Black Raspberry and White Chocolate Cream Cheese Cake

First of all, that's a long name for a cake. I really should make a better and a more interesting name for all these cakes.

Today, two friends of mine are getting their civil wedding ceremony. The girl happens to work in the same company as I do. She only took a break for a couple of hours for the ceremony and lunch, then she was back at the office. I was planning to surprise her with a little gathering with some coworkers that she usually interacts with to share the happiness.

Of course the 'party' wouldn't be complete without a cake, don't you think? I was thinking of using this opportunity to experiment with a new cake flavor and combination, but then I changed my mind. I don't want my coworkers to taste my 'experiment' cake, that I didn't know how it will turn out. So I decided to play it safe and just make a cake that I already familiar with, but also taste great of course. My decision came down to raspberry and white chocolate cream cheese cake. I made this cake four times before (one of them was blueberry though). Now see, I would never make the same cake twice if I didn't think it's good.

Strangely, two Trader Joe's I visited, didn't have frozen red raspberry at that time and I didn't want to make another special trip just to find this. Before I left the store,I saw frozen black raspberry instead! I thought, what the heck, the taste would be the same anyway, it's just the color. And I thought the color would be pretty too. The color is very dark purple, almost black. Actually, it looks like a small blackberry, but this one is hollow.

Now, black raspberry is very high in anthocyanins, which is rich in antioxidants. We know that antioxidant is very useful to prevent cancer. People also use it for natural dye due to the rich and deep color.

When I started making the black raspberry jelly for one of the fillings, I realize that the taste is so different. You can definitely tell that it's not red raspberry if you were to have a blind taste test. The color is so deep that it stains my hand.

I wasn't actually satisfied with the final product. I used two 9 inch square pan for one layer and put it side by side, making the overall size to be 9x18, which I think is a little odd. two 10-in should be better instead of 9-in. And I think I put too much gelatin for the jelly, making it thicker than what I wanted. I think I forgot to change my recipe the last time I made this cake. You see, even though this is the fifth time making this cake, there's always something that needs to be modified. It's just never perfect, but I hope this is going to be the last time I modify it though.

The filling and components are still the same. It has two layers of soft cotton sponge cake. The deep purple color is black raspberry jelly that I made using the puree and added a little Chambord (black raspberry liqueur). The white filling is white chocolate cream cheese cream. The method is similar to whipped ganache, but this one doesn't have the air or lightness because of the addition of cream cheese. It's actually very creamy, without being heavy at all.

Usually after the cake is assembled and let refrigerated, I would cut all four sides to show the beautiful stripe pattern of the filling, but I didn't cut it enough to show it. I didn't want to cut it too much because I was afraid that the cake would not be enough for everybody :(.

Also, I really didn't know how to decorate some sort of sheet cake like this. There's just too much surface area to cover and you know that I'm not good with creative decoration (I'm working on it though). So, I just wrote "congratulations" with melted chocolate (and I wasn't happy with it either, it's not neat). I left the cake with the writing until the morning before I had to take it. So, I just grabbed some strawberries and frozen blueberries, and some mint leaves. You can never go wrong with berry decoration. The bright color will give you that "oohhh...aaahhhh..." thing.

The cake was gone in no time. Almost every single person who eat it or look at the cake, asked me if I made the cake (most of them doesn't know that I make cakes) and I'm so glad that everybody loved it. They kept saying how good the cake was ....... See, I'm not good with a lot of appraisal like that. So, I think my cheek was blushing the whole time.

I'm so glad that I found black raspberry. I think I would stock a couple of bags in my freezer as it's not always available. It would be awesome in mousse, bavarian cream, compote, charlotte, aahhhhhhh...........I'm too excited. Imagine how wonderful the color would be. I just can't wait :)