Vanilla Raspberry Cake ~ Recipe | Queenslee Appétit (2024)

This Vanilla Raspberry Cake has moist and fluffy layers of pink and white marbled vanilla cake. Between those layers is a creamy vanilla buttercream with a sweet raspberry sauce filling. Decorated with a raspberry and vanilla buttercream watercolour design, fluffy raspberry buttercream border, garnished with fresh raspberries and more delicious raspberry sauce in the middle. This is the perfect cake for Mother’s Day!

Vanilla Raspberry Cake

Now that Spring is kinda, sorta here (you can never be too sure with Toronto weather), it’s officially time to bring out the bright and fruity desserts! I recently shared a recipe for Homemade Raspberry Sauce and Dreamy Raspberry Buttercream. Today, I’m sharing the perfect fruity and flavourful dessert to make with those two recipes.

This cake has the perfect flavour combination for the spring and summer season, and the gorgeous pink, white and red colours make it the perfect treat for Mother’s Day!

Marbled Vanilla Cake Layers

As simple as this cake looks, there are a few details I want to get into. So first, let’s discuss the marbled cake layers. As you can tell, my cake layers are pretty thin and that was my mistake, but I’ll get more into that in a minute.

The cake layers have the fluffiest texture and a perfectly soft crumb. I used my go-to white cake recipe that I’ve used in some of my previous cake recipes.

First things first, creaming the butter and sugar — this is a very important step. You want to beat the butter and sugar together until they’re very very creamy and almost white in colour. This will give your cake it’s fluffy texture.

Then we’re gonna add 6 egg whites. Not only does this allow the cake to keep its white colour, it increases the lightness and fluffiness of the texture!

Another ingredient this recipe uses is cake flour. The cake flours low protein gives the cake layers a fluffy, light and airy texture. If you don’t have or can’t find cake flour, don’t worry! You can substitute with all purpose flour and cornstarch, I’ll include the amounts in the notes below the recipe.

For the next step, you’ll need to alternate between adding the dry ingredients and the buttermilk. If you add the buttermilk all at once, the batter will separate and ruin the cake. If you add all of the dry ingredients all at once, the batter will be too thick, which means you’ll end up over mixing, which ultimately leads to a tough cake. So start by adding ⅓ of the dry mixture, then half of the buttermilk, another ⅓ of the dry mixture, remaining buttermilk, then finish off with the remaining dry ingredients.

How to create the Marbled Cake Effect

Now onto the marble effect — here’s where I messed up. Every time I make this recipe, I add a little over 2 cups of batter per pan. So for this recipe, I added 2 cups of batter per pan, tinted the rest with pink food gel, then dolloped it on top.

However, I only wanted a few streaks of pink throughout the cake layer so I ended up not using some of the batter. I should also mention that I spread the white batter into an even layer before dolloping the pink batter so the colour stayed on top rather than being swirled through the batter.

Here’s what I should’ve done, and what you should do: split the batter in half and tint half of it pink, leaving the rest white. Add a spoonful of white batter into each pan, then a spoonful of pink. Repeat alternating between white and pink until you run out of batter. Then, using a toothpick or a butter knife, swirl the batter together. This will give you beautiful marbled cake layers all throughout!

In between these cake layers is my sweet Homemade Raspberry Sauce and my Dreamy Vanilla Buttercream Frosting. You should make the raspberry sauce the night before so it has time to chill completely and thicken up. Spread a layer of vanilla buttercream on top of the cake, then pipe a rim around the edge so it can hold the raspberry sauce.

The outside of the cake is frosted with my Dreamy Raspberry Buttercream with smudges of vanilla buttercream around. Creating the watercolour effect on the cake is super easy. After you frost your cake in a final coat of raspberry frosting, add random dots of vanilla buttercream all over the cake.

Then using a straight cake spatulaor an icing smoother, hold it up to the side of the cake and smooth out the frosting while turning your turntable. This will cause the white vanilla frosting to smudge and blend with the pink raspberry frosting, creating a cool effect.

Unfortunately, the pink sort of overpowered the white buttercream because I had more raspberry frosting than vanilla, because most of the vanilla was used for the inside of the cake.

To finish the cake off, I piped a fluffy pink raspberry buttercream border around the top and bottom of the cake. Then I took the remaining raspberry sauce and poured it in the middle (because 2 layers of raspberry sauce in the middle wasn’t enough).

Garnish with some fresh raspberries and serve it for Mother’s day to show your mom how much you love her! If you have any siblings, I guarantee you’ll be the new favourite after she gets a taste of this summery treat. Enjoy!

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Here are the tools I used in today's recipe.

Disclaimer: some of the links below are affiliate links. This means, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you are to click and purchase any of these products.

Kitchenmaid Stand Mixer - Hand mixers are great, but when you're making a large amount of batter that requires a lot of mixing for the best results, use a stand mixer.

8-inch Round Cake Pans - I used 8-inch cake pans for this recipe, but if you want thicker layers and a taller cake, use 7 or 6-inch pans. My favourite brand is Wilton, but you can use any brand of your choice.

Pink Gel Food Colouring - The vibrance of the colour depends on the quality of the brand. I used Wilton Pink Gel Food Colouring, but you can use Americolor soft pink.

Cooling Rack -Every baked good you remove from the oven MUST cool on a cooling rack. Leaving your pans on the counter traps the air underneath, resulting in a slower cooling time. A cooling rack lets in air from the top and bottom, which allows your baked goods to cool evenly!

Wilton 1M Star Tip - This is the tip I used for the fluffy pink border.

Cake Turntable - Frosting cakes on a plate or serving platter is fine, but you don't get much motion while you're icing and decorating. A turntable spins around while you frost your cake, which makes cake decorating a breeze!

Bench Scraper - After frosting your cake, use a bench scraper to get a nice and smooth finish.

More Mother’s Day Recipes

Raspberry Rose Buns

Mini Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cheesecakes

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Let’s get baking!

Yield: one 3-layer, 8-inch cake

This Vanilla Raspberry Cake has moist and fluffy layers of vanilla cake. Between those layers is a vanilla buttercream with a raspberry sauce. Decorated with a raspberry and vanilla buttercream watercolour design, raspberry buttercream border, garnished with fresh raspberries and more raspberry sauce in the middle.

Ingredients

• 1 recipe of my Homemade Raspberry Sauce

Marbled Cake Layers:

• 3 and ¼ cups cake flour
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 and ¼ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 6 large egg whites, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 and ¼ cups buttermilk, room temperature
• Pink gel food colouring
• 1 recipe of my Dreamy Raspberry Buttercream Frosting

Vanilla Buttercream:

• ½ cup Unsalted Butter, slightly softened
• ½ cup Hi-ratio Shortening
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• 4 cups Powdered Sugar, sifted
• ¼ cup Heavy Whipping Cream
• 1 and ½ teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
• ¼ teaspoon Pure Almond Extract

Instructions

1. Prepare one recipe of my Homemade Raspberry Sauce and allow to chill completely, preferably overnight.

For the Marbled Cake Layers:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F (177°C). Prepare three 8-inch round cake pans with parchment rounds, and grease the sides. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, sift cake flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk to combine, set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until pale and fluffy, 4-6 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
4. Add egg whites one at a time, mixing after each addition until just combined. Add vanilla and mix until combined.
5. Alternately add dry ingredients in thirds and buttermilk in 2 additions to the batter, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Beat after each addition just until combined.
6. Split the batter in half and tint one half pink, leave the rest white. Spoon a dollop of white batter into each pan, then spoon a dollop of pink. Repeat alternating between white and pink until you run out of batter. Then, using a toothpick or a butter knife, swirl the batter together.
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and cake springs back when lightly touched.
8. Remove cakes from oven and allow to cool in pans for about 10 minutes, then turn onto cooling racks to cool completely before frosting.
9. Meanwhile, prepare one recipe of my Dreamy Raspberry Buttercream Frosting.

For the Vanilla Buttercream:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand-held mixer, beat the butter, shortening and salt on medium-high speed until light and fluffy (about 5-6 minutes).
2. Turn the mixer to low, and gradually add the sugar one cup at a time. Once incorporated, add heavy cream, vanilla and almond extract and beat until combined.
3. Increase speed to medium-high and whip until light and fluffy, about 5-7 minutes.

Assembly:

1. Reserve about 1 - 1 and ¼ cup of raspberry buttercream in a piping bag fitted with a large star tip. Set aside.
2. Trim the browned tops off of each cake layer. Place one layer on a serving plate or cake board on a turntable. Spread about ½ cup of vanilla frosting on top using an offset spatula.
3. Pipe a dam around the edge of the cake and fill with ½ cup of raspberry sauce. You can use less if you prefer. Place the second layer on top and repeat. Place final layer top side down.
4. Frost the entire cake in a thin layer of raspberry buttercream. Place cake in refrigerator for 30 minutes to chill.
5. Remove cake from refrigerator and frost the entire cake with the rest of the raspberry buttercream.
6. To make the watercolour effect: use an offset spatula to add random smudges of vanilla buttercream all over the cake. Using a bench scraper, smooth the sides and top of the cake. Add more smudges if needed and keep smoothing.
7. Using the piping bag filled with raspberry frosting, pipe a fluffy shell border on top and bottom of the cake (here's a great tutorial on piping borders). Pour remaining raspberry sauce in the middle of the cake. Decorate the bottom with fresh raspberries. Slice and serve!

Notes

• Store cake in an airtight cake container in refrigerator for up to 3 days. Serve at room temperature.
• If you don’t have cake flour, you can substitute by sifting together 2 and ¾ cup + 2 tablespoon Tbsp of all purpose flour with 6 tablespoon of cornstarch.

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Love, Dedra ❤

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