Buttermilk Cake with Raspberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

in Cakes & Cupcakes, Cherries & Berries, Fruit, Project Pastry Queen, Raspberries

Buttermilk Cake with Raspberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting

This week’s Project Pastry Queen recipe was selected by Beth of Powdered Plum – White on White Buttermilk Cake with Jack Daniels Buttercream. It’s a moist white cake topped with a whiskey-spiked Italian meringue-style buttercream frosting.

I didn’t have any Jack Daniels so I went in a different direction:
– I only made half the cake recipe, reducing the sugar 25%, and baked it in 6-inch pans.
– I had planned to make a Chambord frosting instead but then found a bowl of leftover Raspberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream (recipe below) in the very back of the fridge while I was gathering ingredients. I used that instead of making more frosting.
– Because I didn’t have to make frosting, I made a cake wrap after finding a bag of candy melts with my cake decorating supplies (sense a pattern?) and piled a bunch of raspberries on top of the cake.

The white cake itself is a good, solid white cake. I’ll post a how-to on the cake wrap soon. I’d forgotten how “fun” those were 🙂

Thanks to Beth for picking such a fun cake! Head over to Powdered Plum for the full cake and original frostin grecipe. And check out the other Project Pastry Queen members’ cakes!

Raspberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Use fresh raspberries to make a pretty pink swiss meringue buttercream.

Ingredients

  • 6 oz fresh raspberries
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 1/4 cup sugar
  • 4 egg whites
  • 3 sticks of butter, cut into cubes and at room temp
  • 2 Tbsp lemon juice

Instructions

  1. To make the puree, place raspberries and water in a small sauce pan over medium-high heat.
  2. Cook for ~5 minutes, and then break the berries apart with a spoon.
  3. Reduce heat to medium and cook uncovered for 15 minutes to reduce the liquids in the saucepan.
  4. Pour into a fine strainer set over a bowl, and using the back of a spoon, press and scrape the pulp and juices through the strainer for several minutes until you have just a clump of seeds left in the strainer. You should have 1/3 to 1/2 cup of puree.
  5. Cool to room temperature.
  6. To make the frosting, whisk the sugar and egg whites together in the bowl of a stand mixer.
  7. Place the bowl over a simmering pot of water and whisk until the eggs are very hot (160 degrees) and the sugar has completely dissolved.
  8. With the whisk attachment, whisk on high until the mixture is light and fluffy and has cooled (~10 minutes).
  9. Switch to the paddle attachment and drop butter into the mixer 2-3 Tbsp at a time.
  10. After all of the butter has been added, add in lemon juice and 1/3-1/2 cup of cooled raspberry puree.
  11. Beat until well mixed and then frost completely cooled cupcakes/cakes.
  12. Leftovers store wonderfully in the fridge for weeks. Set the frosting out 1-2 hours ahead of time and then mix using the paddle attachment for a couple of minutes on medium.

Notes

Yields: Enough to liberally frost ~18 cupcakes or 24 modestly

Adapted from Martha Stewart's Classic Swiss Meringue Buttercream



Having problems with your swiss meringue buttercream? Read how to fix it here.

30 comments… add one
  • What a beautiful cake!

    I want to be the one who finds leftover Swiss meringue buttercream in the back of the fridge. It would never happen at my house. 🙂

    • If I hadn’t found it this weekend, I’m not sure I would have ever found it! I need to better organize the fridge…

  • Your cake turned out gorgeous!

  • All I can say is “wow”! That cake is stunning, and I cannot wait to find out how to do a cake wrap!

  • There is just something so summery about buttermilk, especially in cakes! And with the raspberry…heaven!

  • gorgeous! i do not think i could pull this off. first off i have no cake stand! ha!

  • It’s beautiful! I can’t wait until your cake wrap tutorial!

  • Makes me want to dive into the photo and take a bite. Gorgeous!

  • Gorgeous! I can’t wait to learn how to make the wrap!

  • So so pretty! I love that you took creative liberties too – and I can’t wait to see your cake wrap tutorial!

  • So lovely!! Almost too pretty to cut into (though I would actually be tempted to skip the knife and just dig into that cake with a spoon like it was a bowl of pudding). I love the idea of halving the recipe– I have never thought to do that with a cake recipe, but now it seems like the perfect amount of cake, and an easy way to limit oven heat in the summer.

    • Two 6-inch cake pans are one of the best investments you can make if you like cake 🙂

  • This looks amazing! <3

  • found your blog/this post doing web search – and now I am excited to try this recipe – complete with JD – ’cause I don’t play. 😉 Looks yum.

  • oh what a stunning cake! The words whiskey-spiked definitely got my attention but your buttercream looks equally as divine 🙂

  • Such a beautiful creation!

  • I am absolutely drooling at it now …. this is such an awsm creation

  • For a throw-it-together-outta-the-fridge type cake… this turned out stunning! I’d love to see the cake wrap how-to.

  • Such a pretty cake girl, was admiring it on Foodgawker yesterday 🙂

  • Do you have your raspberry buttercream recipe anywhere on your site? I can’t seem to find it anywhere.
    Thanks

  • Anne

    I love your blog/recipes/creativity! I just made a batch of your “quick buttercream” and am loving it too. Do you still plan to post the “how-to” for the cake wrap? It looks like such a pretty way to present a cake!

    • Thanks, Anne! I do, hopefully in the next couple of weeks. I missed getting a few steps photographed last time and should have a chance to bake another “big” cake in a couple of weeks.

  • Carol

    Trying to locate the white buttermilk recipe everyone is raving about, but the link directs me to a different recipe. Any help in locating this cake recipe would be appreciated! Many thanks!

  • Elissa

    What do you do with all the egg yolks from Swiss meringue butter cream recipes? It just seems like such a waste!

  • Leslie

    Did you ever post a recipe/how-to for the cake wrap in this recipe? I did a search on your blog and couldn’t find it. It looks sooo cool, I’d love to incorporate that into my cake making!

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