Crazy-Good Raspberry Cake

When organic raspberries are on sale at Whole Foods, one has to spring into action and buy 75 containers (give or take 69). It’s one of those “buy now, figure out what the hell to do with them later” situations, one of those “seize life” sort of moments. (Maybe not that profound of an occurrence, but still. Organic raspberries are expensive.)

So I cheated on one of my favorite, favoriter, favoritest recipes ever- “Strawberry Cake”- and raspberried it up. With two containers of raspberries costing only $6 (insane, I know) instead of $1,550 (give or take), I need my head read as to why I only made one of these cakes. Belive me- this puppy is going to make it’s way into the exclusive More Sweets, Please rotation- and you know that’s a jam-packed rotation as it is, with so many freaking brownies going on around here. This cake is a WINNER, no matter how you slice it.

(Okay- so let it be known- I tried to get all fancy and pour a bit of the excess batter into my too-cute-to-be-true mini bundt cake pan, in an attempt to impress The Husband with his own very special Mini Raspberry Cake. I learned the hard way [as I’m inclined but all too willing to do] that this cake is stubborn, and wants to stay in the pan it’s bake in- so yes, I totally screwed the mini-cake up because I could in no way remove it from the pan in less than four crumbly pieces. You’ll notice that this recipe calls for it to be baked in a pie pan, and it’s because it allows for easy removal. Don’t do what I did in the post you’ll find by clicking here. Being fancy isn’t always such a good idea.)

Adapted from Martha Stewart’s recipe… makes one cake baked in a 9 or 10″ pie plate…

6 tablespoons unsalted butter (room temperature)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar (plus 2 tablespoons for sprinkling over batter)

1 egg

1/2 cup milk (regular or almond milk)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups/ containers raspberries, rinsed and dried
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease/butter a 9 or 10-inch pie plate, and set aside.
2. In a medium bown, sift flour, baking powder, and salt together.
3. In a separate medium bowl, mix butter and 1 cup of sugar on medium-high speed until fluffy (about 2 – 3 minutes). Reduce speed and mix in egg, milk, and vanilla.
4. Gradually add flour mixture, mixing on low speed until well combined.
5. Pour batter into buttered pie plate, and arrange raspberries on top of batter very close together (so you see as little batter as possible). Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over berries.
6. Bake cake for 10 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 325° and bake for about 60 minutes (yes, that long), until cake is golden brown and firm to the touch in the middle. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pie plate on a cooling rack. Store at room temperature, loosely covered (to prevent from getting soggy) for up to a couple of days.
Tips:
- Strawberries, you say? Yes! Place cut-side down, and enjoy. Use peaches, blueberies- any fresh (sort of dry) fruit, and place close together on top of the cake batter.
- Frozen fruit allowed? Me thinks no, since it would be too soggy. If you try it and it works (meaning that the heavy frozen fruit doesn’t plummet to the bottom of the pan) please let me know…
- Fruit placement… yeah, there’s no point in getting fancy, since the batter has a mind of its own as it rises. The outer ring stays in tact (see picture) but the rest goes all to hell as the batter takes over in its vanilla glory. Don’t mess with it- it knows what it’s doing.
- A word on buttering the pie pan: grease all the way outside to the edge and over the lip, so when the cake rises you won’t have to argue with it when you cut it later. (See this horrific monstrosity that shows why you need to keep the cake in the pan it was baked in. Enough said.)
- What size of pie plate? Okay, here’s the deal: the batter will fill a 10″ pie plate, so if you have one, then good for you. You’re set. If you’re like me, and you only have a 9″ one (other than the deep-dish one you use for the Decadent Deep-Dish Pecan Pie), then keep a bit of the batter behind and pour it into 2 – 3 muffin tins that are LINED WITH CUPCAKE LINERS. (As discussed, don’t try to pop these out of the pan you bake them in, as the cake is a but stubborn and sticky- not sticky in a gross way, it’s just not the type of cake that pops out of the pan like a muffin is all too willing to do. Don’t judge this cake because it’s stubborn.)
- Enjoy with a bit of excellent vanilla ice cream…
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June 10th, 2012 | More Sweets Please | 2 Comments | Tags: Cakes, Fruit

2 Responses and Counting...

Auntie M 06.10.2012

Wow Jods, this looks delicious -m we buy raspberries every week and i am going to bake this!!
More Sweets Please

Glad you like the looks of this cake… and don’t forget to try it with strawberries, too. Let me know how it goes!