Because it's Cousin Julie's birthday

Behold, the recipe for the Chocolate Raspberry Bundt Cake I came up with a couple weeks ago.

(Before I go on, I must apologize for the poor quality of the photo above. The lighting was bad, as was the angle. I know this cake looks a little like meatloaf. But I promise it's just a bad pic. The cake itself was super delish - and not meatloaf-ish on any level.)

Okay, so here's the recipe for the cake:

1 Devils Food cake mix
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup oil
1 pkg frozen raspberries, thawed and mashed, with just enough sugar to take the bite off

Mix the cake mix, eggs, sour cream, oil and the bag of raspberries (less 1/2 to 3/4 cup of the sugared raspberries - those you'll put on top of the cake at the end). I just dumped it all in, then whipped the tar out of it with my Kitchen Aid because I a) like the sound of a mixer and b) was greasing my pan in another area in the kitchen and couldn't be troubled to walk over and stop the mixer prematurely. (Also, I've found that whipping cake batter makes for more fluffy batter, which makes me think it'll be a fluffier cake. I know, I'm so scientific.) This is a bundt cake (obviously, with the sour cream and with that many eggs), so make sure you grease/flour the heck outta the pan so it doesn't stick. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or so. ("Or so", I know. I'm as bad as my mom, telling people to "stir pie filling until you think your arm's gonna fall off". But really, at about 45 minutes, check it with a toothpick. If you need more time, go in 5 minute intervals. But I think you'll be good at 45 min, I really do.)

After the cake has cooled, make a chocolate ganache and pour over the top of the cake while warm - followed by the reserved raspberries.

Chocolate Ganache has two basic ingredients:

Cream
Chocolate

Two of my favorite things, right? I used 2 squares of semi sweet baker's chocolate and about 1/3 cup cream. I melted it together in a double boiler and then poured/swirled it over the cake while warm. The berries were kind of cool, so they stuck to/in the chocolate at the top of the cake - which turned out to be a pretty fabulous thing, all things taken into consideration.

This isn't a really sweet cake. Adding some milk chocolate chips to the batter, or using light chocolate instead of dark for the ganache (oh, or more sugar into the berries) would fix that, if that's something that needs to be "fixed" in the world you live in. As for me and my house, we like things on the tart side. Try it, let me know what you think. :-)