Vegan Raspberry Vanilla Cake

If I were to pick a favorite cake flavor, this Vegan Vanilla Raspberry Cake would be it.  In fact, this is one of the flavors we ordered for our wedding cakes.  It was so heavenly, I told myself I would need to make one for myself at home sometime.  Well, that time has come, I figured why not make one for Valentine's Day?! I do think of berries as being festive after all.  I do love some Valentine's chocolate and I will definitely be eating some, but I made this cake last weekend because Eric and I celebrated the weekend before due to work schedules and I was even more excited about it than the chocolate.  I am a vanilla cake girl after all.

If you are looking for the healthiest version of vegan vanilla cake, this is not it because I wanted it to taste as close to the bakery version as possible and I think I did pretty well in that respect.  I have plenty of other more whole food based cakes on this blog though if that is your thing!  I used my classic vanilla cake base for the cake layers and even the batter was yummy!  Yes, I love me some cake batter and I had to give it a sample before baking it.  Ever since I was a little girl in my Grandma's kitchen I love sampling the cake batter or licking the excess that didn't make it into the pan out of the mixing bowl!  It smelled so heavenly while baking, and I could not wait to make the rest of the cake, so I could sample it!

For the frosting, I made this a bit different than our wedding cake, in that instead of vanilla frosting and a raspberry filling, I wanted to make a raspberry frosting too!  Why not make it even more delicious?!  I made a classic easy vegan buttercream frosting with vegan butter, powdered sugar and vanilla and added in raspberry powder to tint it a lovely pink color, plus give it a vibrant raspberry flavor.  I made the raspberry powder by taking freeze dried raspberries and pulverizing them to powder in the blender until they were the consistency of powdered sugar.  This is a great way to flavor your frosting if you want to give it a berry flavor (or another fruit flavor if you have a different freeze dried fruit) without adding excess moisture to the frosting.

I filled the cake with some of Eric's Dad's raspberry jam, which is probably the best raspberry jam I have ever tasted.  Make sure you use good jam for the cake, it makes all the difference!  When it was finally time to taste the cake I was super excited!  Eric and I enjoyed some together and he even licked the plate clean of frosting it was that good (so did I for that matter).  It was heavenly!  Soft and sweet, scented with vanilla, the perfect partner for the sweet creamy raspberry filling and flavorful jam!  If you are looking for a delicious cake to make, give this Vegan Vanilla Raspberry Cake a go!  It tastes just like it came from a bakery!

Vegan Raspberry Vanilla Cake 
Makes one 6 inch cake

Equipment: two 6 inch cake pans, a cake spreader and a pastry bag

Ingredients:

Cake:

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp maple sugar or granulated sugar
• 3/4 tsp baking powder (1/2 tsp plus 1/4 tsp)
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 2 flax eggs (2 Tbsp ground golden flax seed mixed with 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp filtered water, allowed to sit 15 minutes)
• 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp avocado oil
• 1/2 cup coconut milk or other plant based milk
• 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Frosting:

• 1 1/2 cups vegan butter, I used Earth Balance (at room temperature)
• 3-4 Tbsp coconut milk or other plant based milk (add 3 then if needed add another if frosting comes out too stiff)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup freeze dried raspberries, blended in a blender until they are fine powder
• 4 cups powdered sugar

Filling:

• 1/3 cup vegan raspberry jam

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F degrees, and line 2 6 inch round cake pans with parchment on the bottom and oil the sides.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and sea salt and whisk to blend.
3. Add the flax eggs, avocado oil, milk, and vanilla and beat with an electric mixer for about a minute (or a little longer if doing it by hand with a whisk).
4. Pour the cake batter into the prepared pans, dividing evenly between them.
5. Place the cakes in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes until the cakes are done in the center (you are able to insert a toothpick into the center and it comes out almost clean with a few moist crumbs).
6. Remove from the oven and let cool 20 minutes, then remove the cakes from the pans by cutting around the sides, placing a plate on top then inverting it and tapping on it.  Allow them then to cool completely once they are out of the pans.
7. To make the frosting, beat the butter with the milk and vanilla until fluffy.
8. Add the raspberry powder, and then powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, and beat until completely mixed and light and fluffy (if the frosting is too stiff add that other Tbsp of milk).
9. When ready to frost, Place one cake layer on a plate, spread about 1/4 inch thick layer of the frosting over that, then pipe a frosting barrier around the edge of the cake so that the filling does not ooze (tall enough so that it will be thicker than the filling).
10. Spoon the jam into the middle of it and spread out evenly to the barrier frosting.  Place the next cake layer on top.
11. Spread the remaining frosting on the top and down the sides of the cake evenly, then place the rest of the frosting in a pastry bag and use it to decorate the top (I tinted half of mine with more berry powder to create two different colors).  This frosting recipe makes enough that you should be able to do some generous piping decorations on top, because I like a lot of frosting!
12. Serve the cake and enjoy!

Cake keeps stored in the refrigerator in a container or covered for up to 1 week.

Notes:

If you would like to make a 9 inch round cake, double the entire recipe, and bake it in two 9 inch round pans, increasing the baking time slightly until the cakes are baked through about 30-35 minutes.