Chocolate Cream Cheese Cake

Grease and flour three 8 x 1 1/2 or 9 x 1 1/2 inch cake pans, set aside.

In a large mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, set aside. In a mixing bowl beat together cream cheese butter or margarine and vanilla with an electric mixer on medium speed till fluffy. Add melted chocolate; beat till well blended.

Alternatively beat in the 8 cups powdered sugar and the 1/3-cup milk. Transfer 3 1/2 cups of the mixture to another large mixing bowl to use for part of the cake batter and set aside. You should have about 2 cups of the mixture remaining, which will be used for the frosting.

To this mixture, beat in enough to the additional 1-2 cups of sifted powdered sugar to make it a spreading consistency. Cover frosting and refrigerate till needed.

Add eggs to the 3-1/2 cups cream cheese mixture beat 1 minute at medium speed. Add flour mixture and the 1-cup milk alternatively to the egg mixture, beating at low speed after each addition just till combined.

Pour batter into prepared pans. (If you don't have 3 cake pans of the same size, chill a portion of the cake batter for up to 1 hour before baking.) Bake at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes for 8-inch pans and 22-25 minutes for 9-inch pans or till a tooth pick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove; cool on wire racks.

Remove frosting from refrigerator about 30 minutes before frosting the cake. Place one cake layer on serving plate; spread with half of the raspberry preserves. Top with second layer; spread with remaining jam. Top with third cake layer. Spread top and sides with frosting. Garnish top of cake with shaved white chocolate and raspberries if desired.