Happy Chocolate Day

I was going to make this chocolate raspberry whiskey cake for our friend Kelly's birthday while she was in town last week, but I got the flu instead. But I had been thinking about that chocolate cake for so many weeks that I couldn't NOT make it this week in honor of Kelly, Valentine's day, and chocolate itself.

The cake itself whips up pretty quickly. In fact, the recipe calls for an 8" cake to be cut in half (with raspberry jelly between the layers), but in my 10" pans, the cake turned out super flat, so I just whipped another one up for a second layer! Voila! It was almost too easy.

Unfortunately, the second cake somehow ended up completely crumbling when I tried to lift it up to layer it on top of the first, so it ended up being a bit of an "earthquake cake." Still delicious, though, and quite lovely when I added the glaze.

I think the glaze might be a bit too much sweetness for me, but it's good. I mean, it's chocolate and margarine with whiskey and sugar, so it's all good things. It's just all good, rich things.
If I made this cake again, I would
a) Make it when more people are around to help eat it. We now have way too much chocolate cake in our refrigerator. Anyone who wants to come over and eat cake tomorrow, in honor of President's Day, is welcome. Everyone knows George Washington & Abe Lincoln loved chocolate, whiskey, and raspberries. Especially together.

b) I would probably leave the glaze out of it, especially if I were making a version just for me. I like the rasperry jam filling. Or maybe I'd just smash up some fresh rasberries and spread them over the top of the cake.
Happy birthday, Kelly! I'm sorry you didn't get to eat this cake with us!
(This is Kelly in our kitchen. She would have been smiling even MORE if she'd had this cake too.)