Raspberry Velvet Cake - No artificial color or flavoring

Raspberry Velvet Cake - No artificial color or flavoring

The velvet cake collection grows today with a new flavor, raspberry...and without any artificial color or flavoring. We try very hard to limit the amount of fake food at our house, preferring to cook and bake from scratch with real ingredients and avoiding preservatives and chemical based food colorings and artificial flavorings as much as possible. My son and I love anything raspberry so I set out to try incorporating some raspberry puree into the batter which with it's intense natural flavor and color seemed like a good choice. 

In terms of flavor, there was not much difference but the frozen berries produced a darker pink color if that matters to you. The cake is as moist and light as the others in our Velvet Cake Collection with good raspberry flavor coming through. Some additional puree added to a raspberry buttercream frosting would add even more great raspberry flavor but we liked it with this fluffy marshmallow frosting. Get that frosting recipe by visiting our recipe for Black and White Cake.

 

Click the photo at the bottom of the post for our other velvet cake recipes, Red Velvet, White Velvet,  Orange Velvet and Lemon Velvet.

Raspberry Velvet Cake

Recipe by Barry C. Parsons

Raspberry Velvet Cake - developed from an outstanding Red Velvet Cake recipe, this beautiful cake is a perfectly moist and tender crumbed cake that would make an ideal birthday cake.

Prep time: Approximately 20 minutes
Cook time: 35 minutes
Total time: Approximately 1 hour.
Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups sifted all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup vegetable shortening at room temperature
• 1 tsp good quality pure vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 cup undiluted evaporated milk
• 3/4 cup raspberry puree

Directions

1. Make the raspberry puree by mashing fresh or frozen raspberries and pressing them through a fine sieve to remove the seeds. You will need at least 2 cups of raspberries or more to make sufficient puree
2. Grease and flour 2 nine inch round cake pans and line the bottom with 2 circles of parchment paper. 
3. Sift together both flours, baking soda. baking powder, salt and sugar, Set aside.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat together the vegetable oil, shortening and vanilla. Beat well at high speed with whisk attachment until light and fluffy
5. Beat the eggs in one at a time.
6. Stir together the undiluted evaporated milk and raspberry puree.
7. Fold in the dry ingredients alternately with the raspberry and milk mixture.
8. I always add dry ingredients in three divisions and liquid ingredients in 2 divisions. It is very important to begin and end the additions with the dry ingredients. Do not over mix the batter. As soon as it has no lumps in the batter, pour into the two prepared 9 inch cake pans.
9. Bake at 325 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the pans for 10 minutes before turning out onto wire racks to cool completely.
10. I've frosted this cake with Marshmallow Frosting but any good vanilla frosting is great on this cake. Find the frosting recipe with our Black and White Cake. 

Click the photo below to see the other outstanding recipes in our 

VELVET CAKE COLLECTION