Ingredients
Makes 16 slices
For the sponge:
225g unsalted butter, softened
250g full fat soft cheese
350g caster sugar
grated zest of 1 orange
1tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
375g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
200g fresh raspberries
For the icing:
300g white chocolate
450ml double cream
100g unsalted butter, softened
100g icing sugar
1tsp vanilla bean paste
For decoration:
100g white chocolate
100g fresh raspberries
dried raspberry flakes (optional)
Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease and base line 3 x 20cm round cake tins.
Cream the butter, cheese and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the orange zest and vanilla, then beat in the eggs one at a time.
Sift in the flour and baking powder, then gently mix until well incorporated. Fold in the raspberries. Divide the mixture equally between the three tins and bake for approximately 35-40 minutes or until golden brown on top and a skewer comes out clean.
Whilst the cakes are cooking, make the icing. Place the cream in a saucepan and gently heat until it just begins to bubble around the edges. Break the white chocolate into a bowl, pour over the hot cream, then stir until the chocolate has completely melted. Leave it to cool (you can speed the cooling process up by whisking it). When it is cool, add the butter, icing sugar and vanilla bean paste and whisk for 5-10minutes until the mixture thickens. Cover, then place in the refrigerator to set whilst you wait for your cakes to cool down - at least 30 minutes. If it's still too runny when chilled, you could always whisk in a little more icing sugar.
When the sponges are completely cool, assemble the cake by spreading icing in between each layer. Finish by spreading the icing around the sides and the top using a large palette knife to create a pattern of your choice. Decorate with the raspberries and white chocolate curls. Alternatively, you can grate the chocolate on top.
To make chocolate curls, melt 100g or so of white chocolate then spread it out onto a flat, non-stick surface. Leave it to cool completely, or place it in the refrigerator for 5 minutes. Using a long straight knife, "shave" the chocolate with your knife at an angle pointing away from you. This should form curls of chocolate.
Tip: I use this handy Stainless Steel Cake Lifter
for transferring delicate layer cakes.
I've never heard of putting soft cheese into cake batter before! Does it make the cake very dense? Thanks - Hannah
ReplyDeleteIt makes it quite rich and very moist. I really love the texture of it.
DeleteHi, sounds like a delicious recipe. Do you think the three tiers are necessary - could it be just two?
ReplyDeleteYou could use 2 x 25cm tins with the above recipe. Or, if you wanted to take a third off the recipe it will certainly be big enough and would make about 12 slices. It is a very large cake!
DeleteHi, this looks delicious. do you think it would work tiered? I'm thinking large Base, then medium, then small with a one on top in raspberries. (my sons 1st bday)
ReplyDeleteDefinitely. The sponge is dense so could support it. It is a huge cake as it is but if you wanted double layer tiers I would add an extra 50% of the ingredients to the recipe.
DeleteHello this looks amazing but I need to make a 4 layered 9 inch cake. How would I work out how much extra batter to make? Thanks Mel
ReplyDeleteI would add 50% on to each ingredient (so half added on again). For example, if it says 4 eggs, you would use 6. If it says 100g, use 150g etc. It is already a really massive cake and is quite tall. So it might actually be better to only add a third (33%) extra ingredients, and just having thinner layers. If you do this, you'll need to reduce the cooking time by 5-10 minutes (and get your calculator out before starting!).
DeleteThanks Rosie
DeleteI will let you know how I get on. Can't wait! !
Mel
Hello Rosie
ReplyDeleteHave now baked 2 x 4 tier cakes! Used 50% extra ingredient for both but added juoce of an orange as first batch batter seemed v heavy. managed to slightly burn outsides of 1st batch so repeated but will trim first cakes and either use as mini cakes or cover in molk choc. We'll use anyway as have 50 to feed. 2nd batch batter I used slightly less flour and was better. Also whisked egg yokes and whites separately. Added yokes gradually with little flour then folded in egg whites at end. Better result but Still to assemble!! Batter tasted yummy :-D Mel
Well. Cake made, decorated, admired and devoured by 50 hungry guests. It's to die for and the flavours work together v well. I would recommend watching cakes v closely in oven to ensure the outsides don't burn. Also, if I make this again, I will do a light cruumb coating with buttercream first, refrigerate before applying a second light coat. Thanks v much for posting recipe
ReplyDeleteThis sounds very good - could you tell me what soft cheese and double cream are - would that be cream cheese and heavy whipping cream in the US?
ReplyDeleteDouble cream is your heavy cream. Soft cheese is cream cheese :). I have this article here which tells you all the UK alternatives to US ingredients: http://www.rosiebakesit.com/2014/03/uk-alternatives-to-us-baking-ingredients.html
DeleteThe cake looked amazing as a 3 tier tall cake decorated with raspberries and was very tasty with the cream cheese and raspberries inside. This is a fantastic cake if you want look and taste. My icing didn't quite turn out as the chocolate should probably be completely cooled down before adding the butter. Therefore I ended up with a sauce not icing. I therefore used a cream cheese/icing sugar icing that went amazing on the outside. The cake is quite dense so cream cheese icing also works (similar to a carrot cake). I invited guests to pour the chocolate sauce on top which took it over the top on sugar level but was very much appreciated!
ReplyDeleteI also wanted a completely white icing so that I could separate and add red food colouring for an ombre pink cake.
DeleteI'm so glad you liked it! Yes the chocolate must be completely cool before you add the butter, else it will simply melt. But if it all goes wrong you can always cheat and add icing sugar until it's the right thickness - it just loses a little of it's glossyness!
DeleteThanks! I will have to try it again!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHello, probably a silly question but could I use vanilla extract rather than bean paste? As that's what I have in at the moments . It looks amazing can't wait to try it!
ReplyDeleteMany thanks!
Yes you could. The vanilla beans just make it look really posh! Make sure to use a good quality one.
ReplyDeleteCan this sponge be frozen? and could i use frozen raspberries?
ReplyDeleteHi Rosie,
ReplyDeleteDo you know if you could make some adjustments to make this cake gluten free? I have a few recipes which I can but I'm not sure if this batter would transfer well with the addition of cream cheese?
Hello Rosie this cake sounds wonderful if I were to bake it as an 8inch would it work reduced by a third please advise thank you
ReplyDeleteThis sounds lovely. Going to give this a go. thanks for sharing this recipe.
ReplyDeleteSimon
i've just made this cake, but i found my icing to be way way too runny! i added lots more icing sugar to thicken but it's still not holding as well as id want. i'm hoping the sponge will taste as good as it looked when i took them out of the oven though !
ReplyDeleteIt's an important step to put it in the fridge to cool. Also, like any ganache, whisking it a lot helps. You can always ad more icing sugar if this still isn't working.
DeleteCan you send me the link for u.S conversion please?
ReplyDeleteHi Rosie, I'm going to bake this lovely cake for my daughter's birthday. Before I start, is the oven temperature for fan or conventional.
ReplyDeleteFan oven :)
DeleteGreetings Rosie,
ReplyDeleteI am a total numpty when it comes to baking, however I'm going to try, so tell me please, how far up a 20cm cake tin should the mixturego?
Rob, Cornwall
When filling any cake tin, try not to go above 2/3rds full. As long as you spoon equal amounts into each tin you'll be fine. If you want to be a perfectionist, you can use your scales to make sure they all weigh the same!
DeleteThank you, I'm about to have a go!
DeleteI've had to extra icing sugar to the icing but I can hardly taste white chocolate. It just tastes of cream
ReplyDelete