Chocolate Raspberry Cake

Three words: raspberries, chocolate, almonds. Mmmm... a delicious combination of scrumptiousness. This is a rather dense cake (more of a brownie consistency that a cake consistency) with layers of chocolate, slivered almonds, and raspberry jam running through it. It is very tasty; however, I did not feel that it looked very pretty as far as presentation goes. I took my own pictures but ended up using one from the magazine because it looked so much nicer than mine.


Serves: 12 servings
Start-to-Finish: 2.5 - 3 hours (upto 1 hour prep time + 2 hour cook time)
Recipe By: Christine Moore

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup baking cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups sugar
3 sticks butter, melted
4 large eggs
1 TBSP vanilla extract
2 tsp almond extract
1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam
1/2 cup Semi-sweet chocolate Mini Morsels (I do not advise substituting milk chocolate in this recipe; the raspberry flavors go better with the bitter, darker chocolates)
3/4 cup sliced almonds, divided

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300° F.
2. Grease 9-inch spring-form pan.
3. Line bottom and sides of pan with wax paper and grease wax paper.
4. Sift together flour, cocoa and salt into medium bowl.
5. Combine sugar and butter in large mixer bowl on low until blended.
6. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
7. Add the almond extract and vanilla extract; beat until smooth.
8. Pour into prepared pan, reserving about 1/3 of the batter.
9. Carefully smooth a thin layer of the raspberry jam over the batter in pan.
10. Top with morsels and 1/2 cup of the sliced almonds.
11. Carefully cover with the remaining batter.
12. Sprinkle batter with remaining 1/4 cup of almonds.
13. Bake for 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours or until wooden pick inserted near center comes out clean. (Be aware several others who commented on this recipe found it only needed to cook for 1 hour; so watch it closely! Mine cooked for 1 hour and 45 minutes)
14. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Remove side of springform pan.