Are you all still following along on my week of baking? I hope so! I hope you have been having as much fun making cakes as I have.
I decided to make this cake a little lighter. I decided on a delicate vanilla layer cake paired with a summery raspberry frosting and topped with raspberry compote.
How to make raspberry compote.
I love raspberry compote. I always make extra so I have enough to serve it on the side of the cake too.
Here are some tips to make a good and successful compote
- Heat up the raspberries before you add the sugar.
- Add the sugar and the lemon zest at the same time.
- Strain out the seeds. This helps to make a smooth compote.
- Always cook out the cornstarch.
After trying time and time again to make a fluffy white layer cake, I feel like I finally have it figured out. In my opinion, it’s the perfect combination of the things that I talk about in this post (add link).
One of my favorite things about this recipe is that you can switch out the raspberries for whatever fruit you like!
Some of my favorites are:
Blackberry
Strawberry
Mango
Peach
Plum
Tips for stacking this cake
- Make sure your cake layers are frozen or at least cold.
- When you add the raspberry compote to each layer (after the frosting), don’t go too crazy with it. Remember you can always serve extra on the side (which I fully recommend).
- Don’t forget your crumb coat! Lock those crumbs in to make sure you have a beautifully smooth, frosted cake.
How to serve and store your cake
I like to serve my cake at room temperature, but Jake, my husband, doesn’t care much for room temperature cake, he likes his drenched in milk and in a bowl. Other people I know like theirs served cold. The truth is, anyway you serve it, it will be delicious. If you need help with cutting your cake, check out my blog post here (insert link).
If you have any leftover cake (which doesn’t usually happen around here), you can wrap it up with plastic wrap and store it in the freezer for up to 3 months, or in the fridge for 5 days.
Happy Baking, you cuties 🙂
Recipe
Vanilla Berry Cake
Ingredients
For the cake
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1¾ cup granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- 3 large whole eggs room temperature
- 3 large egg whites room temperature
- ⅓ cups sour cream room temperature
- 1 tablespoon clear vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1¼ cups buttermilk room temperature
For the raspberry Compote
- 4 cups fresh or frozen raspberries
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup water added to raspberry mixture
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (or just the juice from one lemon)
- zest from one lemon
- ¼ cup water used for the cornstarch slurry
- ¼ cup cornstarch
For the Vanilla Buttercream
- 2 cups unsalted butter room temperature
- 7 cups powder sugar sifted
- ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
For the raspberry buttercream filling
- 1 cup vanilla buttercream recipe
- 3 tablespoons raspberry compote
Instructions
For the cake
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Prepare three 8-inch or four 6-inch round cake pans by taking oil and a paper towel, and evenly distributing oil to the sides and the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle some flour on top of the oil, making sure it’s evenly coated. Dump out excess. Set aside.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, oil, and sugar on high until fluffy and smooth, about 4 minutes.
- Add the eggs and the egg whites, one at a time to the bowl and beat on medium until well incorporated. Making sure that you scrape down the sides each time. Add the sour cream and vanilla, beat on medium speed for a minute.
- Turn the mixer on low and add ½ of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until fully incorporated. Then add half of the buttermilk and blend well, followed by the rest of the flour mixture, and the rest of the buttermilk while mixing on low.
- Evenly distribute the cake batter among the three 8-inch or four 6-inch pans and bake for 23 to 28 minutes, until a toothpick comes out with just a few moist crumbs on it or until it starts to get a little golden brown on top.
- Remove cakes from the oven and let them cool in pans for 15 minutes before taking them out of the pan and placing them on cooling racks.
- When cakes are completely cooled, wrap each cake layer individually with plastic wrap and stick it in the refrigerator or freezer until you’re ready to frost. If you are a beginner, I recommend putting them the freezer because it is so much easier to frost a slightly frozen cake.
For the vanilla buttercream
- In a bowl fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed for about 3 minutes.
- Add powdered sugar, and heavy cream. Mix on low.
- Before frosting your cake, use a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to hand mix the frosting to push out any air bubbles.
For the raspberry buttercream filling
- Add the raspberry compote to 1 cup of the vanilla buttercream and beat until evenly combined.
assembly
- If the cakes need to be leveled, level each cake layer with a knife or cake leveler.
- Place the first cake layer on a cake board top side down, and top with ½ or ⅓ cup raspberry buttercream (depending on if it's 8-inch or 6-inch cake layers) and then add a thin layer of raspberry compote
- Repeat step two with the remaining cake layers. Place the final cake layer top-side down.
- Apply a thin crumb coat with the vanilla buttercream around the cake and chill for 15 minutes in the freezer to set.
- Finish frosting the cake with the remaining frosting.
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