Here’s a raspberry version of Miette’s Tomboy that I made over the weekend for a birthday. 

I didn’t have very nice sides to the cake - as you can see from the pic I struggled with cracks and so on.  The top of the cake domed and then had two big cracks running across each other.  So I’m not really sure if the sides rose as high as they should.  Only two inches, I think. 

However, the change that I made that could have caused problems was a reduction in sugar - usually everyone complains about how sweet everything tastes, so I can never get away with baking with 100% of the sugar in a recipe - even Rose’s, which are not so sweet - because no one would eat the cakes.  This time I cut the sugar by 20% (although it was my first time baking the Tomboy, usually 20% is my initial guideline and works out ok)  but I think it was a bit too much because in retrospect I realised the high amount of cocoa and chocolate would have balanced out the sugar.  So next time I’ll have to cut less.

I don’t know if the sugar reduction (my only change) was what caused the top layer to be so fragile.  I’d like to try again anyway.

Edited to add:  verdict from my parents was that the cake was dry and there was too much buttercream.  So, I guess this cake won’t allow for the sugar reduction.  *sigh* beginning to think I should just make low-sugar muffins for birthdays, LOL.  Or stick with tried and true carrot cake :-(

Well it looks pretty and very, very tasty! I love the girly look to this! Raspberry and chocolate.. YUM!!

It looks sooo pretty!  It would make sense that a sugar reduction might contribute to cracking, as sugar weakens structure and too much structure (or heat) can be a cause of cracking. 

Would a genoise help you to reduce sugar without impairing texture?  It could be made as written and then for the syrup, the sugar could be reduced or omitted.  I have occaisionally syruped genoise with just liqueur and water, no added sugar.

I think your cake came out beautifully!  I have heard, also (and I’ve done this with the white velvet cake with success) that you can reduce the sugar and replace 1/2 the weight reduced with liquid.  So if you reduce sugar by 40g., you would add 20g more milk (or whatever) to account for the moisture the sugar provides.  It worked quite well for that particular cake! 

That anyone could gripe about that lovely tomboy!!! Why….I oughta!  Lemme at ‘em!

LOL Anne!  You are too funny   Thanks for all the input and compliments, everyone.  It’s good advice (and quite logical) to increase the liquid to compensate for the reduction in sugar.  I’ve managed to reduce the sugar in butter cakes without any adverse effect, but this one seems to have suffered - probably from the relatively high amount of cocoa.  I shall try increasing the liquid in future. 

Julie - I haven’t attempted a chocolate genoise yet… probably time to try.  But I do like the oil-based cakes for their moistness (i.e. when I’m not messing them up, haha).

Thanks again!

Your cake looks so pretty LittleIsland.  I really like the contast between the chocolate cake and the pink buttercream.  Very girly.

Your cake is beautiful. It looks just like it does in the book.

Adorable cake my friend, I am shocked beyond belief to hear those critiques you received! Why I ‘outta is RIGHT! Even if it tasted terrible, I would never say that to someone who loved me enough to hand make me a birthday cake! My birthday is in December, just send the next cake to MEEEEEEEE please! Seriously beautiful, don’t give up on it! Have you tried serving the people who don’t like sugar tiny, thin pieces? Sometimes, it can make a huge difference in perception if they can’t get an entire mouthful of whatever is very sweet in the first place. Just a thought! I cringe thinking of you feeling that way! You are a sweetheart to make that for them, an absolute doll <3