consuming and frustrating, and although I will say that the filling is delicious, it’s nothing like the recipe describes, and I was very frustrated at having to spend so much time making so many adjustments to make it even workable.
Also, I was so excited about this frosting, but ultimately, it’s disappointing to me. I use only high quality chocolate, all Ghirardelli chips because they are consistently rated as some of the best chocolate chips there are, and I used the Barry extra Brute cocoa powder. The frosting that I ended up with is honestly reminiscent of Pillsbury canned chocolate frosting. I couldn’t figure out why, because I had used such high quality chocolate, and butter, and did everything just like the recipe states. The color is beautiful and the texture is great, but it seriously tastes like canned frosting. I’m thinking it’s because of all the corn syrup? I don’t know. That’s all I can figure, since that’s the only ingredient that I’ve never used in any frosting recipe before. I’ve never had a complaint about a single cake on here. Quite the opposite. Every single recipe has been mind-blowingly delicious, and I was absolutely beyond excited to make this concoction, and maybe it will taste better when I have a slice and taste all of the elements together (I made an entire extra cake for just my family to try, since the main one is for my customer), and I’m hoping so, because I lost a lot of sleep over this and it was a ton of work. I will say, the Cake part itself is absolutely delicious. The raspberry Emulsion doesn’t really make it taste like a raspberry flavor, per se, but it adds this whole extra layer of flavor to the dark chocolate cake that enhances the chocolate flavor with this slightly fruity note, almost like a high-end dark chocolate has different notes to it. It’s absolutely delicious, so at least this cake has that going for it. Like I said, The Filling is delicious, but it was super difficult, and never did end up the correct consistency. I’m hoping the delicious raspberry flavor of it makes up for the fact that it’s a lot softer than it’s supposed to be. I’m wondering if maybe the raspberries were supposed to be cooked down longer than I did? The recipe just says to break them up and cook them until they are “heated through and the juices are released”, so I didn’t see anything that would imply that they were supposed to be reduced. I don’t know, I felt like the instructions were a little too vague throughout this recipe, like it was rushed or something.
Thank you for your feedback and so sorry you had issues with the cake. I’ve added more clarification to help with the raspberry filling. The fudge frosting is totally different than my other chocolate buttercream – meant to be more dense, decadent, and fudge-like.
Okay I’m being a total freak by leaving a second review with a totally different rating, but there’s no way for me to edit or update a comment, and I have to update it, so this is the way I have to go, lol.
At the time that I left the comments, I had not yet tasted the cake all together, only each element on their own.
As stated in my first review, I already knew the cake itself was delicious. And I already knew the filling was delicious, I was just extremely frustrated with the process of making it because of the fact that it never got thick enough. I see the edits that you made to the instructions about the filling, and those definitely would have been incredibly helpful to know in the process, so I’m so glad you added those in! Taking those steps would have made all the difference, I’m sure. And that’s what I was thinking, that possibly you meant for the raspberry to become a reduction, and just hadn’t clarified as such. When I was trying to figure out what went wrong, I was thinking to myself, it would be so helpful if she had said how much raspberry juice we should end up using, because that would make a very big difference. Not only that, but reducing the raspberries like you suggested, that’s going to make the raspberry flavor even more intense, which is awesome.
The frosting, when I was first done with it, did have a weird artificial flavor to me, as mentioned in my above review, but something interesting happened as it sat in the fridge overnight on the cake and set up. As you stated in your reply to me, it definitely developed a very thick fudgy texture, which I actually ended up loving. And somehow or another, as the flavors melded overnight, it lost that artificial flavor and just tasted like a delicious fudge just like the recipe intends.
My kids and I cut into the cake last night and everyone loved it, including me. As it sat and all the flavors melded, something magical happened in that fridge, lol. Everything just sort of comes together and it definitely is reminiscent of a chocolate raspberry truffle. The cake was dense and rich, just like I like my chocolate cakes, The filling, though it was most certainly thinner than what you intended, had so much raspberry flavor that it was absolutely delightful. I love that it’s flavored with actual raspberries and the raspberry powder instead of an extract, because it really makes that flavor sing. Then it all got tied together with that delicious fudgy frosting, and it really was like eating a delicious chocolate raspberry truffle, but in cake form. For both my customer and my family cake, I had decided to tort the layers so that we could get incorporate more filling, and I was definitely pleased with that choice. My customer loved it, and so did all of us. Definitely another winner here, and now I’m feeling a little chagrin that I didn’t wait until after I had tasted the final product before I left my review. Please excuse my impetuousness. 😬😉 Yes I had some frustrations in the making of this cake, but with your recent edits, I don’t foresee anyone else having those issues. I will say that one thing that I would recommend to anyone who makes this cake, is to make sure that you don’t make the chocolate frosting until you are absolutely ready to use it. I don’t know if it’s because I live in the Northeast and it’s cold this time of year, but I noticed that as it sat while I was fiddling around with the filling, little pieces of it started to harden, like it was setting up as it sat in the bowl or something. Getting stiff like that also made it a little tricky to apply, but if you apply it as soon as it’s made, I don’t see as though that would be a problem.
Either way, thank you for another absolutely delicious recipe, and for giving all of us a chance to have another flavor adventure with you! Keep ’em coming!
I made this cake for my birthday. I did not like the taste of the raspberry emulsion in the cake so that kind of ruined it for me. The raspberry filling was delicious & the frosting was good but difficult to work with, (I typically make SMBC for my cakes)