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Liv for Cake

Classic Cake Recipes with a Modern Twist

Raspberry Vanilla Mini Cakes

By Olivia, 46 Comments

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These raspberry vanilla mini cakes are layered with a creamy vanilla frosting and raspberry jam.

Buttery cake with a creamy vanilla frosting layered with raspberry jam. | livforcake.com

Can you believe it’s October?? How the heck did that even happen? October is my favourite month of the year. It’s officially Fall, Thanksgiving next weekend,  then my birthday and Halloween at the end of the month. This month pretty much rocks.

October is also Breast Cancer Awareness month. My friend Rebecca over at Sugar & Soul has put together a “Cooking for a Cure” round-up, with some pretty pink recipes from some pretty fabulous bloggers. Not that I ever need an excuse to bake something, but it’s nice to have a worthy cause to inspire a new recipe. I chose to make some pretty pink raspberry mini cakes for this theme so that I could break in my new 4″ cake rounds.

Buttery cake with a creamy vanilla frosting layered with raspberry jam. | livforcake.com

My ongoing search for the perfect vanilla cake recipe continues. For these mini cakes, I adapted Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Downy Butter Yellow Cake recipe from The Cake Bible. I changed it up a bit, as the original recipe called for only egg yolks and I didn’t want to waste the whites. The original was also for two 9″ rounds, so I had to do some math  and volume calculations to convert it for three 4″ rounds. That was super fun.

Buttery cake with a creamy vanilla frosting layered with raspberry jam. | livforcake.com

My plan was to make three 3-layer cakes, but the cakes didn’t bake up quite as high as I’d wanted, so I pieced them together to make two 3-layer cakes and they turned out quite well. Since they didn’t bake up very high, I could have just divided the batter into two pans instead of three and then cut the cakes into 3 layers each. So really you could just use two 4″ rounds to make these (as long as they’re 3″ tall) instead of three like I did.

Buttery cake with a creamy vanilla frosting layered with raspberry jam. | livforcake.com

The buttercream is a simple vanilla buttercream recipe that I added a bit of color gel to. I was intially going to make raspberry buttercream and mix some jam into it, but I thought the jam would make a nice, striking layer inside the cake instead.

Buttery cake with a creamy vanilla frosting layered with raspberry jam. | livforcake.com

The delicious raspberry jam comes from my sister-in-law, Nissa. She made a whole bunch this summer and sent us home with a few jars when we were visiting Calgary. The cake layer itself is actually quite salty, and I was a bit worried, but it goes perfectly with the sweet buttercream and jam. It’s definitely a cake that needs a super-sweet buttercream.

Buttery cake with a creamy vanilla frosting layered with raspberry jam. | livforcake.com

Oh, and I overbaked the cake, so… don’t do that. It baked up quicker than I thought, considering the pans were deeper than the ones I usually use. Start checking at 20mins. Thankfully the jam and frosting added additional moisture, and in the end it turned out perfect!

Buttery cake with a creamy vanilla frosting layered with raspberry jam. | livforcake.com
Print Rate
4.72 from 7 votes

Pretty Pink Raspberry Vanilla Mini Cakes

These mini raspberry vanilla mini cakes are layered with a creamy vanilla frosting and raspberry jam.
Course Dessert
Cuisine Cake
Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes
Servings 8
Calories 585
Author Olivia

Ingredients

Cake:

Buttercream:

Jam:

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Cake:

  • Preheat oven to 350F and grease three 4"x 3" cake rounds*, line with parchment.
  • In a small bowl whisk flour, baking powder, and salt, set aside.
  • Cream butter and sugar on med-high until pale and fluffy, approx. 3mins. Add egg and mix until combined. Add vanilla.
  • Alternate adding flour mixture and milk, beginning and ending with flour (3 additions of flour and 2 of milk), fully incorporating after each addition.
  • Divide batter evenly amongst pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (approx 25-30mins).**
  • Cool in pans for 10mins, invert and cool completely on wire rack.

Buttercream:

  • Cream butter medium high until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed and slowly add in sugar. Beat until smooth and add vanilla and color gel. Beat until combined.

Assembly:

  • Using a serrated knife or a cake leveler, cut each cake in half horizontally.***
  • At this point you can either have three 2-layer cakes or make two 3-layer cakes.
  • Place a cake layer down and add 1/3 cup buttercream on top, spread evenly. Add 1 tsp jam on top of buttercream and spread evenly. Place another cake layer on top and repeat the process, finishing with buttercream on top and fresh berries.

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Notes

* This is what I used, hoping to have 3 tall cakes, instead, you could use two 4" x 3" rounds but adjust baking time accordingly.
** Batter will be quite thick.
*** Remove any domes first, or prevent them by using bake even strips.
Adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Cake Bible.
Calories: 585kcalCarbohydrates: 69gProtein: 4gFat: 33gSaturated Fat: 20gCholesterol: 108mgSodium: 95mgPotassium: 185mgSugar: 50gVitamin A: 1035IUVitamin C: 0.3mgCalcium: 88mgIron: 0.4mg
The nutritional information and metric conversions are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee the accuracy of this data. If this important to you, please verify with your favourite nutrition calculator and/or metric conversion tool.

Buttery cake with a creamy vanilla frosting layered with raspberry jam. | livforcake.com

pink-recipes-cooking-for-a-cure

 

These pink recipes were made with love and honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month- sweet treats, cold drinks and some savory dishes.

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Comments

  2. Dorothy says

    Hi. I’m wanting to make a raspberry buttercream for a chocolate cake. Would you use raspberry jam or seedless preserves? Thanks for the help.

    Reply

  3. Kristy Moofart says


    Hi! I loved this cake! I used a rectangular pan instead of stacking circular cakes. I have pictures and a video of me doing it! I feel proud and this is th first time I succeeded in baking!

    Reply

  5. Becky says

    These look great! I’d like to make these for a summer bridal shower. My plan is to make a sheet cake and cut circles out- but I’m worried they will dry out. I will have to assemble and crumb coat 30 mini cakes the day before the shower and then decorate the next morning before the noon shower. Any tips on how to keep these super moist once they’ve been cut out?

    Reply

    • Olivia says

      Hi Becky! Do you have an airtight container(s) you can store them in? Otherwise I’d recommend assembling them with frosting, chilling till frosting is firm and then wrapping each in plastic wrap (I know that will be a pain). The more frosting you leave on the sides the less dry they will get. Though honestly, I don’t think it will be that bad if it’s just overnight and it’s only the very outside that might dry out a bit. I suspect they will be totally fine if you just stick them in the fridge once they’re put together. Another thing you can do is brush on a bit of simple syrup onto each of the layers while you’re assembling them. I hope that helps!

      Reply

  6. Savannah says


    just made these – sooo delicious ! thanks for the recipe and the amazing job doing all the conversions for all of us 😉

    Reply

  9. Marshella says

    Hi Olivia!

    Any chance this scrumptious looking cake could be converted for a 9 inch cake pan? I can make two 9 inch cake pans.

    Many thanks,
    Marshella

    Reply

    • Olivia says

      Hi Marshella! I would try doubling it for two 9″ cake pans. The original recipe I adapted it from was for a larger volume, but I can’t check it right now as the book is packed up! Make sure to only fill the pans 2/3 t 3/4 full. Let me know how it turns out!

      Reply

  10. Taylor says

    Olivia, is this recipe as written meant to fill six 4″ pans or just three 4″ pans?

    Thanks! Excited to make this.

    Reply

  11. Hannah says

    Hi Olivia! These are BEAUTIFUL! I was wondering if you have any suggestions as far as how to adapt these to make mini-er versions for a bridal shower? Can the cake recipe be made in a larger pan?

    Can’t wait to make them!! Thank you!

    Reply

    • Olivia says

      Hi Hannah! You can make the recipe in a larger pan for sure, but you’d need to adjust it according to the pan size. If you’re going to do that, I’d suggest using one of my more recent recipes that uses vanilla cake. Like this one but use vanilla instead of rum:

      http://livforcake.com/2016/06/pina-colada-cake.html

      Personally I like this recipe better :). You can bake it one as is in a 10″x15″ sheet pan then cut out small circles to stack together. Is that what you had in mind?

      Reply

  12. elle says


    hi!
    how many inches is in each layer? how much frosting did you use and what is the height of the overall cake, please??
    thanks so much!

    Reply

  14. Oana says


    What a beautiful display of pink desserts. And what a great cause! Having someone in the family going through it, I can relate to it so much. Well done, Liv!

    Reply

    • Olivia says

      You are so sweet, thank you!! Cakes are my thing. I love them and spend the most time planning/making them. 😀

      And yes, smaller cakes are better for the waistline except when you eat the entire thing….oops.

      Reply

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I'm Olivia, a professionally trained pastry chef, recipe developer, and photographer from from Vancouver, BC. Creating classic cake recipes with a modern twist.
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