Chocolate Raspberry Lavender Trifles
Prep Time: 30 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Cool Time: 2 hours |Total Time: 3 hours | Serves: 8
What a lovely, romantic dessert to finish off your Valentine’s Day dinner. Flavors of chocolate cake, raspberry, and a lightly-scented lavender whipped cream become heaven on your spoon.
My original idea consisted of only chocolate and lavender, but my brilliant (and well-taught) daughter added the raspberry component. Excellent idea! The few people who got to taste-test it for me liked the 3-flavor profile, so what you have is not only beautiful, but a dessert experience you’ll probably want to enjoy more than once a year.
Let me put a big emphasis on the Raspberry Sauce here. The frozen raspberries were cooked down with sugar and Abingdon Olive Oil Company’s Cascadian Wild Raspberry White Balsamic. There’s a pop of extra flavor that goes beyond your common raspberry sauce. It’s definitely worth the purchase! The balsamic is so delicious! Drizzle over ice cream for an extra “Mmmm!”
The Easy Chocolate Cake recipe below was adapted from “Fastest Fudge Cake” by Fine Cooking, in their “Cakes and Cupcakes” cookbook. I have used their recipe, as is, for decades! It’s difficult to find online because it is an older recipe, but you can find some people who have republished it. You are welcome to use your own favorite chocolate cake recipe. This recipe yields a more “cake-like” texture, which friends said they liked, so I stuck with it.
You may have leftovers of the Raspberry Sauce and Easy Chocolate Cake, depending on how much you use on each layer. Freeze the leftovers for another day if desired, or just snack on the pieces as your finish up assembling the trifles.
I use Angel Bake brand lavender flavoring. It’s wonderful! You can order droppers for their bottles if you’d like. Super-handy! Sometimes you can find unusual syrups and flavorings at HomeGoods, and they may carry a lavender flavor that will work if you don’t want to order something online.
Trifles are meant to be layered, rustic or methodical. Layer as instructed in the recipe, or as your heart leads.
Enjoy!
Chocolate Raspberry and Lavender Trifles
Equipment
- Fine mesh sieve
- 8 small glasses or stemware
Ingredients
Raspberry Sauce:
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 24-ounce bag frozen, then thawed raspberries
- 4 tablespoons Abingdon Olive Oil Company's Cascadian Wild Raspberry White Balsamic Vinegar, link here
Easy Chocolate Cake:
- 1 cup (120g) cake flour
- 1/3 cup natural cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- Pinch fine sea salt, or table salt
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 1/4 cup neutral oil, (avocado, vegetable, etc.)
- 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1/4 cup sour cream, room temperature
- 1/2 cup hot brewed coffee
Lavender Whipped Cream:
- 1 1/2 cups cold whipping cream
- 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
- Violet gel food coloring, see Notes
- 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon Lavender extract, I prefer Angel Bake brand, more or les amount depending on preferences, see Notes
Garnish:
- Fresh raspberries, gently rinsed
- Fresh mint leaves
Instructions
- Make the Raspberry Sauce: In a small bowl, combine the sugar and cornstarch until no lumps of cornstarch remain.
- Add the sugar-cornstarch mixture, raspberries, and balsamic vinegar to a medium saucepan. Turn the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium-low to gently simmer for 7 to 10 minutes, or until the fruit is very soft. Taste for sweetness and adjust as desired.
- Place a fine mesh sieve over a medium bowl. Pour about a third of the mixture into the sieve. Using a silicone spatula, press the mixture into the sieve to catch seeds. Continue this process until all the seeds have been removed from the raspberry sauce. You should have a smooth, somewhat thick sauce.
- Place the sauce in the refrigerator to cool while you make the chocolate cake. Or, the sauce can be made in advance up to 4 days.
- Make the Easy Chocolate Cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8” cake pan with nonstick spray or “cake goop/cake release”. Cover the bottom of the pan with a parchment circle and spray again. Set the pan aside.
- In a medium bowl, add the flour, coca powder, baking soda, and salt. Sift the dry ingredients together with a whisk, or other sifter/sieve. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, melt the butter in the microwave. Keep an eye on it so it does not splatter in your microwave. Add the oil, brown sugar and vanilla and whisk to combine.
- Add both eggs and the sour cream, and whisk until combined.
- Pour the flour mixture over the brown sugar mixture and using a wood spoon or silicone spatula, gently fold in the flour mixture.
- Pour the hot coffee into the batter and gently incorporate. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until just done (a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs.)
- Pull the cake out of the oven and allow it to stand at room temperature for 20 minutes. Invert onto a rack to completely cool, 1 to 2 hours. (The chocolate cake can be made up to 1 day in advance, or even frozen for up to 1 month.) Once the cake is out of the oven to cool, add your mixer bowl and whisk attachment for the Lavender Whipped Cream into the refrigerator.
- Once the cake and sauce are cool, make the Lavender Whipped Cream: Place the whisk attachment onto a stand mixer. Alternatively, you can use a hand-held mixer
- Add the cold whipping cream and confectioners’ sugar to the cold bowl. Mix on medium-high until the cream is starting to thicken before you crank your mixer to high, or you’ll likely splatter cream.
- Add the food coloring and flavoring. Whip on high until light, thick, and fluffy. Taste and adjust sugar and lavender as desired.
- To assemble: Gather your glasses for the trifles. Place a layer of cake into the bottoms of the glasses. Then layer with the sauce, then whipped cream. Continue the layering process. Top with fresh raspberries and mint leaves for garnish, if desired.
- Enjoy immediately, or the prepared trifles can be refrigerated for up to 6 hours.
Notes
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