Jennifer's birthday cake

My boss (!) ordered a cake for his wife's birthday. He said he wanted it all about fresh fruit and a chocolate cake. I'm using my tried and true chocolate cake recipe, layered with raspberry glaze, all wrapped in a light lemon cream cheese frosting, and topped with more raspberries, and chocolate shavings.

Chocolate Cake 

1 1/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup butter, room temp

1 tsp vanilla

3 eggs

2 cups cake flour, sifted

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk

6 oz semi sweet chocolate baking bars, melted and cooled

In mixing bowl combine sugar, butter and vanilla. Add eggs and beat for 1 minute. Add melted chocolate. Add flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually add milk. In two, 8" round baking pans, spray with oil, coat sides with cocoa powder and line with parchment paper. Divide batter between pans and bake for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool to room temp on wire rack then move to fridge to chill before frosting.

I used fresh raspberries in place of strawberries to make a glaze to go in between the 4 layers of chocolate cake. 

Raspberry Glaze

16 oz fresh raspberries

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup water

1 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tbsp cornstarch

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

2 (8) ounce package cream cheese, softened
1 stick butter, softened
2 lbs. confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
juice of one lemon

Shawn's birthday cake

Cake for a coworker. Cake mixes are Betty Crocker Devil's Food and French Vanilla. Alternate scoops of each batter into two 8" round pans, greased, floured and parchment paper cut to size. Use a long skewer and sweep through the batter (not too much) to create the marbling. Since one box is enough to fill two pans, I used the leftover batter for a 18 cupcakes of vanilla and devil's food to take to work to feed the masses. Buttercream is the new recipe I used for the Pumpkin cake and everyone agreed is much silkier than the buttercream I made before. I wanted so badly to use the rainbow sequins I bought.

Buttercream Frosting
12 cups powdered sugar
8 sticks (1 cup) room temp unsalted butter
4 tsp clear vanilla extract
8 tbsp heavy whipping cream
Divide as needed and add food coloring to desired shade.

I made the 1M technique swirls on the cupcakes and topped them and the cake with the rainbow sequins. No pictures of them though.