The Fundraiser Cake

I have a friend I like to make cakes with.
She and I are both adventurous
and really want to learn how to make and decorate
amazingly delicious cake.

So when we had an opportunity to make a cake to be auctioned off for a Scout Fundraiser
we jumped at it.

What I like most about this friend is how our talents compliment each other.
We joke that I make it taste pretty and she makes it look pretty.

Take this cake for instance.
I suggested we decorate it with colored polka dots.
I was thinking pastels of uniform size.
But my friend was thinking bright colors of varying sizes.
And it turned out so much cuter than uniform pastel dots.

The inside was chocolate cake with a white-chocolate raspberry filling.
I would have loved to post a piece-cut-out-to-see-the-inside pic
but as it was for a fundraiser I wasn't the one actually eating it.

Before making the cake we first made a taste-tester cake.
I wanted to try out two new recipes (with a few of my own variations - I almost always change the recipes) and determine which was better.

The contestants:
Sweetapolita's rich chocolate cake found here
and Hershey's Chocolate Sour Cream Cake found here

Contestant #1:

For Sweetapolita's cake I substituted regular cocoa for the Extra Brute stuff
(just because I didn't have it. I am thinking of buying it though)

plain yogurt for the buttermilk
(same reason)

but then came a stumbling block:
I don't drink coffee for religious reasons.

When I did an internet search for substitutions for coffee in cake recipes
all anyone else could seem to come up with was to just add plain water.
And that sounded gross.

The purpose of the coffee (I believe) is to enhance the chocolate flavor
and water isn't going to do that.

So I came up with this:
I substituted hazelnut hot chocolate for the coffee
and it was awesome.

This cake was so light and fluffy and yet so moist.
And it tasted fantastic with the white chocolate raspberry filling
(which was actually swiss-meringue buttercream with white chocolate and pureed raspberries mixed in)


Contestant #2:
I followed the Hershey's Chocolate Cake recipe to the letter.

And it too was really good.
A bit denser than Sweetapolita's
and lighter in color
but still rich and moist.

And if I hadn't had the other cake there to compare it with I would have thought it was a deliciously fantastic cake.
But the other one was richer and darker and just seemed to compliment the filling much better.

So, the winner:
Contestant #1!

And all you non-coffee drinkers out there, get yourself some Hazelnut Hot Cocoa!

Oh, and if any of you want to give us another opportunity to experiment and make a cake for you
...
(and not feel pressured to eat it all ourselves - not because it won't taste good but because we want to feel good about our physical appearances)
...
we'd love to!