Our Easter plans were sadly derailed last week by the passing of my wife’s grandfather, so we celebrated Easter the following weekend. And I made another cake. Keeping with some of the themes from the Lemon Raspberry Cake, I wanted to be festive. But, I also wanted to venture outside of the comfort zone in some way. This is the result.

This was a great cake. It was moist and flavorful. You could taste and smell the raspberries, and the wine flavoring was subtle but quite nice. Everyone enjoyed it a lot, despite some skepticism upon hearing it contained wine (“What kind of cake is it? It’s a full-bodied raspberry cake.”). As you can kind of see, the recipe made three full 8″ x 2″ cakes, so I think it could easily be halved to make smaller 1″ layers (or alternatively, I could have sliced a bit off the top to help stabilize the cake). I also doubled the amount of food coloring from the original recipe because she mentions in the comments that she used double-concentration food coloring. I thought the pink/purple color was great and was exactly what I wanted.

The frosting was really good… too good. And fortunately/unfortunately, the recipe made plenty, so I decided to try my hand at some more piping practice (getting there!). It got a little bit soft at room temperature for extended periods of time, but a quick trip to the fridge gets it in the perfect condition (in my opinion). The recipe could easily be scaled down by 1/3 with ample frosting leftover for decorating. It could probably even be halved and successfully cover the cake with enough frosting.

RASPBERRY PINOT NOIR CAKE
Based on recipes found here and here.

INGREDIENTS

Raspberry Sauce:
1 cup (7 oz., 198 g) granulated sugar
1 cup (8 fl. oz.) pinot noir wine
12 oz. fresh raspberries

Raspberry Pinot Noir Cake:
2 cups (14 oz., 397 g) granulated sugar
2/3 cup (5 oz., 142 g) vegetable oil
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. raspberry extract (I used “flavoring”)
2 3/4 cups (14 oz., 397 g) all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup (4 oz., 113 g) sour cream
1/4 cup (2 fl. oz.) pinot noir wine
1 cup (8 fl. oz.) raspberry syrup (from above recipe)
6-8 drops red food coloring

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting:
12 oz. cream cheese, softened
8 oz. white chocolate, chopped
3 cups (24 oz.) unsalted butter
6 cups (680 g) powdered sugar
1 tbsp. vanilla bean paste

DIRECTIONS:

1. For the sauce: Combine sugar, wine, and raspberries in a medium saucepan. Bring to boil over medium-high heat, then reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
2. Use a fine mesh strainer to strain seeds, reserving liquid into a small glass bowl to cool to room temperature.
3. For the cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour three 8″ cake pans. Line the bottom of each cake pan with parchment paper, then butter the parchment paper.
4. Add sugar, oil, eggs, and extracts to the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat for one minute on medium speed.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Sprinkle dry ingredients into the stand mixer on low speed until blended. Beat for two minutes on medium speed.
6. In another bowl, whisk buttermilk, sour cream, and wine, then gradually add the mixture to the stand mixer on low speed.
7. Fold in one cup of the raspberry syrup and food coloring.
8. Pour batter into cake pans (~570 g per cake). Bake for 28-32 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (mine took 32 minutes). Allow cakes to cool for 10 minutes, then wrap with plastic and chill until ready to frost.
9. For the frosting: In a medium microwave-safe bowl, soften cream cheese, then add the white chocolate and microwave on high for :45 seconds. Stir to melt the white chocolate into the cream cheese until smooth. If needed, microwave in additional :15 second increments until chocolate is completely melted. Place bowl in refrigerator to cool.
10. Beat the butter in a stand mixer with paddle attachment on medium-high speed for three minutes until light and fluffy.
11. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, mixing on low speed and increasing speed gradually when sugar is incorporated.
12. Add the vanilla, then beat on high for :30 seconds.
13. When the cream cheese mixture is cool, add it to the frosting on medium-low speed. Once incorporated, beat for one minute on medium-high speed.
14. Frost cakes as desired.