White Chocolate, Cranberry, Raspberry Layer Cake

Over the past few years I have started to love making layer cakes. As I’ve said many times before, I’m not the best at decorating them, but practice makes perfect, right?

Sometimes I feel like you need a special occasion to make a layer cake. It’s usually a decent time commitment and you get a LOT of cake. Hubby and I can’t work our way through a whole layer cake, nor should we. I have done some 6″ cakes that yield fewer servings and still give the satisfaction of making a layer cake.

Recently, I threw caution to the wind and made this layer cake just because. I was browsing through some cookbooks to pass the time and for whatever reason this recipe caught my eye. It was a Friday night (I lead an exciting life, what can I say), so I decided to whip up the cake layers and filling that night and assemble the cake the next day.

Let’s start with this filling. I was surprised to learn that it used dried cranberries. I have never seen a jam/filling recipe that uses dried fruit before. Sure you could just buy some high quality jam at the store instead, but making jam is too easy of a step to skimp on in my mind. I mean hey, if you’re committed to making a layer cake, why would you buy the jam.

Anyways, the dried cranberries plump up from the juices of the raspberries and it all comes together quite nicely. I really enjoyed that the jam was cooked with a vanilla bean. Vanilla is one of my favorite flavors. I did have some leftover after assembling this cake and it was delicious on toast as well. I am tempted to make it again just to have some tasty jam in the fridge. You really could make this jam any time of the year using frozen raspberries and dried cranberries.

The cake layers themselves are a pretty standard buttermilk cake recipe. The cake flour gives them a very tender crumb.

And finally, the frosting. White chocolate is a great way to flavor a frosting so that it’s not too sweet. I think I like the White Chocolate Buttercream from my Purple Ombre Cake better than this one, but both are good.

I made this a full-sized cake and forced our friends to help us eat it. I don’t think they were complaining at my insistence.

One Year Ago: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip and Bacon Blondies and Deviled Eggs
Two Years Ago: Hubby’s 30th Birthday Mustache Bash and Crockpot Pulled Chicken
Three Years Ago: Sesame Crisps
Four Years Ago: Crockpot Beef and Peppers

I am submitting this for this month’s What’s Baking, hosted by Steph of Brownies and Blondies. This month’s theme was to make a convenience food from scratch. I know a lot of people buy jams or other fillings for the cakes, but I always prefer to make them from scratch!

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