Raspberry and Lemon - The Zesty Flavours of Summer

With Spring and Summer time coming, cake decorating is taking on a fresh look and brighter flavours. Instead of dark chocolate and comfort flavours, like caramel and maple, it is time for fruit flavours to come into play.

Yesterday I made my signature all natural Raspberry Razzle cake, but I added a lemony twist to give the cake more of a Springtime look. It turned out wonderfully and the flavours told the story of the changing season.

The raspberry buttercream, which rests between four layers of very moist vanilla cake, is tart and sweet all at the same time and has the same sort of flavour as raspberry frozen yogurt. The lemon buttercream was used for decoration and has a very strong lemony flavour with just the right amount of sweetness, so it is not sour. In fact, it tastes like sweet, fresh-squeezed lemonade.

I used the Pearl-White Candy Beads by CK Products to add a little sparkle to this cake.

How can you make a similar cake? Use your best vanilla or chocolate cake recipe (see below for a picture of the chocolate-raspberry buttercream version).  Spread just a little of the cake mix over the bottom of two 8" round cake pans and bake for about 8 to 10 minutes at 350 degrees F.  Repeat two or three more times, depending on how much mix you have.


Make your favourite buttercream icing recipe and beat in 1 cup (depending how dark you want it) thawed frozen raspberries just before icing the cake. If you do not want the seeds, use a sifter over your icing bowl to run your raspberries through first to remove the seeds.

For the lemon buttercream, do the following:

Lemon Buttercream Recipe:

1. Use a vegetable peeler to peel off the outer rind of 1 or 2 lemons.  Place the rinds into 500 grams of icing sugar (in a bowl).  Squeeze the juice from the lemons into the icing sugar and stir slowly until all the icing sugar is wet and lump free. Cover with plastic wrap and let soak for 24 hours.

2. Remove the lemon rinds carefully and squeeze off any excess sugar back into the bowl.

3. Beat 1 lb of softened butter in a stand mixer until very soft and nearly fluffy.  Stir regularly to prevent lumps forming.

4. Turn the mixer on low and add the icing sugar. Beat on high until well mixed and fluffy.  For a softer icing, you can add 1/2 cup of canola oil to the mixer after the sugar is incorporated.  Beat on high again for 30 seconds or more, and stop to mix with a spatula every now and then.

5. Place in pastry bag with a tip of your choice (I used Wilton Tip 2D) and decorate your cake!






This is the chocolate version of my
Raspberry Razzle Cake.  Layer raspberry buttercream
between 4 or 5 layers of chocolate cake to get a cake that
looks beautiful when sliced and has just
the right ratio of cake to icing.

Cover the outside edges of your chocolate raspberry
cake with dark chocolate shavings to add flavour and flair!