Chocolate & Raspberry Cake

My mum made this cake for my sister's birthday and despite not normally liking raspberries, I thought it turned out to be amazingly delicious. She found the recipe online but decided to make a few changes to it, to make it a bit easier. It's very rich and very moist, so you definitely don't need a huge slice (unless you really want one!).

Ingredients: 

Cake: 

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar

3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup hot, strong coffee

Raspberry buttercream filling:

1/2 cup unsalted butter

Fresh raspberries (mashed up) or raspberry purée to taste

1 tsp vanilla extract

450g icing sugar

(this will make more than enough filling, we had quite a bit leftover which we will probably use to ice cupcakes)

Chocolate buttercream frosting:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup cocoa powder

2 cups icing sugar

3 tbsp mascarpone

fresh raspberries to garnish

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Grease and flour two 8 inch round cake pans, then line the bottom with baking parchment. Mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In a smaller bowl, mix the buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix well until smooth.Then add the coffee and mix it well, but don't over mix it. Divide the batter between the two pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Leave the cakes to cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes, then run a knife around the edges and put the cakes on to a cooling rack to cool completely. The cake will probably feel a bit sticky but that's normal. 

To make the filling, cream the butter and then add some of the sugar and mix together in an electric mixer. Then add the vanilla and the raspberry purée and the rest of the sugar. Put the filling in the fridge until needed. 

To make the frosting, beat the butter until fluffy for about 2-3 minutes. Add the cocoa powder and sugar and beat until incorporated. Then add the mascarpone one tablespoon at a time and mix well. 

Once everything is done, you can put it all together. Spread the raspberry filling on one of the cakes, then top it with the second cake and frost the top and the sides. Add a few raspberries on top and it's done.