Raspberries and chocolate together make for a light, fragrant and not too sweet cake.Previously I was a guest of the Sodshow on Dublin City FM.  You can hear how we got on by clicking the podcast below.

Peter was lucky enough to take away a couple of cupcakes made from my chocolate raspberry cake mixture.  So I figured I can’t talk about a lovely cake without blogging it!  Not forgetting of course that I use frozen raspberries they work particularly well if you put them frozen into the mixture and bake straight away.

The recipe makes a cake large enough to feed 10 hungry adults.  I cook the full sized cake in a cast iron bundt tin as it makes for nice even baking.  You can also divide the mixture between 10 cupcake or bun cases.

Ingredients

• 125 butter, softened
• 150g caster sugar
• 3 medium eggs
• 150g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 50g good quality cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons raspberry extract
• 100g frozen raspberries (leave these in the freezer until the last minute)

Method

Preheat your (fan) oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Grease and dust your baking tin well.

In a large bowl beat together the butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy, then add the eggs one by one beating as you go until they are well mixed in.  Beat in the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder until you have a thick batter. Finally beat in the raspberry extract (hint I use a Polish raspberry extract found in a local European store).

At the last minute spoon in the frozen raspberries and stir a little to combine them with the batter. Then spread the batter evenly around the bundt tin and bake for 25-30 minutes. Use a cocktail stick or skewer to double check if the cake is cooked.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 30 minutes before upturning on a plate.

This cake can be enjoyed as it is slightly warm from the oven or you can mix 150g of icing sugar with a further tablespoon of raspberry extract and some water until you get a pouring consistency.  Pour liberally over the cake before serving.