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This Frostbitten raspberry cake is the cake for any celebration in any season! Three layers of vanilla sponge filled with raspberry compote and mascarpone frosting, covered in a creamy white chocolate frosting.
Find more delicious treats in our Christmas Dessert Collection!
I love all cakes I bake but some make the effort more worthwhile than others. This raspberry cake is off the scale magnificent!
I can’t even begin to describe the greatness of vanilla sponge cake filled with mascarpone and raspberry compote and frosted with white chocolate buttercream. It’s glorious.
After I took the first bite I was not at all resentful that I’d spent a good portion of Christmas Eve fussing in the kitchen. If this is what it takes for an amazing birthday cake then it is worth it!
To me a perfect cake should have at least two layers of moist sponge, a lovely compote and a luxuriously creamy icing that isn’t sickly sweet. Having these elements in perfect balance is the secret to a memorable cake.
But it also has to look the part. It should not look out of place on a festive table, with all the right colours and decorations. Personally, I think a white cake with raspberries and rosemary absolutely looks the part!
What is Frostbitten Raspberry Cake?
In coming up with this cake I had to draw on my Russian roots. The cake I made was reminiscent of the ones I ate as a child, baked by my dad.
The recipe for this raspberry cake is a mix of things: the sponge is Russian “biskvit”- my dad’s recipe, the raspberry mascarpone filling was inspired by Sweetapolita.
For a bit of help in making the sponge, check out this video for White Christmas Truffle Cake. The sponge is the same and following the same method will help you achieve great results!
And finally the white chocolate buttercream frosting was my own invention, made to taste very similar to my dad’s frosting. It’s lovely and creamy without overwhelming with too much sweetness.
Because this was made for Christmas, I chose toppings that gave it a holiday look. Rosy red raspberries and a green sprig of rosemary land perfectly on the snowy white frosting. A dusting of icing sugar adds to the effect.
It all looks so wintery! But this cake isn’t only for Christmas. It’s also perfect for New Years and, with a different mix of toppings, could be used at other times of the year as well!
More holiday cake recipes
- White Christmas Truffle Cake
- Black Forest Cake
- Cranberry Christmas Cake
- Chocolate Orange Hazelnut Tart
- Christmas Chocolate Cake with Cranberries
Frostbitten Raspberry Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 5 eggs, room temperature, large
- 1 cup / 200g sugar
- 2 tsp This is an affiliate link.vanilla
- 1 cup / 120g flour
For the Syrup (for soaking the sponge layers)
- 1/4 cup / 60ml raspberry liqueur
- 1/4 cup / 60ml simple syrup
For the Mascarpone Cream
- 1 cup / 250g mascarpone
- 1 cup / 250ml whipping cream
- 1/4 cup / 15g icing sugar
- 2 tsp gelatine
- 2 tbsp water
- 2 tsp This is an affiliate link.vanilla
For the Raspberry Compote
- 1 1/2 cups / 190g raspberries, fresh or frozen (I used frozen)
- 1/2 cup / 100g sugar
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 cup / 125g fresh raspberries
For the White Chocolate Buttercream
- 5 oz / 150g white chocolate, chopped (not chocolate chips)
- 1/4 cup / 60ml whipping/double cream
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
For decoration
- 1 sprig rosemary
- 1/4 cup / 30g raspberries
- Icing sugar for dusting
Instructions
For the Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350F/180C.
- Grease 3 8″ cake pans and line them with parchment paper. (Russian sponge is very delicate so it’s important to use parchment paper for easy removal.)
- Crack 5 eggs at room temperature to a bowl of a stand mixer and add sugar and vanilla, beat at high speed for 5 minutes until the mixture is pale and triples in volume.
- Fold in flour through a sifter in 5-6 additions blending it in gently after each addition. Your goal is to keep the volume of the egg mixture so be very careful in this step of the process.
- Divide your cake batter among 3 pans and bake for 25-30 minutes until cake tester or tooth pick comes out clean and the cakes have risen to the top of the pan. (I baked 2 layers and then 1 later).
- Cool for 10 minutes and then run a knife around the edges of your pans to release the cakes and flip them over on a wire rack to cool completely.
- (After your cakes have cooled you can individually wrap them in plastic wrap for later use. You can bake you sponge layers a day ahead.)
For Raspberry Compote
- Combine 1 1/2 cups of raspberries and sugar with water in a small saucepan and cook on low heat until thick and mixture coats the back of a spoon. It will take about 15 minutes.
- Remove from heat and process in a food processor or a blender until smooth.
- Push through a fine sieve to get rid of the seeds.
- Combine the compote with fresh raspberries and set aside.
For the Mascarpone Cream
- Mix gelatine with water in a small bowl. Let it sit for 5 minutes until it goes spongy.
- Heat the gelatine mixture in a microwave for 10 seconds until runny and smooth.
- Combine mascarpone, whipping cream, sugar and vanilla in a bowl of a stand mixer.
- Start whipping on medium speed until combined.
- With the motor of a stand mixer still running drizzle your gelatine mixture over the cream and whip for 2-3 minutes until well combined.
For the Syrup
- Combine raspberry liqueur with simple syrup (water and sugar mixed in equal parts).
- Drizzle over the cake layers. (Russian sponge really benefits from being drizzled with a flavoured syrup since there is no fat mixed into the batter and it can taste on the dry side without the syrup.)
How to assemble the cake
- Load your mascarpone cream in a large piping bag with a plain round tip.
- Pipe a border around the first drizzled with syrup layer, it will keep your raspberry compote from leaking out of the sides.
- Fill with half of your raspberry compote. ( It won’t cover the entire layer, the berries will be spread sparsely.)
- Then pipe in the mascarpone cream in the empty spaces and smooth it out with a spatula. You shouldn’t have any gaps.
- Top with another layer and repeat the process.
- Finish with the third layer.
For the White Chocolate Buttercream
- Heat 1/4 cream in a saucepan until it just simmers but not boiling.
- Take off the heat and pour over chopped white chocolate in a medium sized bowl.
- Let it sit for a couple of minutes and then stir until chocolate is melted into the cream.
- Cool for 10 minutes and then start whipping in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer. (Hand mixer works better here because of the small amount).
- Mix for 10 minutes until light and fluffy, then start adding softened butter by a tablespoon, mix well until entirely incorporated into the frosting after each addition. (You will have enough frosting for a thin layer around the cake. If you like more frosting on your cake simply double the recipe but it will make a very sweet cake.)
- Spread 1/2 of the buttercream over the cake and let it chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.
- Coat your chilled cake with the other half of the frosting and decorate with rosemary and raspberries.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Your cake looks beautiful!! Do you think if I were to change the cake to a white butter cake, it would taste okay with the raspberry and mascarpone cream? Planning on making this yummy looking cake for a babyshower.
I can’t say for sure because I don’t know what it tastes like but you can probably safely substitute it. Good luck!
Can i make the cake if i have only one 8″ pan, also have such a small oven for one pan? Can i bake one layer by one layer? Thank you
It’s fine to bake one layer at a time, Mojka. However, it would be too difficult to use the same pan as you need to wait till the cake cools to remove it and then fill with more batter. I am afraid it would take too long and the batter might deflate.
I actually just did this – I only have one cake pan but really wanted to try this cake. I was super worried about the batter deflating but it wasn’t that bad! I just covered the bowl with a tea towel in between. I think it deflated a little, but all the layers were still super light once they were baked. It did help that I have one of those cake pans where the base and sides separate, and I lined the pan with baking paper each time, so it was very easy to remove each layer while it was still warm.
You can definitely bake this as one layer if you have a springform pan that is 9″ or 10″ in diameter and then slice it. I am happy to hear you experimented, Hana!
I love to make my own birthday cakes too!!! Although, I am challenged when it comes to making it look pretty. Anyway…..I’m going to make this for my birthday this year….next week.
My buttercream icing came out runny. Was that as intended?
Evie, no I wouldn’t say so. It’s supposed to have a typical/spreadable buttercream consistency. Perhaps your butter was too warm? It can solidify when cooled.
Water content varies across brands of butter. I would guess you used a brand with high water content.
Madethis cake for my friends and family and everyone loved it!!! I havent tried it myself but it looked fabulous!
One of my friends even asked me to make this cake for his wedding, so I will have to make it as a 2-3 tier cake!
The reciepe was clear and easy to follow. Im completely no friends with gelatine, so had to avoid using it!
Thank you!
Thank you for your feedback, Julia. I’ve had other readers make it as a wedding cake. It will have to be reinforced with special equipment like dowels or it will collapse from its own weight as it’s pretty delicate. 🙂
Hi,
I was wondering if you have ever tried freezing this cake once finished? I want to make it a couple of weeks in advance and then defrost , but j don’t have experience with this type of filling and cake.
Thanks!!!
I have absolutely no experience with freezing cakes, Gabriela so can’t really tell either way.
I making this for my boyfriends birthday. My question does the cake have to be refrigerated at? I’m wanting to put it in a cake plate with cover and make it a day in advance so it’s ready the day of his party
Keisha, this cake needs to be refrigerated because it’s filled with mascarpone, which can spoil. 🙂
I haven’t read through all the comments, so maybe someone else already suggested this! 🙂 It would be really helpful if you could add pictures and a description of what the eggs and sugar should look like after you beat them in step #3. I’m not a spatial thinker, so “tripling in volume” doesn’t mean much to me! Knowing what I should look for would have been really helpful during my first try at this sponge cake!
Hi Anne, I understand that some visual guide would’ve been helpful but this recipe was posted over a year ago and there isn’t much I can do at this point. The eggs and sugar will look white and will form a thick foam. I hope that helps!
Where to start… I couldn’t find mascarpone cheese so I had to sub a mixture of cream cheese, whipping cream, and sour cream. If you want this cake well covered, I’d triple the icing recipe. Make completely sure that you whip the heck outta the eggs or it’ll end up too dense. I wouldn’t recommend this for a beginner due to the cake being a sponge cake. The recipe did work though, and looks amazing. I made this for my mother’s birthday cake and she seems impressed.