German Raffaello Cake with Raspberries

The German Raffaello Cake is a wonderful cake for the summer months and especially wonderful for Valentine’s Day which is celebrated in Germany with flowers, dinners for two, delicious cakes and desserts, romantic getaways, and special Valentine gifts.
It also makes a delightful birthday cake. The German Raffaello cake or you would call it a “Torte” is a special combination of raspberries, heavy cream and “Raffaellos” – a special candy or praline from the brand Ferrero, an Italian company who became popular with Nutella, Mon Cheri and Raffaello starting in 1989.
Raffaellos are balls where a whole almond is plunged into a delicious creamy filling and enclosed in a crispy shell, covered in flakes of coconut. I thought this is an appropriate dessert for a Valentine’s day menu, don’t you agree?  Happy Baking!

Ingredients German Raffaello Cake

BASE CAKE
1-2 tbsp Butter
50 g + 1 tbsp grated coconut (unsweetened and natural)
4 medium sized eggs
125 g soft butter
125 g + 1 tbsp sugar
1 package vanilla sugar — How to Make Vanilla Sugar —
100 g flour
2,5 tsp baking powder, pref. Dr Oetker

FILLING
250 g fresh or frozen raspberries
22 Raffaello balls (2 packages) – I found them at Walmart (to my surprise!), also at the World Market or Amazon
500 g heavy cream
2 packages Sahnesteif (keeps the heavy cream firm) – optional
100 g apricot jam

Baking Instructions German Rafaello Cake

Make the Biscuit Cake
– Heat oven to 175 °C or 375 F
– With butter grease a spring form (diameter 26 cm or 10 inches).
– Roast 50 g grated coconut in a pan without adding any butter or oil until they are golden (low heat)
– Separate eggs.
– Mix butter, 125 g sugar and vanilla sugar until creamy; add egg yolks one after the other; then add flour, baking powder and roasted coconut.
– Beat egg white until firm and carefully mix with the dough.
– Fill the dough into the form and bake it for 20-30 minutes; let cool off. This is your biscuit cake.
– Defrost raspberries, wash fresh raspberries, and remove bad ones.

Make the Filling
– Take the biscuit cake, and with a spoon remove the inside of the cake but leave an edge all around of about 1cm thickness.
– Crumble the inside of the cake.
– Take 14 Raffaellos and chop them coarsely
– Beat heavy cream, add sugar and whip-it. It should be firm.
– Mix chopped Raffaellos and raspberries with the firm heavy cream.
– Mix half of the raspberry cream with half of the cake crumbs, put it on the middle of the biscuit cake and shape it like a dome. Spread the other half of the cream around it.
– Heat jam and spread it around the cake; softly press remaining crumbs onto the edges (they will stick on the jam).
– Cut remaining Raffaellos in half (if you look closely you will see on each Raffaello a joint, and here you would place the knife and cut it.
– Decorate the cake with the Raffaello halves and raspberries, sprinkle 1 tbsp grated coconut over it.

Recipe and picture source