This post contains affiliate links. When you purchase through our links, we may earn a commission.
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.
I made this cake for my sisters birthday and it is fabulous. I followed the recipe as written with the only exception being that I used Cherry liqueur because I could not find a raspberry one. No other changes needed I will definitely make this cake again.
Thank you for this wonderful cake idea.
Donna
Beautiful cake, Julia! My mom’s birthday is coming up soon, and this cake seems perfect for her birthday. I still have enough time to perfect my cake baking skills and cake frosting skills, but I will do my very best to replicate this beautiful cake. Thank you so much for sharing this awesome recipe!
This is incredible fantastic! I love raspberries so much and this recipe is what I’ve been looking for. Thank you so much for sharing!
This cake was a happy surprise! It is almost exactly the same cake as the sponge my Slovakian Grandmother would make for her strawberry shortcake. Alas, my mother lost her copy of the recipe years ago. So, you can imagine my excitement when I started using your recipe and realized it seemed vaguely familiar in execution to my Grandmother’s sponge. I ended up happily talking to my Grandmother (she passed several decades ago) as I was baking away and my husband was busy rolling his eyes.
The cake came out lovely. I have my own rosemary bush, so decorating it was even quite easy. We are not really that much of a cake family, but everyone loved it and it disappeared rather quickly. I think it has now a permanent place on the holiday menu…..and for strawberry shortcake also!
This has got to be one of my favourite comments! Thank you, Glory!
This looks amazing. I love mascarpone with raspberries and your decoration looks so sophisticated and elegant.
Thank you, Cat! Mascarpone is my favourite way to fill a cake!
What would be a substitute for the mascarpone cheese ? Like exact measurements per 1 cup ?
The only substitute I would use is cream cheam but it will not have the same lightness as mascarpone. I would use the same measurement as in the recipe.
I’m going to try this recipe today. I expect it comes out as well as everyone else’s appears to have. I’m very excited. I’ll keep you posted!
Sounds great!
Just made this today! It was a hit (my 11 year old said, “This may have been the best cake I ever ate!”). Delicious!
When kids approve my recipes, it’s the most satisfying thing ever! Thanks for sharing, Carla!! 🙂
Hi, I have question. Y haven’t you added baking powder to the cake batter
Hi Sunita, as I have replied to other commenters with a similar question, this particular sponge, known as Genoise, relies on eggs beaten for at least 5-7 minutes at high speed until they triple in volume, all that air that you beat into them will be responsible for a rise once the sponge is in the oven. This cake takes a little bit of effort but it is well worth it as you get a light and airy sponge that is basically a blank canvas and is a starting point for hundreds of flavour combinations. Its origin is in Italy and nowadays is used as a building block in French patisserie. I haven’t added any baking powder to the cake simply because this classic sponge recipe doesn’t need it.
Thanks for the great recipes! I confess I didn’t make the cake itself since I was crunched for time and wouldn’t have had the time to make another cake should the first one not have risen. I still used a sponge cake, but I whipped the egg parts separately. I admit, I was uncertain that the white chocolate buttercream was going to work, but it was delicious. Definitely requires a very high quality of white chocolate, or it would get cloyingly sweet very fast. My mascarpone filling “broke” the first time I tried to make it, but I think the cheese might’ve been old. It got all chunky and gross. I also made more of the compote so that there could be a solid layer of filling. I wasn’t able to try the finished product, but the mini trifles I made with the scraps of cake and the leftover fillings and frostings were delicious. Thanks again.
Thanks for reporting back, Julia!
Do you use self raising flour or plain
I used plain flour. The rise comes from the eggs in this sponge.
thank you am going to make this at the weekend. just one more thing for the simple syrup you say 50/50, would that be 30ml water and 30g sugar? Do you also add sugar to boiling water and let it cool first before mixing with raspberry syrup?
Yes, exactly like that.