Happy Birthday Nina! (What's Baking)

My spunky, adorable niece had her cake picked out 2 months ago.  She knew right away that she wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and raspberry filling.  Great!  I already have a great recipe for the cake that I used for my Mother-in-law's, and the frosting that I used for my Mom's, so I just needed to add the filling.  Piece of cake, right?

Wrong.

I'm guessing the cake should have baked just a few minutes more, because both layers broke.  Yeah, I wasn't a happy camper.  No time to bake another one, either.  So, I used the frosting as "glue" and just dealt with it.

Plus, my local market was out of fresh raspberries, which I planned on using as a garnish for the top of the cake.  FAIL.  

Good thing it tasted pretty awesome.

At least it looked a little better after it was cut...

There were no complaints :)  

Leanne from The Martin Family is the host for our What's Baking? group this month, and the theme she chose was Spring baking.  I figured this was a good submission for it, given the raspberries.  Thanks for hosting, Leanne!

And happy 9th birthday to my gorgeous (and no longer little) niece Nina!  

Chocolate Raspberry Layer Cake

*see above for links to cake and frosting recipes* (use two round 9 inch baking pans)

For the raspberry filling:

3/4 cup frozen raspberries, thawed

1/2 cup raspberry preserves

2 tablespoons cornstarch

Put all ingredients in a small pot over medium-high heat.  Stir and cook until mixture boils.  Set aside and let cool.

To assemble the cake:

Place first cake layer on plate and top with raspberry filling (use it all!).  Add second cake layer, then frost the top and sides of the cake.  Top with fresh raspberries for a nice garnish...which was my original plan...

Linked to: Sweets For A Saturday
                  Valentine's Day Blog Hop