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Raspberry Velvet Cake, sliced, on a cake pedestal.
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Raspberry Velvet Cake

This moist Raspberry Velvet Cake is soft and delicious with wonderful raspberry flavor. It makes a wonderful recipe for any occasion- we especially love fruity cakes like this for spring and summer celebrations!
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time28 minutes
Additional Time30 minutes
Total Time1 hour 25 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 15 servings
Author: Melissa and Bebe

Ingredients

  • 8 oz (226g) cream cheese, room temperature (we used one 8 oz package, full fat.)
  • ¾ cups (168g) unsalted butter, room temperature (or close to room temp) **Equivalent to 1 ½ sticks. (shouldn't be overly soft)
  • 2 cups (400g) sugar
  • 4 eggs room temperature
  • 3 cups (342g) cake flour See notes if substitution is needed.
  • 2 teaspoons (8g) baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon (3g) baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
  • ¾ cup (182g) buttermilk (See Notes for substitution)
  • ¼ cup (54g) vegetable oil (We use canola oil)
  • 1 teaspoon (4g) vanilla extract
  • ¾ cup Reduced Raspberry Puree (We started with one 10 oz bag frozen raspberries. We blended them in a blender with a little water, then pushed through a strainer to remove the seeds. Then reduced to ¾ cup.)
  • 2 Tablespoons Raspberry Seedless Jam (optional)
  • Pink Coloring Gel/Food Coloring (optional, but without coloring the cake is closer to a pale purple)

Whipped Cream Filling

  • 1 cup (240g) heavy cream
  • ¼ (29g) cup powdered sugar
  • 1 (4g) teaspoon vanilla extract
  • sliced fresh raspberries (optional) We sprinkled a few between cake layers and also used a few whole berries on top of the finished cake.
  • Seedless Raspberry Jam for glazing layers (optional)

Cream Cheese Frosting

  • 2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter, slightly softened
  • 16 oz cream cheese softened (452g)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (8g)
  • ½ teaspoon salt (2g)
  • 6 cups confectioners sugar (690g) (Adjust amount up or down to your liking)

Instructions

Raspberry Reduction

  • Use a blender to liquify/puree raspberries (approx 10 oz) to make about 1 ¼ cups puree. You may need to add 2-3 Tablespoons water to help things along. We used frozen raspberries, partially thawed.
  • Place a fine mesh strainer over a bowl, and using the back side of a spoon or a rubber spatula, pour the puree into the strainer and press/stir the puree through it to remove the seeds.) Remember to scrape the other side of the strainer as well for any remaining seedless puree.
  • Pour into a saucepan and heat over medium heat. (We also added 2 Tablespoons Seedless Raspberry Jam for an extra boost of raspberry flavor & a little sweetness-optional).
  • Heat to a gentle simmer (rather than a rapid boil), reduce to low-medium as needed. It will thicken and reduce. Stir occasionally. We are reducing the puree to ¾ cup. After about 15 minutes of simmering, it should have reduced to close to ¾ cup, just pour into a heat-proof measuring cup to the ¾ cup mark. If it is under ¾ cup, you can add a bit more water to supplement. If it is way above ¾ cup, simmer a bit longer.
    **It is fine to do this step the day before if you'd like and refrigerate. The purpose of reducing is to give you the flavor of 10 oz raspberries without adding so much liquid to the recipe.

For the Cake Layers

  • Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour three 8 inch cake pans. We like to line the bottom of our cake pans with circles of parchment paper. *You could also bake this in two 9 inch pans and add a few more minutes to the bake time.
  • Dry Ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt for 30 seconds and set aside.
  • Wet Ingredients: In another bowl or measuring cup, add the buttermilk, vegetable oil, vanilla, and ¾ cup cooled (cool or slightly warm), reduced raspberries. Set aside.
  • In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and mix on medium speed until smooth. Then, add the room temperature cream cheese, mixing until smooth.
  • Gradually add the sugar and mix at medium speed for 2-3 minutes, it will become fluffier. If you'd like to add pink coloring, you can do that at any time. Start with less than you think you'll need. You can always increase the amount of coloring gel after adding the raspberry mixture.
  • Mixing on low speed, add the eggs one at a time, mixing to incorporate after each addition.
  • With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and the buttermilk/raspberry mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture (We did 3 additions of the dry mixture, 2 additions of wet).
  • Divide the batter between the three prepared 8 inch cake pans.
  • Bake at 325 degrees F for 25-28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached, adjust time as needed.)
  • Once done, remove from oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes in the pans on a wire rack before turning out.
  • This recipe makes 7 ½ cups of batter.

For the Whipped Cream Filling

  • Chill the mixing bowl and beaters/ whisk attachment in the freezer for 10 minutes.
  • Pour the whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla extract into the chilled mixing bowl, begin beating on low speed gradually increasing to medium high speed.  
  • The cream begins to thicken and stiff peaks form- be careful not to overmix. This happens fairly quickly! At "stiff peak" stage, peaks form and hold their shape when beaters are lifted. This is when it's ready.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

  • Add the softened butter to the bowl of your mixer. Beat on low to medium speed until the butter is smooth.
  • Cut the softened cream cheese into pieces and add to the butter, along with the salt, mixing at low to medium speed until incorporated. If you are using a hand mixer you may need to soften the cream cheese a bit more.
  • Add the vanilla. Gradually add the powdered sugar mixing on low speed until blended.
  • Increase mixing speed slightly, mixing until cream and well combined. Be careful not to overmix.
  • This frosting will pipe best if used while still chilled. You can make it in advance, refrigerate and when ready to use, let it soften slightly (do not microwave) and remix.

Assembling the Cake

  • We lightly glazed our cake layers with seedless raspberry jam. This is optional. To do this, we placed a scoop (about ¼ cup) of seedless jam into a bowl and added about 1 Tablespoon of hot water to it to create a glaze. Add a bit more water if you want a thinner consistency.
  • Place the first cooled raspberry velvet cake layer on the cake base or pedestal. Pipe a dam of frosting about ¼ inch from the edge, using a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away. (If you don't have piping bags for a dam, you'll just want to keep the filling about ½ inch away from the edge of the layers).
  • Spread the raspberry jam/glaze over the top of the layer within the dam. Then add a layer of whipped cream. Top with sliced fresh raspberries if you'd like. We just sliced up a few berries for this step. Adjust the amount of berries to your liking, or skip them altogether.
  • Top with the next cake layer and repeat. Then top with the last cake layer. Fill in any remaining gaps between layers with frosting.
  • Crumb coat the cake with a thin layer of frosting. Chill in the freezer for 10-15 minutes (or longer in the refrigerator) to firm things up. This makes it easier to frost the cake.
  • Apply second coat of frosting, smooth with bench scraper or spatula. Decorate to your liking. I used a cake comb to create stripes around the sides, and used a 1M piping tip to create a top and bottom border. We decorated with a few fresh berries.
  • The cake should be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container or under a cake dome, etc.
  • ***Remove the cake from the refrigerator 2-3 hours before serving so that it has plenty of time to warm and soften. Cakes containing butter firm up when chilled and so they need time so soften before serving.

Notes

Substitution for Cake Flour: Using all purpose flour (plain in UK) to make Cake Flour: For each cup of flour in a recipe, remove 2 Tablespoons of flour and replace with 2 Tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour in the UK). This recipe has 3 cups of flour so you will measure out 3 cups of all purpose flour, remove 6 Tablespoons and replace with 6 Tablespoons cornstarch, whisk to blend
Substitution for Buttermilk: To make ¾ cup "buttermilk", add 1 Tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice to a measuring cup. Add milk to the ¾ cup mark.
Refrigeration: Because of the whipped cream filling, this cake should be refrigerated. Remove from the refrigerator about 2-3 hours before serving so that it has plenty of time to warm to room temperature for best texture and flavor.