Summer Raspberry Cake
This summer Raspberry Cake recipe is a lemon raspberry loaf cake that’s lush, floral-smelling, moist and sweet, and a delicate pale pink color. It’s a tried and true loaf cake recipe for an informal dessert with friends or a decadent treat with your morning coffee or tea.
Except for those mischievous raspberry seeds, making this summer raspberry cake recipe is an absolute delight. Don’t worry, though, they’re the only challenge in this recipe. Everything else is a piece of cake!
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Ingredients
Raspberries, fresh or frozen, are the star of this raspberry loaf cake. Raspberries, like other summer berries, aren’t true berries. Rather, they’re aggregate fruits made up of many drupelets and lots of seeds. So many seeds.
Just love raspberry? Make these raspberry jam-filled shortbread Linzer cookies or raspberry bramble cocktail.
Some summer raspberry cakes use whole raspberries in the loaf cake. In my early recipe trials, the texture of raspberry seeds in the moist loaf cake was a big no, which is why this raspberry lemon cake recipe uses pureed raspberry.
If you have one, it’s best to use a fine mesh strainer for the task, since the seeds are small enough to slip through your average strainer. This conical sieve, previously called a chinois, is also used in my blackberry curd tart and blackberry apple pie.
Please see the recipe card below for complete information on ingredients and quantities.
Variations and substitutions
- Sub almond extract for the raspberry liqueur or vanilla for a raspberry almond cake.
- Sub yogurt for the buttermilk or make your own with a half-cup of milk and teaspoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice.
Recipe tips and tricks
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a loaf pan.
Step 2: Use your food processor or blender to puree the berries, then mash the berry puree through the sides of your strainer. Scrape the liquid down off the outside of the strainer into a one cup measuring cup using a different spatula. You will have about one quarter cup or a little more.
So. Many. Raspberry. Seeds.
Step 3: sift or whisk together your dry ingredients.
Step 4: Cream the butter, sugar, and lemon zest together until light and fluffy.
Creaming butter and sugar is a critical step for pound cakes and other cakes whose rise depends on mechanical leavening. Mechanical leavening creates air bubbles that expand in the oven. That’s because, if you remember high school chemistry, gases expand at warmer temperatures.
Here’s how to cream butter and sugar together:
- Start with room temperature butter in small cubes.
- Mix on low at first so sugar doesn’t spray out of your bowl. You will still see sugar granules. Don’t stop yet.
- Increase your speed to medium-high and beat for a couple of minutes, scraping down the bowl as needed. The butter will feel softer and softer. Don’t stop yet.
- It takes several more minutes to get to “light and fluffy,” depending on your whether you’re mixing by hand, with a hand mixer, or a stand mixer. The butter will be much lighter in color, and it really will feel fluffy.
Read more about creaming butter and mechanical leavening.
Step 5: add the eggs one at a time, beating for a minute after each addition and scraping down the bowl as necessary. Then add the raspberry liqueur or vanilla.
Step 6: add buttermilk to your measuring cup with the raspberry puree to measure three-quarters of a cup in total.
Step 7: add in half the dry ingredients, then the liquid ingredients, then the rest of the dry ingredients, again scraping the bowl as necessary.
Step 8: Pour the batter into the prepared pan, even out the batter and give the pan a few thwacks on the counter to remove any air bubbles. The batter will come about halfway up your loaf pan.
Step 9: bake the cake for about 45 to 50 minutes, until the top has started to brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, and then invert and transfer to a cooling rack.
If you use the optional syrup, you’ll want to brush on the syrup at this point with the loaf and rack over a baking sheet or a piece of waxed paper.
Step 10: Make the glaze and pour it over the cake, letting it drip down the sides. Let the glaze harden before serving, about one hour. Serve with additional fresh raspberries, if desired.
Just like with my glazed Funfetti cake, as long as you haven’t used dairy in the glaze, the cake can be stored at room temperature for up to one week.
Recipe FAQs
There is minimal alcohol in this recipe, but if you want to avoid the Chambord (or vanilla, which is also alcohol-based), you can make your own non-alcoholic extracts.
I’ve called this raspberry lemon loaf cake a summer raspberry cake and not just a raspberry cake because it uses fresh raspberries. And it’s always better to eat, cook, and bake with produce when it’s at its peak ripeness.
Sure, if that’s all you can find. But I would cook the frozen berries slightly to release the juice.
To freeze a loaf cake, bake the cake, brush it with syrup, and let it cool completely. Wrap it well in two layers of plastic wrap and then freeze in a freezer bag. When you are ready to serve, let it come to room temperature and make the raspberry glaze.
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Recipe
Summer Raspberry Cake
Equipment
- Food processor or blender
- Fine mesh strainer
- Stand mixer or hand mixer
- 9 by 5 inch or 8 by 4 inch loaf pan
Ingredients
Raspberry lemon cake batter
- 1 cup raspberries washed
- 1 ½ cup (195 grams) bleached all-purpose flour plus more for flouring the pan
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 stick (8 tablespoons or 113 grams) unsalted butter softened plus more for greasing the pan
- 1 ¼ cup (250 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 lemon zested and juiced, divided
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon Chambord (or other raspberry liqueur) or vanilla
- ½ cup buttermilk
Chambord simple syrup (optional)
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup water
- 1 tablespoon Chambord or other raspberry liqueur
Raspberry-lemon glaze
- 1 cup confectioners' sugar
- 1 to 2 tablespoons Chambord or other raspberry liqueur
- 1 to 2 tablespoons lemon juice
Instructions
Raspberry cake batter
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Butter and flour a loaf pan.
- Use your food processor or blender to puree the berries, then strain the puree through the fine mesh sieve into a 1 cup measuring cup. You will have about one quarter cup or a little more.1 cup raspberries
- Sift or whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt) into a medium sized bowl.1 ½ cup (195 grams) bleached all-purpose flour, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon salt
- Add the butter, sugar, and lemon zest to your mixing bowl. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. If using a stand mixer, this will take about 5 minutes on medium speed, longer if using a hand mixer.1 stick (8 tablespoons or 113 grams) unsalted butter, 1 ¼ cup (250 grams) granulated sugar, 1 lemon
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating for a minute after each addition and scraping down the bowl as necessary.2 large eggs
- Add the raspberry liqueur or vanilla and beat for a minute.1 teaspoon Chambord (or other raspberry liqueur) or vanilla
- Add approximately one half of the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until they are just incorporated.
- Add two tablespoons of lemon juice to the raspberry puree in the measuring cup and then enough buttermilk to measure a total of three quarters cup (i.e. about one half cup of buttermilk or slightly less). Scrape down the bowl.½ cup buttermilk, 1 lemon
- Add the remaining dry ingredients and mix until just barely incorporated.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan, even out the batter and give the pan a few thwacks on the counter to remove any air bubbles.
- Bake the cake for about 45 to 50 minutes, until the top has started to brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, and then invert and transfer to a cooling rack.
Chambord simple syrup (optional)
- While the batter is baking, prepare the syrup by combining the sugar, water, and Chambord or other raspberry liqueur in a small saucepan.¼ cup granulated sugar, ¼ cup water, 1 tablespoon Chambord or other raspberry liqueur
- Bring the syrup to boil over medium-high heat and stir until all of the sugar has dissolved.
- Turn off the heat and let cool.
Assembly
- Once you have removed the cake from the pan and transferred it to a cooling rack, put the cooling rack over a baking sheet or piece of waxed paper or parchment paper to catch any drips.
- If you have make the Chambord syrup, use a pastry brush or spoon to brush all of syrup onto the top and sides of the raspberry cake. Let cool completely.
- When ready to glaze, combine the confectioners sugar and 1 tablespoon each of Chambord and lemon juice and whisk to combine. Add a bit more, if needed, so that the glaze is just pourable, or add more confectioners sugar if it is too thin.1 cup confectioners' sugar, 1 to 2 tablespoons Chambord or other raspberry liqueur, 1 to 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- Pour the glaze over the cake, letting it drip down the sides, and let the glaze harden before serving, about one hour.
- Serve with additional fresh raspberries, if desired.
- The cake can be stored at room temperature for up to one week.
Notes
Nutrition
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