Raspberries, definitely one of the best things you can find here in BC 😀 . This year we did raspberry picking at Driediger farms, I swear I have never seen raspberries so massive, juicy and an absolute delight. Little miss literally sat in the farm smushing and eating raspberries when we were picking. Fresh raspberries are obviously best for the cake, but you can use frozen too. You will definitely want to make this before the berry season is all gone.
Raspberry and Orange Blossom Cake
The Raspberry and Orange Blossom Cake, consists of layers of
- Fresh raspberry cake: 6″ cake made with the freshest raspberries tucked in the lightest and fluffiest vanilla cake.
- Raspberry Jam: the most delightful homemade raspberry jam, you can obviously swap it for a store bought one too!
- Orange Blossom Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting: more stable than the regular American Buttercream and certainly more delicious. The slight hint of the floral notes from orange blossom water is an absolute flavour party in your mouth.
- Top with a bunch more of the fresh raspberries as this brings it all together at the end of the day!
Cake tins: I use 3 x 6″ cake tins from Fat Daddio’s
Raspberry and Orange Blossom Cake
Raspberry layer cake filled with homemade raspberry Jam and frosted with orange blossom SMBC
Ingredients
Homemade Raspberry Jam
- 1 kg Fresh/ Frozen Raspberries about 2 pounds
- 700 gm Sugar 3½ cups
- 30-50 ml Lemon Juice 2 -3 tbsp
Raspberry Layer Cake (3x 6")
- 225 gm Salted Butter 2 sticks
- 200 gm Granulated Sugar 1 cup
- 4 L Eggs
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- 125 ml Buttermilk ½ cup (substitute with same amount milk +2 tsp lemon juice)
- 240 gm All purpose Flour 2 cups
- 2 tsp Baking powder
- 200 gm Fresh/ frozen raspberries (1 tbsp of flour to coat the raspberries, this helps the rasp
Orange Blossom Swiss Meringue Buttercream
- 3 L Egg Whites approx 90-95gm
- 300 gm Salted Butter (Soft Room Temperature) 2¾ stick
- 200 gm Granulated Sugar 1 cup
- 2 tsp Orange blossom water
- 2 tsp Lemon juice/ vinegar for cleaning the bowl
Garnish
- Raspberries
Instructions
Homemade Raspberry Jam
In a big heavy bottomed pan, add the raspberries and sugar. Let it cook for 5 minutes and add the lemon juice.
Once the raspberries start breaking down and cooking.
Remove from heat and try to strain 3/4 of the syrupy raspberries. This strains out most of the seeds. (I like to keep some seeds)
Let it cook for 20-25 minutes on medium heat until it gets thick. You can let it cook enough for your desired consistency.
Remove from heat and store in clean sterilised glass bottles. If you "Can" it properly, this jam can last upto 6 months.
Raspberry Layer Cake (3x 6")
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/ 350°F . Grease and line the cake tins with parchment paper.°
If you don't have buttermilk, mix the lemon juice and milk in a small bowl. Set it aside for now.
In a bowl fitted with a paddle attachment on a stand mixer or you can even use a hand mixer or a whisk (If you feel like an arm workout 😀 ). Add the butter and sugar.
Cream the butter and sugar on medium speed for about 3-5 minutes or until its light and fluffy.
Add and beat one egg at a time. Add the buttermilk (lemon+milk) and vanilla extract.
Sift in the flour and baking powder, gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
Coat the raspberries with flour by shaking it in a bowl. Divide the cake batter into the three cake pans. Fill the pans half way and then add the flour coated raspberries and top it with rest of the cake batter.
Bake for 25-27 minutes. Check with a wooden skewer to see if completely baked or until its golden and bouncy.
Remove the cakes from the cake tins and let it cool on a cooling rack.
Orange Blossom Swiss Meringue Buttercream (SMBC)
Clean the bowl, whisk, whisk attachment and spatula using the lemon juice or vinegar.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the egg whites and sugar. Over a double boiler / pan with simmering water, whisk the mixture gently until the sugar is completely dissolved. Check by rubbing your fingers to check if the sugar is grainy.
Once the sugar completely dissolved, move the bowl to the mixer and whisk on medium high until stiff peaks are formed. Check to see if the bowl is cool to touch. (this step takes about 10-12 minutes)
Add orange blossom water. As you are whisking the meringue, start adding small cubes of the soft butter (small chunks) into the meringue. keep whisking and initially it will look a bit like its curdled but it will all come together. (see recipe notes for troubleshooting)
Fill up the ¾ of buttercream in a piping bag to help in frosting the cake. Leave the rest in the bowl, use this for coating the cake layers.
Assembly of the cake:
On a cake board/plate, add a dollop of frosting. Place the bottom layer of the cake.
using an offset spatula, spread a thin layer of frosting on the top of the cake layer. Pipe a "dam" of frosting around the edge of the cake layer.
Fill the center of this dam area with raspberry jam. Repeat for the middle layer. Add the final top layer and coat the cake with a thin layer of frosting around the cake. Let the cake cool in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Pipe the frosting around and using a cake scraper smoothen the icing on the cake. Garnish with fresh/ frozen raspberries.
Serve with a cup of tea!
Recipe Notes
Notes:
If your SMBC is too runny, it is probably because your meringue mix was still warm when you added the butter. Cool the bowl in the fridge with your buttercream for 10-15 minutes and whip again.
If your SMBC is too thick, warm up the bowl very lightly and try whipping again.
The SMBC can be saved in the freezer for upto 2 months.
A few other summer cakes:
Happy Baking
xx