The best bit of parenting advice I ever received is this: don’t listen to anyone. My friend Patrick told my friend Lucas that when he had his daughter, and then Lucas told me. Shouldn’t all advice be so simple? You already know what’s up, just do it.
This is my way of telling you that both my daughters had birthdays this week and I’ve spent too much time scrolling through old pictures and crying. Not necessarily ugly crying, but still. This parenting stuff is real.
And where there are birthdays, there is cake. At least there really ought to be (I know that counts as advice and I’ve already said you shouldn’t listen to anyone, but cake is the exception). Not just any cake either, the goal should always be really, really good cake. Forget whatever’s painted in food coloring on the top, it is the crumb (OK, and the frosting) that matters.
For simplicity’s sake, we had one party for both girls. One party with two cakes.
The baby, who is now two and possibly not really a baby anymore, has yet to show a cake preference, so I looked deep into to her eyes and decided her cake would be chocolate with chocolate buttercream and white sprinkles. It turned out to be impossibly delicious and chocolaty, and she seemed cool with that. (Recipe forthcoming, I promise.)
My oldest daughter requested a cake with vanilla frosting, green garland, and pink flowers. Happily, this fell pretty well within my limited cake decorating ability. And since pink cake is awesome, I convinced her that the cake itself should be raspberry flavored. And so a quart of raspberries was purchased and pureed, a beet was grated, and we had a pink raspberry cake. I was mildly terrified that the cake would turn gray, so I left out the egg yolks and added extra beets for good measure. The pretty pink cake was moist, airy, and faintly fruity. I held back on the sugar, and loved the contrast of the lightly sweet crumb with the hopelessly rich and sweet buttercream.
Pink Raspberry Cake with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting (adapted from this strawberry lime cake by way of Smitten Kitchen)
makes a two layer (9-inch) cake
These directions are for the cake I made. Using the basic milk-dye formula, feel free to do colorful experiments with the cake or frosting colors.
for the raspberry cake
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
5 egg whites, room temperature
2 cups fresh raspberries
1/4 cup finely grated beets
1/2 cup whole milk, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two 9-inch cake pans with parchment circles, and then liberally butter and flour the parchment and pan sides. Set aside.
In a blender, puree the raspberries. Push the puree through a mesh strainer to remove the seeds. In the same blender, combine 1 cup raspberry puree (reserve the rest for the frosting), the grated beets, and the milk. Pour into a glass and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with beaters, beat the butter on low until pale and fluffy. Scrape the sides, and add the sugar, beating for a minute or two. Fold in the egg whites.
Next, with mixer on low, add half the raspberry milk mixture, and half the flour, and then the rest of the milk, and the rest of the flour. Use a silicone spatula to scrape the sides and fold the mixture together, ensuring that the color is well incorporated.
Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans, filling each two-thirds full. (I used this technique to try for more even layers and it worked.) Bake cakes for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few crumbs attached.
Set cakes aside to cool. After 15 minutes, flip cakes out of the baking pans and onto a rack to cool completely.
for the vanilla buttercream frosting
makes frosting for a 2-layer (9-inch) cake, plus extra for decorating
28 tablespoons butter (gulp, 3 1/2 sticks), room temperature
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
pinch of sea salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 – 2 tablespoons milk or raspberry puree, as needed
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a regular mixer, beat the butter until light and fluffy on medium speed. Slowly add the confectioners sugar, scraping down the sides often. Add the sea salt and vanilla extract, beat for another minute or two. If you are going for a cake with vanilla buttercream and pink and green accents, set aside a cup of the buttercream to be colored. Add a tablespoon or so of milk to the remaining buttercream until you have achieved a thick, but spreadable consistency.
for pink or green frosting
Add 1 – 2 tablespoons raspberry or spinach puree to a cup of buttercream frosting. Stir to incorporate, and decorate as needed.
to assemble the cake
If you’ve never decorated a cake before, this is great advice. Because I would be serving my cake on the most sweltering of summer days, and because I made the layers a day ahead, I refrigerated my layers, frosted the crumb coat, refrigerated again, frosted the main coat, refrigerated again, piped on the decoration, and refrigerated just until serving. Buttercream is, after all, made out of mostly butter and it melts really fast in the heat. Before serving, top with fresh raspberries and candles, present, slice, and serve.
Wonderful advice! I’m keeping this tucked away for when the time comes. Also, your daughters are so lucky to get such wonderful (and beautiful!) birthday cakes!!
Hi Kelli, Thank you so much! I’m glad you think so.
The cake looks beautiful… just, I hate buttercream frosting… what could I use instead?
Hi Petra, You could go with a meringue-based frosting or a simple citrus glaze (our recipe for one is here: http://brooklynsupper.com/2011/06/blood-orange-birthday-cake/), or a simple whipped cream frosting. I do think this cake could stand a little sweetness for contrast, so I would recommend some kind of sweet counterpoint.
Love the good cake. Need the good cake! Every birthday of the girl has included a stellar cake.
Glad to hear you’re with me on the cake Sandra. It’s a must, isn’t it?
Beautiful picture of this gorgeous cake. Seems like it tastes pretty good too đ
Thanks Laura! And yeah, it was tasty indeed.
THIS CAKE LOOKS AMAZING! Beetroot in the batter = stroke of genius! I love berry flavoured cakes, but could never get the colour I want. SOLVED.
Glad to be of service Sarah! If you do try one, please let me know. I’m tempted to add the egg yolks back in for flavor, but maybe still too afraid of a gray cake.
Both cakes are simply gorgeous. Parenting IS real, isn’t it? From the looks of things, from afar, you seem to be doing a damn fine job of it. xo
Thanks MJ, your words mean a lot. It’s hard stuff, but we’re definitely trying. At the very least, they’re well-fed.
This cake is stunning! What a perfect birthday cake! My husband loves raspberry. I am sure he will be thrilled if I make this cake.
I was so pleased to find this recipe as I wanted a good raspberry cake to use for baking hearts into a cake but I was so disappointed. It came out mush darker in colour than the photographs and just tasted of beet. What did I do wrong?
Hi Carol, I am sorry it didn’t turn out for you. I don’t have a lot to go on here in terms of what might have happened, but one guess is that it might have something to do with the differences in beets and in their sweetness and texture through the seasons. The recipe only calls for 1/4 cup of finely shredded beet, so I really can’t guess what would make the flavor so overpowering in such a large cake. I found the cake didn’t taste of beet at all, so I’m surprised at your results. Thanks for sharing your feedback, and I’m sorry you weren’t happy with the results.
My cake turned out really dense đ Should I have whipped the egg whites before folding them into the batter?
I had the same issue. I beat the whites slightly but I think I should have beat them completely… wonât make this recipe again.
I substituted half the milk with cranberry-raspberry juice and omitted the beets. Num!
The flavor of this cake is good-many said it had the texture of banana bread/ I am guessing from the fruit purĂŠe. It did not taste of beet at all. The cake itself was so good and had a slightly sweet fruit flavored that it would also be good without frosting. Or maybe just a light whipped cream. The pink batter was gorgeous although after it baked the color dulled a bit. I whipped the egg whites to make sure the cake did not turn out too dense. The frosting recipe had way too much butter in my opinion- it tasted buttery so I added more powdered sugar- around 5-6 c instead of 3 1/2 so I had left over frosting. I also used 2 T of cream when whipping the frosting instead of milk. Extra fluffy. Over all very delicious and would make again!
If I make this again, I will use cake flour–i think the all-purpose flour gluten made it more muffin-like than i would have liked. the raspberry flavor didn’t come through much. i might risk using a touch of raspberry flavoring to enhance it. i did not use beet. i was making these for a boy baby shower and didn’t want to emphasize the color. oh, and i made it into cupcakes.
Hi, your cake looks beautiful! Do you think it would work with gf flour? I would like to try it out but I have no baking experience and wondering if I would be wasting my time?? Thank you.
Livvy.
Hi Livvy, I’m actually allergic to nuts and legumes, so my experience with gf baking is very limited. Because the “dye” here is carried by the milk, you may want to look for a classic gf yellow cake, up the number of egg whites (and leave out the yolks, lest the cake turn gray), and use the same milk dye process outlined here. Hope that helps!
Awe your super sweet to reply, thank you! I’m too allergic to nuts & legumes! Soya / lupin flour etc! It’s a pain when also allergic to wheat for cooking cakes! I loved your cake so much I was hoping gluten free flour would work if I was also adding the egg whites but I do not cook much so have no idea! Also I am physically disabled & need to get carer to help me make it so I didn’t want to attempt it if maybe it was a non starter with gf flour! Xxxx
are you sure your cake was 9 INCHES high? did you mean centimeters?
Hi Hinal, The cakes aren’t 9-inches high, they’re 9-inches across. In the US, cake sizes are generally measured by the cake pan diameter and this recipe uses two 9-inch diameter cake pans. As for height, the cake will be about 4-inches high if both layers are used.
Do you whip the egg whites? I’m getting prepared to make this cake.:)
Hello, I would like to make this cake for Valentine’s Day today, per my 4yr old’s request. But we don’t have any beets (and dont need the color) we just like raspberries!
Do you think we’d need to alter the recipe at all, to make up for the lack of beets? Any suggestions?
Thank you so much for posting this, as I wasn’t sure if we’d be able to find a simple raspberry cake that wasn’t chocolate cake.
Happy Love Day!
what size cake pan should i use for this
Hi there, the recipe is for a 9-inch cake pan.