Chocolate Raspberry Layer Cake

With its rich & chocolaty cake layers frosted with a fresh raspberry buttercream, you certainly cannot go wrong with this crowd-pleasing Chocolate Raspberry Layer Cake for your next party or celebration...

Let me start this post off by first offering an apology to any of my Instagram followers who may have seen the teaser photo I posted back in August for this insanely decadent cake. You all have been waiting almost two months for this recipe, and I didn't mean to make you all wait that long for this one. 

But you know, life & work & the kids starting back to school got in the way. But today the wait is finally over, my friends!

I actually whipped up this cake for my son's 20th birthday party in August. And yes, I did say TWENTY. I mean, how does that even happen anyways? 

When they say the years go by fast, they are not exaggerating, you all. One day you are planning a Blue's Clues themed party for their first birthday, and then the next thing you know they have officially left their teen years and are in their twenties. I can't even wrap my head around it sometimes.

Blue Velvet & Raspberry Buttercream Cookiewiches

A fresh raspberry buttercream is sandwiched between two soft & chewy blue velvet cake mix cookies in these perfectly patriotic Blue Velvet & Raspberry Buttercream Cookiewiches...

My luck with bringing patriotic recipe ideas to fruition hasn't been very good in the past couple of years.

Until today, I literally had one- just one- 4th of July themed recipe on the blog.

My Red, White, & Berry Cupcakes are fun & absolutely delicious, but you will have to excuse the photos if you click over to take a peek at them.  

But after those cupcakes, my red, white, & blue recipe mojo went kaput. 

Some of you all may recall the Patriotic Pie Fail from last summer.  It looked amazing and like a real winner before I cut into it... but after I cut into? One big delicious, goopy mess.

And I was about to give up on this Fourth of July as well.  Two recipe fails in a row this month- one was a burnt tart and the other was cake bars that refused to bake all the way through and set up. 

(If you happen to follow me on Instagram, you were probably a firsthand witness to those recipe flops of mine.) I was about to throw the towel in and finally accept my fate that I was not meant to publish another patriotic inspired recipe ever again on the blog.

But then inspiration struck...

I spied Duncan Hines Blue Velvet Cake Mix on the grocery store shelf... and then my mind wandered to the White Chocolate Peeps Cookiewiches I made in April... and BOOM! :)

Why not make cookiewiches with blue velvet cookies?

And sure, I could have just made a plain ole buttercream and colored it red and called it a day, but what fun is that? ;)

So instead, I sandwiched a sweet & tart fresh raspberry buttercream between the cookies. 

And whoa! Just whoa, folks...