Isn’t this cake gorgeous? I once saw a red velvet marble cake and I thought these streaks of red colour in a yellow cake look so amazing. Not a huge fan of food colouring, so I wanted to create a more natural colour.
First I thought of using strawberries but then decided that they don’t retain their bright red colour when baked. Then I thought of blueberries but they came out too, well, blue. So I tried raspberries. And there it was. Magic! That red colour so vivid and so tasty. Lemon zest compliments the raspberry flavour and gives cake a nice tang. This cake is tender, fluffy, buttery, fruity, zesty and beautiful. Everything a cake should be.
Lemon Cake with Raspberry Ripple
A delicious lemon cake with a touch of raspberry magic. Raspberries have this vibrant red colour, even after baking. That is what makes this cake so special and gorgeous.
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup frozen raspberries
- 1 ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 180 grams unsalted butter
- 1 ½ Tbsp lemon zest
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups 300 grams all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt rounded
- ¾ cup and 1 ½ Tbsp (200ml) whole milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 175° C, fan. Butter and flour a 23 cm (9 inch) round cake pan with a hole in the middle.
- Put frozen raspberries and ¼ cup sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and cook 3-4 minutes, stirring often until raspberries are broken down and released their juices. They should look smashed.
- Strain into a bowl pressing the pulp to extract as much juice as possible. Discard pulp and seeds. Set raspberry liquid aside to cool slightly.
- To make the cake batter, cream butter, lemon zest and remaining 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in vanilla extract. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture to the mixer bowl. Alternate milk and flour in 2 batches, finishing with the flour.
- Add ¼ cup of the cake batter to the raspberry liquid. Mix to combine.
- Put 1/3 of the cake batter in the prepared cake pan. Top with 1/3 of the raspberry mixture.
- Continue with another 1/3 of cake batter and a little bit more than half of the remaining raspberry mixture.
- Top with the remaining cake batter and the remaining raspberry mixture.
- Use a knife to lightly swirl the mixture. Don’t overdo it. You don’t want the two mixtures to mix.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 45-50 minutes. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Invert into a serving platter. Once completely cool, dust with icing sugar.
