Cooking With Raspberries Series – Vanilla Raspberry Layer Cake With Buttercream Frosting

That definitely sounds like a dream to me, but I managed to pull it off pretty well! Wohoo!! And as promised, I dedicate this one to my dearest teammates for something special we achieved then, which we do not know will persist or not. But as always, we celebrate the moment; three cheers to the awesome bunch of people I work with.

Now imagine this – You are alone at home on Friday night after a stressful week at work. You can cook but you prefer not to; so do not have the burden of cooking dinner upon you. Isn’t that the perfect time to bake away and make a complete mess out of your kitchen? And after a satisfying home delivered dinner when you relax, cut a thin slice of that goodness and feel “out of this world”. Oh, there’s no better stress buster than this!

Again, the next day morning, savour a thinner slice of that goodness for breakfast, not having to answer the question, “Seriously! A cake for breakfast?” The little perks of those occasional lonely stints are so precious!

I managed to gobble up 1/4^th of the cake by next morning and when my better half landed, we managed to lick clean another 1/2 of the cake just in a matter of a day. The rate at which we were getting at it, we thought, “let’s slow down, we’ve just another slice or two for both left, so let us try hard and get it through Sunday”. 

The finishing is not fine; next time will try hard with patience and icing sugar! :P

Well, did I say this was a dump and mix cake? Yes, no waiting for eggs to fluff up, sugar to be creamed and no prolonged mixing; dump all ingredients, give it a 2 minutes mix and the batter is ready. This is completely passable and no one will ever know this is a dump and mix cake! A recipe you can keep handy when you have to whip up something nice in just in a matter of minutes.

Talking about the buttercream frosting, believe me, this one is a keeper. Pretty simple and ONLY use salted butter; that makes all the difference. I used a couple of tablespoons of heavy whipping cream and that sort of nailed it! The only change I would make next time would be using icing sugar instead of homemade icing sugar, so that I get smooth buttercream to work with; this one had very fine grains.

Raspberry marmalade simply makes it out of the world. Need I say more? Ready my post dedicated to raspberry marmalade!

Homemade raspberry marmalade spread on the cake! 

Dump and Mix Vanilla Cake

YOU NEED

All-purpose flour , 2 cups

Baking powder, 2 tsp

Coarsely powdered sugar, 1 cup 

Large egg whites, 4, at room temperature

Whole milk, just over 160 ml

Salted butter, 78 grams, softened and cut in cubes (If using unsalted, add about ¼ tsp of salt)

Vanilla essence, 2 tsp

Raspberry marmalade, 2-3 tbsp (or any other fruit jam or preserve of your choice) 

HOW TO

Preheat oven at 180 degree Celsius

Grease two 7 inch baking pans; I did not have 2 pans of same size so, I had to bake each layer one after the other.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour and baking powder (and salt, if using), and whisk in sugar, ensuring everything is spread nicely.

Add rest of the ingredients and using an electric mixer, combine ingredients at low speed.

Now, increase the speed to high and mix for another two minutes.

Divide this batter into two pans and bake for 22-30 minutes. Check at 22 minutes.

Cool completely.

Buttercream Frosting

YOU NEED

Salted butter, ½ cup, in room temperature

Icing sugar, 2 cups (if you do not want it too sweet, you can try 1 ½ cup, taste and then add as required)

Heavy whipping cream, 2-3 tbsp (you could also try with heavy cream, coffee creamer and the like)

Vanilla essence, 1.5 tsp

HOW TO

Using an electric beater, whip up the butter until pale. Add in the icing sugar in batches and beat to combine after every addition. Add in cream and vanilla; keep mixing until fluffy and stiff enough. I also added a pinch of red colour. 

Assembling the cake

Using a serrated knife or cake slicer (this is a cool tool and I’m soon going to buy it), level the top of cakes. I being a lazy bum did it for the lower layer and left the top layer as it is, and the result was a doom shaped top :P

Apply marmalade on top of the lower layer and place the other on top of it.

Now, working from the sides, give it a thin coating of the frosting. It need not be neat, but make sure edges are covered properly. Now apply generously over the sides and smoothen it.

I finished it with some sprinklers.

Refrigerate the cake for an hour or so, before slicing and serving.