Lemons and raspberries are a fantastic flavour pairing. Especially if you’re like me and like a bit of a tartness or zesty zing in a sweet treat. This is the most simple cake. It has become my go to sponge recipe since it is so quick and easy to make. It literally take me 5 minutes and zero equipment to through together the batter. The yoghurt and oil in the batter makes this sponge incredibly light and moist. It’s absolutely delicious even without icing/frosting or glaze. The added bonus is that you can change the lemon for any other citrus fruit, or omit it all together and stick to vanilla if you wish. In fact, if you have seen my Mandarin Yoghurt cake recipe, this is the exact same cake, just made with lemons and half the ingredients. You can also add extras such as poppy seeds, for a lemon and poppy seed cake.
For this version I have stuck to the classic lemon for the cake and since I wanted layers, I added fresh raspberries to the middle and freeze-dried raspberries to the icing/frosting. They might look impressive but are actually deceivingly simple.
Since I’m in the midst of making quite a few sweet recipes at the moment, I wanted to keep these small. So I halved my usual mixture as mentioned, which made four mini layers baked in 10cm cake tins, allowing me to make two adorable mini layer cakes. This quantity would also make two 20cm layers, or if you don’t want to make layers at all, use one 20cm or 23cm cake tin. For a larger version, feel free to double the recipe. For ease of reference, as mentioned, this is the same recipe as the Mandarin cake, just make with lemon.
Lemon & Raspberry Mini Layer Cakes
Ingredients
Cake
- ¼ Cup Plain or Greek yogurt
- ½ Cup Light brown or white granulated sugar
- 1 Large Egg
- ½ tsp Vanilla Extract
- ¾ Cup All-Purpose/Cake Flour
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- ¼ tsp Salt
- Zest of approx. 1 Lemon approx. ¼ Cup of zest
- 1 Tbsp Lemon juice
- ¼ Cup Oil (Vegetable/Sunflower/Canola)
- ½ Cup Fresh raspberries, halved for layering Optional
Raspberry Cream Cheese Icing/Frosting (Optional)**
- ¼ Cup Unsalted Butter (57g) Softened to room temperature
- ¼ Cup Plain Cream Cheese (57g) Softened to room temperature
- 1 Cup Icing/Powdered Sugar Sifted
- ½ tsp Fresh Cream or substitute with milk if needed
- ½ tsp Vanilla Extract/paste
- ¼ Cup Freeze-dried raspberries, blended blended until fine in a food processor (optional)
- Fresh raspberries to decorate Optional
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Line the bottom of the spring-form cake tins of your size choice (see notes below*) with baking paper then spray evenly with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside
- In a large bowl, add the yogurt, sugar, eggs and vanilla and mix until well combined
- Sieve in the flour, baking powder, salt, and zest and mix to just barely combined
- Add the juice and oil and stir well. Don’t worry if it seems to separate at first. Keep stirring until a smooth batter forms
- Pour the batter into prepared tin (or tins)
- Bake for 30 – 40 minutes or until the cake feels springy to the touch and a skewer or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean (if splitting the batter between more than one tin, start checking at 25 minutes). The mini layers take 25 – 30 minutes to bake. Be careful not to over bake
- Cool the cake(s) in the tin on a wire rack for around 10 – 15 minutes. Then remove from the cake(s) from the tins and cool completely (before decorating) on the wire rack (approx. 1 hour)
Raspberry Cream Cheese Icing/Frosting (Optional)**
- Add softened butter and cream cheese to the bowl of your stand mixer or a mixing bowl if using a hand mixer, and beat on high speed until smooth and combined
- Slow down the mixer and add the sifted icing/powdered sugar a bit at a time
- Once all the sugar has incorporated, add in the cream and vanilla continue whipping until it is smooth, light and a fluffy
- To assemble, level the cakes if using layers, and if necessary. To ice/frost the layers, either A: add the icing/frosting to the cake then sprinkle with the freeze-dried raspberry powder before spreading/smoothing, or B: add it to the icing/frosting before spreading onto the layers (option A will preserve the whiter colour of the icing where option B will make the icing pinker)
- I didn't add much frosting between the layers as I didn't want to make the cakes too sweet, but this is down to personal taste and the occasion. The same applies to how thick you would like the icing on the sides. I sometimes like the look of 'naked' cakes so I spread the icing very thinly on the sides on this occasion compared to the Mandarin cake
- Tip: A tip when working with fresh fruit, especially cut fruit, is to ice the layers first and place them in the freezer for around 10 – 15 minutes before adding the fruit. If the icing is soft when adding the cut raspberries, they could 'bleed' into the icing making it look a little messy
- Decorate as you wish, serve and enjoy!
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