Seductive chocolate raspberry cake
Serves 4-6. Estimated preparation time: 40 minutes. Estimated cost: $5
1 jar highest quality raspberry jam or preserves
6 ounces semisweet baking chocolate or chocolate chips
3 ounces soy milk or heavy cream
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup white sugar
1 cup hot water
1 cup highest quality mayonnaise (Hellmans, or Whole Foods 365 brand canola oil mayo)
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 tsp baking soda
1-2 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon (optional)
1/2 tsp nutmeg (optional)
1/4-1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
1 cup pecans, chopped fine
Cake: Mix sugar and cocoa well. Add hot water and mix thoroughly. Mix in mayonnaise, flour, baking soda, vanilla, and spices, and beat until very smooth and thick. Grease and completely flour a cake pan, knock off all excess flour. Fill half full with cake batter. Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes. Cake is done when toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool for at least 20 minutes. The 'muffin top' is crusty and delicious, but its irregular shape might not fit your cosmetic goals for your cake. If not, use a long bread or cake knife to cut it off, using the cake pan lip as a guide, leaving a very flat surface that will be the bottom of your cake. You might want to use a tall spring-form cake pan, to make life generally easier.
Ganache: While baking, melt chocolate and soy milk in a small saucepan on low heat. Stir occasionally to distribute heat. Mix in pecans and set aside.
Slice cake horizontally. Fill gap with raspberry jam, not more than 1 cm thick. Put cake back together. Use a soft spatula to coat outside of cake with ganache. As it cools to room temperature, it will become firm but not completely hard, rather like the inside of a chocolate truffle.
Option: Slice the cake horizontally not just once, but twice, three times, or even more. This will make more layers, and more jam will make your cake more moist and sweet. My advice would be to slice and fill the layers one at a time, from the bottom upward, so you minimize the handling of fragile layers of cake.