Lemon and Raspberry Cake!
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A three-layer lemon and raspberry cake with a lemon and raspberry sponge, lemon buttercream frosting and more!
Lemon and raspberry
Can we start this blog post off by appreciating how light and delicious a flavour this cake sounds. Lemon and Raspberry together is sweet, tangy and fruity – and it’s hard to beat. I love a lemon cake, I love a raspberry bake.. combine them? Heaven.
White chocolate and raspberry together is also an epic combination. But I know that not all of you like to bake using chocolate, and lemon and raspberry together is just as good. Honestly, I can never get over how light and fruity it is!
My Lemon & Raspberry Cheesecake was my main inspiration for this bake – as I just adore it. It almost feels healthier as it’s got two types of fruit in – but don’t kid yourself.. it’s still a cake full of all the sugary goodness.
Lemon and raspberry cake
I decided originally for this one to do a two layer cake as some of you have requested some more two layers, but genuinely completely forgot until I had baked my first three layer version. I fell in love with the three layer version and it stuck… It’s a sponge that you can easily adapt into more layers if you wanted, or create only two layers – it’s definitely adaptable and that’s the good bit. You can find the notes below on a two layer version!
My lemon & raspberry cupcakes are so moist and light, that this cake version is such a showstopping cake version of the cupcakes you will adore it, but you can obviously have a go at the cupcakes if you wish instead.
Sponge
This sponge is light, it’s easy to mix together and I utterly adore it. It’s a standard cake mixture of butter and sugar beaten together until light and fluffy, and then you mix in the eggs and flour. I mix in the lemon zest, and then fold through the raspberries and split that between the cake tins.
- Butter – I use either a room temperature block butter or baking spread for a cake sponge
- Sugar – I use caster sugar in this cake, but golden caster sugar would work well as well
- Flour – self raising flour as always. However, if you don’t have it, you can make your own with 2 level tsps per 150g of plain flour, mixed in before using and removing any other raising agent in the recipe.
- Eggs – 7-8 medium eggs, but weigh in the shells and try and get as close to 400g as possible and match the butter, sugar and flour to this weight
- Lemon – I use the zest of lemons, but as mentioned above you can use lemon extract
- Raspberries – I use fresh raspberries because they’re the best
Buttercream
For the buttercream I was originally just got to do a lemon and raspberry frosting to make it easier, but I decided to make a lemon one because adding in the raspberries just wasn’t my vibe that day. However, you can easily add some in and slather the buttercream on!
If you mix it too much, you will just get a pink frosting – but that’s not necessarily a bad thing! I find if I make the frosting mostly by the mixer, and then swirl the raspberries in by hand it works the best. However, just lemon is easy!
I piped my buttercream on as you can see, but it really doesn’t matter – you can slather, you can pipe, you can dollop, you can whatever you actually fancy. I find the freeze dried raspberries give a beautiful colour on the top anyway and would easily cover any mistakes!
The filling & decoration
I did decided to add a little raspberry jam into the middle, but the good thing about this bake is that you can easily use lemon curd in the middle instead if you wished. I would have used a little of both, but I didn’t have any lemon curd in at the time of baking; both work really well.
For the decoration I just went down the usual route of fresh raspberries, and freeze dried raspberries. I know, I know… I am obsessed with them. I can’t help it – they just look so beautiful on a bake, and when you ‘bulk’ buy them like I do, they’re much cheaper in the long run!
I used these large piping bags as I find them strong, easy to control when piping, and I used this beautiful 2d closed star piping tip for the decoration as I adore it’s look.
Tips & Tricks
- I use these cake tins for this bake
- I use this piping tip for the decoration
- I use these piping bags for buttercream
- I use these freeze dried raspberries in my baking
- This cake will last for 3+ days at room temperature
- This cake will freeze for 3+ months
Lemon and Raspberry Cake!
Ingredients
Cake
- 400 g unsalted butter
- 400 g caster sugar
- 400 g self raising flour
- 8 medium eggs
- Zest of 2 lemons
- 300 g raspberries
Buttercream
- 350 g unsalted butter (room temp)
- 700 g icing sugar
- Juice of 2 lemons
Extras
- Raspberry jam
- Fresh raspberries
- Freeze dried raspberries
- Lemon zest
- Sprinkles
Instructions
Cakes
- Preheat your oven to 180C/160C Fan and line three 8"/20cm tins with parchment paper, and leave to the side.
- Beat together your butter and sugar for 3-4 minutes until light and fluffy!
- Add in your self raising flour, eggs and lemon zest and beat again for a couple of minutes until smooth
- Try not to over beat - mix until it comes together and is smooth.
- Add in your raspberries and fold through - Split the cake mix between the three tins.
- Once in the tins, bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes, or until baked through. I check my cake is baked by using a skewer, and listening carefully to see if it bubbles! Because of the fruit, this can often take a bit longer!
- Once baked, leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, and then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Buttercream
- To make the buttercream, make sure your butter is at room temperature.
- Beat the butter on its own for 3-4 minutes, I use the paddle attachment.
- Once the butter is nice and supple, add the icing Sugar in 1/2 at a time, and beat fully before adding any more in.
- Add in the lemon, and beat again for 3-4 minutes until it's all come together.
Decoration
- Get your first cake onto your chosen plate and spread/pipe over a third of the buttercream.
- Add on a few tablespoons of jam and spread.
- Add on your second cake and spread/pipe the second third of the buttercream on top.
- Finally add on your third sponge and pipe the rest of the buttercream on!
- Decorate with fresh raspberries, freeze dried raspberries, lemon zest and so on! Enjoy!
Notes
- This cake will last for 3 days at room temperature, in a cake box.
- I use fresh raspberries, but you can use frozen if need be - can make the cake take longer to bake though due to moisture.
- If you want to bake a two layer version use...
- 250g butter/sugar/flour and 5 medium eggs with the zest of 1 lemon with 150g raspberries.
- Use 200g butter/400g icing sugar for the buttercream with the juice of 1 lemon!
- Bake into two 8" tins for 30 minutes!
- I recommend using this beautiful piping tip!
- I also recommend buying these freeze dried raspberries as they're the best!
ENJOY!
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J x
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Hi Jane, I’m currently just about to ice this cake however the icing is struggling to come out of the piping bag. Is there anything you suggest I can add to the icing etc to make it easier to pipe? Thankyou in advance
Hiya! If this happens add a teaspoon at a time of boiling water xx
Would recommend more raspberries
Sorry Jane
Can you delete the comment I just posted. I am not very comfortable with my full name over internet. Thank you
My query is Can you tell me how many cupcakes would the recipe as modified for 2 layer cake in notes will render? And what will be the baking time?
Hey! Yes sure I have done, my previous reply said to have a look at my lemon and raspberry cupcake recipe, it may be easier to just use that. xx
Hi, would removing the raspberries from the cake mix be okay?
Hi Jane
Not a criticism, but why do you only posy posts of completed cakes, cookies etc. It would be really usefully to see the process I’d the bake and then photos of the recipe as it gets put together?
?
I have never done them as it’s a lot more work to take process shots, and my kitchen is not built for a photo studio for process shots unfortunately.
If I wanted to do just a lemon cake can I just simply remove the raspberries from the ingredients or do I need to amend the other ingredients to compensate?
Hey! Yeah you can just remove them, but it may take a smidge less time to bake xx
Hello, If I was to do the 400g ingredients but for a two layer version, how long would I need to bake for ? Thanks 🙂
Hey! I would try baking for 50-60 minutes xx
Hello, if I was to bake this as a two layer cake using the ingredients at 400g, how long would I have to bake for ? Thanks 🙂
I have like 300gr of stork can I also use 100gr and combine both fats?
Hi! Is it possible to put food colouring in the lemon buttercream e.g pink or white ? Also I’m making this for a birthday and wanted to cover the sides in buttercream too, do you think that would be okay? Thanks!
I belive this would be fine as the food colouring does not effect the taste – unless you put too much die in
Hi, is it possible to use food colouring in the lemon buttercream? For example if I wanted to make the frosting white or pink and cover the sides in buttercream too, would that look good? Or do you think that would make the cake too rich with too much icing? Thanks.
Hello.My butter cream looks like it has split
do not know what I am doing wrong
Hello! What type of butter did you use? if that was wrong it could have split more easily because of the added liquid x
I used unsalted butter
Hello, im thinking of baking this for a birthday. I’ve never baked with fruit before and am a bit worried that they might sink.. is there any way to make sure this doesn’t happen? Thanks 🙂
Hello! There is no guarantee but you can try coating the fruit in flour to prevent this!x
Hi Jane, could the raspberries be coated in some of the flour before folded in to stop them sinking? And also a handful put on top of the mixtures in the tins? X
Hello! Yes you can do x
Hi Jane, can this recipe be adapted to be Gluten Free?
Hiya! Yes absolutely – just swap the gluten-containing ingredients for gluten free alternatives! Hope this helps! x
Hello Jane. This looks amazing and are some of my favourite flavours. I can’t wait to make it , then decorate it as a drip cake, would that be possible? As I would like to have it as a celebration cake so it’s not naked round the sides. Any ideas? Thank you.
Hii! Yes you could double the decoration and make it into a drip cake x
Hi Jane – I adore your recipes and I’m planning to try this one for a birthday cake for my sister’s 30th. Any tips on getting the sponges nice and flat? Mu can tend to dome a bit, which is fine with too layers but I’m worried it won’t be balanced with 3. If I cooked at a slightly lower temp would it help? Any idea how much I’d increase the cook time by?
Hiya! Ahh thank you so much. When I bake cupcakes at 140 fan compared to 160 they take about 40-45 minutes instead of about 22. I haven’t tested a cake like this, so hopefully this will help xx