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Raspberry Buttercream Cake: Happy Birthday Little Blog!

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Raspberry Buttercream CakeExactly a year ago today, I wrote my very first blog post! So, happy birthday little blog! I’ve already put up the streamers! I’ve organized a little party! And – duh, duh, double duh! – I baked a delicious cake to celebrate! I’m so excited! And I’m so proud! So you’ll just have to forgive me all those exclamation marks! I can’t help myself!!!

What an amazing year it’s been! I’ve learned so much about blogging! Did you know it took me ages and ages to write my first – say – 20 blog posts? I even suffered from the occasional writer’s block! But those days are long gone now… And what about my food photography? A few days ago I looked back on my first food photos and I actually cringed! And hey, these days I actually know what an FTP client is. Sounds pretty clever, right? Sure, I still don’t know how to use it, but who cares?! My food blog is one today!

Sing a little song! Do a little dance! And – most importantly – eat a little cake! Or a lot of cake… This cake!

Raspberry Buttercream Cake I’ve been wanting to post this recipe ever since I first started the blog. I didn’t include it in the to-bake shortlist I included in my first post, but it’s been in the back of my mind ever since the Rocking Rebel first came up with this recipe.

No, I didn’t come up with this beauty. My gorgeous, perfect boyfriend did! He actually made it for my 25th birthday last year. Usually, I’m the one who bakes the cakes around our house. And my mom’s house. And my sister’s house. I’m the family cake baker, so whenever we have a birthday in the family, I bake cake. That’s how it has been for years and everyone seems very happy about it.

But guess what? It’s no fun to bake your own cake. Wait, that’s not true. Baking cakes is always fun, but it’s a lot more fun to be surprised! You see, when I have a birthday coming up, the Rocking Rebel starts sneaking around the house, smuggling wrapping paper and other gift wrapping supplies down to our basement. I usually figure out that he’s up to something when all the scissors have mysteriously gone missing. He also pays unexpected, last-minute visits to the supermarket, after which I’m usually banned from the kitchen because he’s making me something.Like I said: it’s a lot more fun that baking!

Anyway, last year he wanted to make me a cake. It wasn’t really a surprise because he had come to me for tips and advise, but it was probably one of the best birthday gifts ever! I mean, he stayed up until three in the morning, slaving away in the kitchen just to make me a homemade birthday cake! It was so thoughtful and sweet and perfect!

Raspberry Buttercream CakeSo this is the Rocking Rebel’s recipe: a moist vanilla cake, imbibed with a fruity raspberry syrup, filled with a delicious, velvety raspberry buttercream and decorated with whipped cream, fresh raspberries and chocolate curls!

Just the way I like my cakes…

The recipe may seem a little daunting (because it’s LONG!) but the steps shouldn’t be too intimidating. It’s just a little mixing and baking. You do need a sugar or a candy thermometer for the buttercream, but really the cake is a breeze to make. I mean, the Rocking Rebel never bakes! Never ever ever! And when he made this cake, it came out beautiful! Sure, the Rocking Rebel is incredibly talented in a lot of different ways and he has a knack for figuring things out, but still he is definitely a novice baker…

So feel reassured. Make this cake!

Raspberry Buttercream CakeThat’s not all! Because today is such an exciting day I’ve got a little gift for my trusty readers too! Today, I’m giving away a $50 Amazon Gift Card! Because hey, you can never have enough cookbooks! I just ordered ‘Sally’s Baking Addiction‘ a few days ago! And I’ve had my eye on a particular Katie Melua album for some time now! But you know Amazon: it’s got basically everything you could ever wish for!

To enter this giveaway, just answer a simple question in the Giveaway Widget below. You can increase your chances of winning by also liking me on Facebook and tweeting about this giveaway!

This giveaway is open until Friday, April 4th, 2014 at 12:00AM UTC+1. Winner will be chosen randomly and announced on this post. I will email the winner and if the winner doesn’t respond within 48 hours, a new winner will be chosen.

THIS GIVEAWAY HAS BEEN CLOSED.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

But back to the cake! It’s delicious and fruity and – come to think of it – kind of perfect for the beautiful spring weather we’ve been having here lately. Okay, today was a bit rainy, but yesterday the Rocking Rebel and I spent a gorgeous afternoon sunbathing on a picnic blanket in a farmer’s field with Lucy!

So spring can’t be far away, right?

Raspberry Buttercream CakeDon’t forget to enter the giveaway!

Enjoy!

Update 1st of March, 2014: the recipe has been updated after some of my readers discovered mysterious words which turned out to be Dutch. I’m sorry for the confusion!

4.8 from 23 reviews
Raspberry Buttercream Cake
 
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This cake is best made over the course of two days. Bake the cake on the evening of the first day and allow it to cool thoroughly in the fridge overnight. On the second day, make the syrup and the buttercream and assemble the cake.
Author:
Serves: 16
Ingredients
For the cake:
  • 180ml (or ½ cup) whole milk
  • 180g (or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, cubed
  • 250g (or 2 cups) all-purpose flour
  • 3 teaspoons of baking powder
  • ⅜ teaspoon table salt
  • 450g (or 1½ cups) sugar
  • 4,5 large eggs
  • ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
For the buttercream:
  • 100g (or 1 cup) frozen raspberries. Use a little more if you want to use fresh.
  • 1 tablespoon of water
  • 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar
  • 180g (or ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon) granulated sugar
  • 60ml (or ¼ cup) water
  • 3 egg whites
  • a pinch of salt
  • 240g (or 1 cup and 1 tablespoon) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cubed*
For the syrup:
  • 50g (or ¼ cup) granulated sugar
  • 60ml (or ¼ cup) water
  • either 1 teaspoon raspberry eau de vie or liqueur (or even kirsch), or ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
For the whipped cream:
  • 300ml whipping cream
  • 1½ tablespoons granulated sugar
To decorate:
  • 22 beautiful, fresh raspberries
  • 2 cups of chocolate curls, I used store bought.
Instructions
Start with the cake:
  1. Start by preheating your oven to 175°C/350°F (standard oven setting) and butter two 20-cm/8-inch round baking pans (I used two springform pans). Line the bottoms of the pans with baking parchment so the cakes will come out easily.
  2. Next, combine the milk and cubed butter in a small saucepan. Heat gently over low heat until the mixture feels warm when you dip your finger in it. Take the saucepan off the heat and stir until the butter has melted. Because the pan and the milk are warm, the butter should melt nicely. Once all the butter has melted set the mixture aside to cool to room temperature.
  3. In the meantime, combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Stir together with a fork and set aside.
  4. Add the sugar, eggs and vanilla to a medium-sized bowl and stir together with a rubber spatula. Fit the bowl over a pan of simmering water (making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water) and heat gently, stirring with a spatula until the sugar has dissolved. To check whether the sugar has dissolved, rub a little of the egg mixture between your thumb and index finger; you should no longer feel any sugar grains.
  5. Take the bowl off the heat and start mixing the mixture with a stand or a hand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment(s). Mix until the mixture is pale and fluffy and has cooled to room temperature. Again, use your finger to make sure.
  6. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and use a rubber spatula to fold them in. As soon as the dry ingredients have absorbed the wet ingredients, give the mixture a quick mix with the mixture. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, and mix for another second or so. The mixture should look smooth.
  7. Give the milk and butter mixture a stir and dip your finger in it to make sure it’s no longer warm (body temperature is perfect) and that the butter and milk are incorporated.
  8. Add half of the milk mixture and mix until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula if needed. Add the remaining milk mixture and mix until smooth again. Don’t overmix, as soon as the batter looks smooth and the milk mixture is mixed in, stop mixing.
  9. Divide the batter between the two prepared baking pans and rap each pan sharply on the countertop to make sure there aren’t any big air pockets in the batter. Bake for 35 minutes, or until the cakes have turned a gorgeous golden brown and a tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
  10. Take the pans out of the oven and allow the cakes to cool in the pan for about 15 minutes then take the cakes out of the pan completely or just remove the springform collars (if you were using sprinform pans). Allow to cool to room temperature, wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight. I did the latter. A cool cake is so much easier to work with.
The next day, start by making the raspberry puree for the buttercream:
  1. Combine the raspberries, the tablespoon of water and the teaspoon of sugar in a small saucepan. Heat over low heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Once the sugar has dissolved, crank the heat up to medium-high and, using the back of a spoon, squash the berries against the sides of the pan. Allow the mixture to briefly come to a boil, then take it off the heat.
  2. Transfer the berries to a blender or the bowl of a food processor. Blitz until smooth. If you don’t like raspberry seeds in your buttercream (I love those little seeds) pass the puree to a sieve. Leave to cool to room temperature.
In the meantime, make the syrup:
  1. To a small saucepan, add the sugar and the water. Heat over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Once the sugar has dissolved and the syrup is clear, take the pan off the heat and pour the syrup in a mug. Allow to cool to room temperature, measure off 60ml (or ¼ cup) of syrup (discard the rest) and stir in the liquor, eau de vie or kirsch.
Finish the buttercream:
  1. Combine the rest of the sugar and water in a small saucepan. Heat over low heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Once the sugar has dissolved, crank up the heat and clip on a sugar thermometer. Cook the syrup until it reaches 114°C/238°F. As the syrup cooks, the water will evaporate. Make sure the sugar syrup does not get any hotter than 114°C/238°F, because the chemical properties of sugar change as it heats.
  2. While the syrup is cooking, mix together the egg whites and salt in a medium-sized, heatproof bowl. Once the sugar syrup reaches 114°C/238°F, immediately take it off the heat and carefully drizzle the hot sugar syrup into the beaten egg whites down the sides of the mixing bowl, mixing continuously. Don't pour the syrup directly onto the whisk attachment of the mixer, because the hot syrup may splatter. Once all of the syrup has been added, raise the mixer's speed to high and mix until the meringue has cooled to room temperature. This takes about 10 minutes.
  3. When the meringue is cool enough, start adding the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, waiting until each tablespoon of butter is incorporated before adding the next. Once all the butter has been added, the resulting buttercream should be smooth and thick.
  4. If the buttercream looks curdled the butter was either too cold or the meringue (or the bowl) was still too hot before the butter was added. To fix curdled buttercream, first determine what caused the curdling. Rub a little buttercream between your thumb and index finger. If you feel (or even see) hard butter particles, the butter was too cold. Place the bowl with the buttercream over a pan of simmering water (making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water) for 10 seconds, mixing continuously. The heat of the steam will melt the butter into the meringue. After 10 seconds, take the bowl of the heat and mix until smooth. Or repeat if necessary. If there are no hard butter particles, feel the sides of the bowl. If it’s warm, the meringue was still too hot before the butter was added. Place the buttercream in the fridge for about 15 minutes, then mix until smooth.
  5. Once you’re happy with the consistency of the buttercream, make sure the raspberry puree has cooled to room temperature. If it has, mix it into the buttercream.
Assemble the cake:
  1. First make sure your cake will fit in your refrigerator. Clear a space if necessary. Using a serrated knife, remove any dome from the cakes to level it and carefully split each cake in half. Make sure to keep your knife perfectly level (place your other hand on top of the cakes; this will give you more control over the knife). I actually didn't split the cakes in half, but sliced of 1½-cm (or a little over half an inch) layers, after I leveled the tops.
  2. Reserve one of the bottom layers of the cakes for the top of the finished cake. Place a small dollop of buttercream in the middle of a serving plate and place one of the remaining three cake layers on top of it (press the cake layer down onto the plate). The buttercream will prevent the cake from slipping. Place the serving plate on top of a rotating cake stand or a lazy Susan.
  3. Using a pastry brush, brush the top of the cake layer with the orange syrup. Don't overdo it, you don't want the cake to become soggy. Just pretend you're making a watercolor painting. Scoop about ¾ of a cup of buttercream on top of the cake layer and, using a spatula, spread it evenly over the top of the cake layer, pushing it towards and a little over the sides of the layer with your spatula. This 'overhanging' buttercream will make frosting the assembled cake a lot easier.
  4. Place the second layer neatly on top of the first and press down lightly. Repeat this process of brushing and frosting with buttercream until you come to the fourth and final layer. Place the cake layer you reserved neatly, flat-dark-side up, on top of the cake. At this point, you should have a cake with four visible cake layers and some overhanging buttercream. The cake now needs to be crumb coated. A crumb coat is a thin layer of frosting that locks in the crumbs of the cake and thus keeps the crumbs out of the final layer of frosting.
  5. Crumb coat the cake by using a spatula to smooth the overhanging buttercream over the sides of the cake, pushing it over the top edge of the cake. If necessary, add some more buttercream to the sides of the cake until you have a nice thin coating. Use the excess buttercream you pushed over the top edge of the cake to thinly frost the top. It doesn't matter if there are any crumbs visible in the frosting. Place the cake in the fridge for 60 minutes to allow the crumb coat to harden.
In the meantime, whip up the cream:
  1. In a medium-sized bow, combine the whipping cream and sugar. Mix until the cream holds soft peaks. Take the cake out of the fridge and place it on a rotating cake stand or lazy Susan again. Using a spatula, frost the sides and top of the cake with a thin layer of whipped cream. Make sure the whipped cream completely covers the pink buttercream.
  2. Gently press handfuls of the chocolate curls against the sides of the cake. Because the sides of the cake have been frosted, the chocolate should stick. Transfer the remaining whipped cream to a piping bag with a large open tip and pipe 16 large dollops of cream on top of the cake. Place a fresh raspberry on each dollop. Place the remaining raspberries in the center of the top of the cake.
  3. Can be stored in the fridge for about 3 days, but be careful if you store strong-smelling foods, such as stinky cheeses or garlicky sauces in the fridge too. The smell (and taste) can transfer to the cake. Allow the cake to come to room temperature for about 3 hours before serving. Buttercream needs to be served at room temperature, otherwise it will be unpleasantly firm, so make sure to allow the buttercream to soften completely before serving.
Notes
* The temperature of the butter is very important. Whenever I make buttercream, I make sure I allow the butter to soften to room temperature for about 2 hours, or until the butter has softened to the point when I can very easily press my finger into it.

 

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Comments

    • Hi Lori, nice to meet you! They are amazing, aren’t they! The Rocking Rebel and I love chili, so next time we’re having chili for dinner, I’m going to try it with these rolls 🙂

  4. OMG~the Raspberry butter cream cake looks so De-Lish.
    Happy Birthday~little blog~and I love the dog treats recipe.
    So Nice to meet you~and thank-you for the giveaway. 😉

  6. happy blog birthday, and many more. I must say, your caramelized onion bread is amazing!!

  7. Wow! the Raspberry buttercream cake looks so delicious. I have to make this!! Happy Birthday on the one year!

  8. I love your blueberry muffin recipe – specifically, I love that you use sour cream glaze!

  9. The almond and coconut candy bar will be the ingredients in my grocery list this week. Sounds delish.

  11. Happy birthday and Congrats!
    I am absolutely going to try this RASPBERRY BUTTERCREAM CAKE recipe! Like I need it LOL! I rated it 4 stars just because it looks incredible! The real rating will come once I actually make it 🙂

  12. Right at this moment I am gonna say this cake is my favorite. I haven’t tried it but it’s GORGEOUS! Otherwise, I would have to say white chocolate raspberry brownies. YUM.

  13. I believe my favorite would have to be the caramel molasses cookies. Also my babies love the dog snack. Thank you for the chance to enter in this great giveaway.

  15. We all love Carrot Cake in our house, so the Carrot Cake with cream cheese frosting sounds like a winner!!

  23. Well, I am brand new to your blog so I haven’t actually tried any of your recipes but having just browsed through them. I think that I will really enjoy your cinnamon bun recipe! They look so light and flaky. I’m going to try to make them today (or tomorrow if butter is an unreasonable price in my small town!). I like to call them buns rather than rolls too.
    By the way, I love the way you write and your humour!

  24. My favorite recipe??? There are so very many! Yikes…. hard to choose! OK…. how about this one, Apple and Blueberry Crumble with Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream for Katrina of Warm Vanilla Sugar!!! Love this one for sure! I have copied and will be giving it a try! So glad I found your blog….. this is my first visit but NOT my last!

  27. Happy birthday little blog. The cake looks absolutely wonderful, and I love how everything is staged in the photos. Beautiful work.

  28. My favorite is the Tiramisu Cheesecake. This recipe looks so delicious.

  30. I like the Mini Drambuie Trifles. Looks light and I will make it with less sugar.

  31. Dulce de Leche Cookies>>> I like them crunch(over done) and the rest of the family chewy

  36. Oh how I want your camera. These photos of the cake are so amazing. I want a camera that can take photos like this!! I love how that the focus is on what you want it to be on, and the rest of the image has that soft blur. Gahhhhh I love it. It looks so awesome. Dang I wish I could win a nice camera; it’s the only way I’ll get one.

    Uhmm, yeah, so I’m rambling. This isn’t supposed to be about cameras.

    I’ll name the recipe that I like as being this one for the Raspberry Butter Cream Cake, because it looks so good that I could eat the monitor. (Those amazing pics! Ahhh! Oh this is depressing.)

    Happy bloggie birthday.

    • Thanks Stephen, I actually own a pretty ancient camera: a Nikon D80… Trust me, my first pictures weren’t so good 🙂

  41. Raspberry buttercream cake looks so delicious but my all time favorite would have to be carrot cake 😉 thanks

  44. I wish to try making and baking your ” Pumpkies ” I think they might be a Halloween time fave! I need to figure out how much pumpkin puree to use? I like to measure by cups for solids…

    • Hi Tooth Fairy, sorry it took me so long to get back to you. When I started the blog, I really wasn’t in the habit of giving cup measurements yet, so it took me a while to figure it out 🙂

      I will update the recipe soon, but for now: you’ll need about 1¾ cup homemade pumpkin purée. Or, if you want to use store bought pumpkin purée instead, use a 14-ounce can of natural, unsweetened pumpkin purée and mix it with ¼ cup of water.

      Hope this helps 🙂

  46. My favorite recipe is the Raspberry-Chocolate Torte. Have made it twice and it’s a hit.

  48. Congrats on your one year and I like the raspberry buttercream cake so far.

  49. Now Im hungry! The Raspberry Buttercream cake is something I want to try to make! Thanks for the recipe and the contest!

  54. Happy BlogBirthday! I love raspberry cake… I’ll try this recipe…. 🙂 🙂

  56. Mt favorite recipe? That’s a tuff one. They all look soooo good. The Cinnamon Buns look really good. But, if I absolutely had to pick just one, I think I would pick the Tiramisu Cheesecake. Its a little different. I love Tiramisu and I love Cheesecake so I’m sure I’d love that. I’m going to have to try that here real soon. Thanks!

  57. This raspberry buttercream cake looks really good. I make a strawberry white chocolate cake that looks similar, and I love it, so I’m sure I’d love this cake. Love fresh fruit!

  59. I feel like saying this one would be cheating, so I’ll say the double blueberry muffins (especially with the yummy sweet sour cream drizzle!)

  61. Happy one year to your blog !!! Really I love all these wonderful desserts but when I saw the word Tiramisu I am going with Tiramisu Cheesecake. I love Tiramisu everything.

  63. Oh happy blog birthday, that’s an exciting day for you. 🙂
    Here’s to the next fabulous year of blogging!
    My favorite post was the making caramel one (a delicate situation, when you’re trying not to burn your whole kitchen), since i’m all up for learning the basic tricks. 🙂 So thanks for that one!

    • Thanks Luchessa! I totally agree with you: clarifying the basics makes a lot of other recipes a whole lot easier 😉

  70. Happy Bloganniversary!
    I m new on your blog and very happy to follow you amazing world of tasty recipes!
    Thank you for sharing!looks delicious!
    Have a lovely continuation!

  71. I really want to try making this but excuse my ignorance…what is suiker, eiwitten and boter? It looks heavenly!

    • Hi Suzanne, I’m so sorry! Please don’t feel ignorant! Those are the Dutch words for sugar, egg whites and butter! I completely forgot to translate them when I first attached the recipe 😉

      So… Pardon my Dutch! Let me know how the cake turns out!

  77. can you overnight me some of the cake?? lol.. looks amazing …happy bday blog and thanks for giveaway 🙂

  81. Yum I really like raspberries with chocolate so I would probably like this.