Two things I learned recently: One, don't discuss things with your life partner such as "Should I start a blog?" Particularly if your partner is a wiz at the computer and all things related because the next thing you know, you will receive a custom designed website of your very own as a birthday present. Two, I need to change my one-size-fits-all password; My husband hacked into my Facebook account to start setting this whole blog thing up.

But one thing I already knew, I have a really wonderful family, even if it's just the four of us, not counting our greyhound. Okay, the five of us. The reason I cook is for them. But for my birthday, my daughter baked a cake for me. Not just any cake, but a raspberry chocolate cake filled with raspberry cream and slathered with raspberry chocolate ganache. The best part is that she eats the leftover cake with me for breakfast. That's my girl!

Thank you to all my friends and family for the encouraging comments and birthday greetings you've already posted to this blog. I'm going to use the rest of 2010 to have fun with this birthday gift!

And so you also can enjoy birthday cake for breakfast, here's the recipe for the decadent cake I'm happily devouring.

Chocolate Raspberry Ganache Cake
Adapted from Glorious Chocolate by Mary Goodbody

Chocolate cake
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
5 oz (142g) unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup water
12 Tbsp (170g) butter
1/4 cup raspberry liqueur
1/2 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup raspberry preserves

Raspberry cream
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup raspberry preserves
1 1/2 tsp raspberry liqueur

Raspberry ganache
18 oz. (510g) bittersweet (62%) chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 1/3 cups heavy cream
Pinch of salt
2 Tbsp (28g) butter
2/3 cup raspberry preserves
1/4 cup raspberry liqueur
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Butter the bottoms of two 10 in round cake pans and line with parchment paper cut out to fit the bottoms.

Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a small bowl and set aside. Combine chopped chocolate and sugar in the bowl of stand mixer. Heat water and butter until boiling and add to the mixing bowl. Mix on medium high until smooth. Add sour cream, eggs and vanilla to the bowl and continue to mix. Add half of the flour mixture and mix to combine. Then add the remaining flour mixture. Divide the batter into the two prepared cake pans and bake for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pans for about 10 minutes and then invert cakes onto a wire cooling rack, remove parchment paper liners and let cool.

For raspberry cream filling, beat cream until soft peaks form. Add the preserves and liqueur and continue to beat until stiff. Be careful not to over beat the cream. Once the cake layers are completely cool, spread the cream on one half of the cake layer and top with the other layer. Press down lightly. Center the filled cake on the wire rack and place a baking sheet under the cake to catch the extra ganache runoff.

For chocolate ganache, put chopped chocolate and butter into a heat proof bowl. Boil cream and salt and add to the chopped chocolate. Mix until the chocolate and butter are melted and smooth. Add the preserves and liqueur and mix until smooth. Pour the ganache over the top of the assembled cake and smooth with a spatula as the chocolate flows over the edges of the cake to coat the sides. Continue pouring the ganache until all the cake is covered. Allow the ganache to cool and set, about 1 hour.