Hello blog, my old friend.
I’ve come to talk with you again.
Because a vision of cake softly creeping.
Left its raspberry seeds while I was sleeping.
And the vision, that was planted in my brain.
No longer remains,
Within the sound, of silence.
BECAUSE I BAKED IT INTO A CAKE, FOOLS.

Jesus, what has it been, March? So…like 4 months since I’ve posted. UGH. I’m not going to lie to you and say I’m disappointed in myself. It’s just a pain in the butt to upload pictures because I am cheap and have not purchased an SD usb card reader to get my pictures onto my computer. So I have to use my mom’s laptop. Then send them to myself so I can post them from here. Not that you care about any of that, dear reader. You just want the pictures. You just want the recipes. You just want to see this monkey dance!
Well here I am! Dancing away! With cream cheese frosting and raspberry preserves all over my mouth. You like those moves? I know you do.

I had this vision in my head for the past few days of a little two tier cake, a 6″ and a 4″ stack. I was going to cover it all beautifully smooth with pink buttercream, then attach this beautiful white and gold gumpaste peony that I made to it. But yesterday I went to bake the cake layers and everything fucked up and I was mad and frustrated because WHY DOES BAKING AT HOME ONLY WORK 40% OF THE TIME FOR ME NOW? so I put on my grumpy pants, threw the cake in the garbage, and proceeded to watch It’s Always Sunny for the rest of the day/night. Don’t hate, appreciate.
Then today I was like….spice cake. I need spice cake in and around my mouth right now. But I also want fruit. Raspberries. So I baked a spice cake. And layered it with homemade raspberry preserves with some fresh local berries and, obviously, cream cheese frosting.

Yaaaa she did. Ya she did.
There’s something so equally summer yet winter about this cake. I want it all year round. I want it when it’s 35C out and when it’s -20C out. I want it with a glass of iced raspberry tea and I want it with a chai latte. And I can do that. Because I am an adult. And because this cake is super easy to make! One bowl for the batter, one pot for the preserves, one bowl for the buttercream. Clean up is a breeze and the results are so worth it.

Ready to make this one?
Let’s go!
Raspberry Spice Cake
Spice Cake Layers
2 3/4 cups pastry flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon clove
1 cup room temperature butter
1 cup of whole milk
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Preheat your oven to the usual 350F. Grease and line 2 8″ round cake pans with parchment, set aside.
In the mixing bowl of a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment to combine all of the dry ingredients. Add the butter and mix until a sandy texture develops. Mix together the milk, eggs, and vanilla. Add 1/3 of this mixture to the mixing bowl and beat on medium speed until well combined. Slowly mix in the remaining wet ingredients. Divide into your cake pans and bake for about 30-35 minutes. Allow to completely cool before splitting and filling.
Raspberry Filling
2 pints raspberries
1 tablespoon – 1/4 cup sugar (you’ll have to taste and adjust accordingly. My berries were very sweet on their own so I only needed 1 tablespoon)
Juice of half a lemon
Cook down the raspberries and sugar with the lemon juice until slightly thickened. Set aside until ready to use.
Cream Cheese Frosting
1 8oz pkg COLD cream cheese
1 cup softened butter
4.5 cups icing sugar
In a mixing bowl with the whisk attachment, beat the butter and icing sugar until fluffed and combined. Throw in the cream cheese in chunks, and mix just until everything is smooth. Remember a long time ago when we talked about how over-whipping your cream cheese frosting will lead to a runny un-pipeable frosting? Don’t do that. Don’t make me sad.
ASSEMBLY!
Level and split the cake layers into 2. Spread each layer with the raspberry preserves, piping a border around the edge with the cream cheese frosting. Then run your offset spatula along the outisde of the cake to crumb coat. Place in the freezer until firm, then pipe the rest of the frosting on to the cake and make it look however you want! Weeweooooo
