With just one dynamic dessert, you could quickly find THE right one and be voted Miss Congeniality of the kitchen! When you turn up The (oven) Heat and bake the Infamous Sandra Bullock’s Raspberry Cake, well, that’s surely The Thing Called Love. While You Were Sleeping, we whipped up the moistest vanilla layer cake to show you, sprinkled it with fresh, bright raspberries, and covered this award-winning creation with a light, creamy raspberry-infused frosting for a Forces of Nature flavor you won’t believe. About every 28 Days or sooner, if need be, your favorite person will be begging to find A Time to Kill another piece of Sandra Bullock’s Raspberry Cake.
Ingredients
For the vanilla butter cake:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more, to taste, for dusting the pans
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup milk, divided
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup butter, softened
For the raspberry-cream cheese frosting:
- 2 tablespoons Key lime juice, freshly squeezed
- 2 cups fresh raspberries, divided
- 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- mint leaves, optional, to taste, for garnish
Directions
Step 1 –Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Step 2 –Grease two (8-9-inch) round cake pans.
Step 3 –Line the cake pans with parchment paper rounds and grease the rounds.
Step 4 –Dust the cake pans with the extra flour, tapping out the excess.
Step 5 –In a medium bowl, add the eggs, 1/4 cup of the milk, and the vanilla extract and whisk to combine. Set it aside.
Step 6 –In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, add 3 cups of the flour, the granulated sugar, the baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon of the salt and whisk on low speed to combine.
Step 7 –With the mixer on low speed, add 3/4 cup of the butter and the remaining milk to the flour mixture and beat lightly to combine.
Step 8 –Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat the batter mixture until completely combined. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Step 9 –In 3 additions, add the egg mixture to the batter mixture and beat after each addition, about 20 seconds per addition. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Step 10 –Equally divide the batter mixture between the prepared cake pans.
Step 11 –Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean, about 25-35 minutes.
Step 12 –Transfer the baked cakes from the oven to a wire rack and let them cool in the pans, about 10 minutes.
Step 13 –With a knife, carefully loosen the sides of the cakes.
Step 14 –Invert the cakes from the pans directly onto the wire rack and allow them to cool completely, about 50 minutes.
Step 15 –In a small saucepan over medium heat, add the lime juice and 1 cup of the raspberries and simmer until the raspberries are soft and can be easily mashed, about 6-7 minutes.
Step 16 –With a fine mesh strainer, strain the cooked raspberries into a bowl.
Step 17 –Separate and discard the seeds in the strainer and let the raspberry purée cool in the bowl to room temperature.
Step 18 –In a clean, large bowl with an electric mixer with a clean whisk attachment, add the remaining butter, the powdered sugar, and the remaining salt and beat until combined. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Step 19 –Increase the mixing speed to medium-high and beat until the frosting is very white and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
Step 20 –In small additions, add the cream cheese to the frosting mixture and beat after each addition until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Step 21 –With the mixer on low speed, in 1 tablespoon additions, add the raspberry purée mixture and beat after each addition until combined, about 1 minute.
Step 22 –On a cutting board using a long, serrated knife, horizontally cut each of the baked cakes in half, creating a total of 4 cakes. Optionally, you can instead leave the cakes as they are and make a 2-layer cake, frosting and filling it proportionally.
Step 23 –On a clean cutting board with a sharp knife, cut the remaining raspberries in half.
Step 24 –Reserve some of the raspberry halves for garnish.
Step 25 –On a serving plate, add one of the cake layers and, with an off-set spatula, evenly spread a thin layer of the raspberry frosting over top.
Step 26 –Evenly add about 1/3 of the raspberry halves on top of the frosting layer.
Step 27 –Repeat the layers, ending with the final cake on top.
Step 28 –With the remaining frosting, cover the top and sides of the assembled cake, reserving a little for piping and decoration, if desired.
Step 29 –On top of the cake, decoratively arrange the reserved raspberry halves and the mint leaves.
Step 30 –Slice and serve the cake.
