Chocolate-Raspberry Cake Recipe

This cake is such a simple, yet sensational classic that is sure to delight even your most discerning of guests. This is one of my favorite recipes from Martha Stewart

Source: Martha Stewart Living, February 2016

Source: Martha Stewart Living, February 2016


This beauty is baked with a splash of Chambord and layered with a sweet raspberry filling, both of which offer bright counterpoints to the thick layer of chocolate-cream cheese frosting and whole berries scattered on top.


IRS Clarifies "Gift Tax Uncertainty" thru 2025

Good news from Daniel Dobbs,  VP-Broker of Mutual Home Mortgage:


The IRS won’t act retroactively on gifted monies after the 2017 cuts expire in 2025.

Bloomberg: The IRS is proposing a potential benefit for taxpayers, saying that individuals who give gifts to their heirs under a temporary provision of the 2017 tax overhaul won’t later owe taxes on those gifts.

The 2017 tax law doubled the value of assets which can be transferred to heirs without triggering federal estate or gift taxes over a lifetime, bringing lifetime caps to $11.2 million for individuals & $22.4 million for a couple.

The thresholds rise in 2019 & more in later years before expiring in 2025, when exemptions are set to revert back to half of their current levels.

Amounts over exemption levels are taxed at 40%.

Estate planning professionals were worried in 2026, the IRS might attempt to collect taxes on gifts already made under the doubled exemptions.

The IRS said Nov. 20, it wouldn’t seek such retroactive taxes. “This is definitely good news — it takes uncertainty off the table,” said Lester Law, an estate and trust planning lawyer in Washington. 

Law added taxpayers shouldn’t wait to take advantage of the exemption, because the 2017 tax revisions can be “rolled back” so its “use it or lose it.”

Individual gifts are still limited by the annual exclusion, of $15,000 this year.

The IRS plans to hold a hearing on the proposed rule March 13, 2019.


Daniel Dobbs has over 38 years,of experience funding loans and is certified by the California Bureau of Real Estate and National Mortgage Licensing System.

If a client is “flawed”; I’ll tell ASAP, & save you many hours of working on a deal that can’t close.