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Lemon and Raspberry Birthday Cake
October 17th, 2007 | Category: Baked Goods
I love it when people are specific when it comes to what they want for their birthday cake. “Something chocolaty” or “I love strawberries” just doesn’t work for me. Without a detailed brief, I am lost. All those possible combinations haunt me.
Last week, we were planning a birthday for a friend at the Mansion. I offered to bake the cake with one condition only: A detailed brief.
My friend told me that he wanted a white cake with lemon and raspberry fillings. The cake should not be too dry, the filling not too sweet and equal amounts of cake and buttercream is ideal.
As luck would have it, the perfect cake was right there looking at me from the pages of my favorite cookbook.
Yes, you guessed it. Dorie’s Baking: From My Home to Yours.
Her “Perfect Party Cake” is an exact match. Lemon flavored cake layers filled with lemon buttercream and raspberry jam. The buttercream hardens after an hour at the fridge and makes it very easy to slice the cake without ruining the look. The lemon flavored cake has the greatest texture and taste.
Instead of store bought raspberry jam, I boiled 4 cups of frozen raspberries with lemon juice, corn starch and sugar and prepared my own quick jam.
There is a whole lot of raspberry jam left and I think I’ll use it for the thumbprint cookies I have been planning to bake. My friend told me that the cake was exactly what he had in mind.
Thanks to Dorie again, for making yet another dream come true 
So, what if it was your birthday… What kind of cake would you prefer? And please keep in mind, I like details!!!
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I would love something with flowers… Ha ha, just kidding, I will give the details.
Perhaps a dark chocolate-lavender; my all time favorite combination. Not excessively moist or high volume; just a little dense and intensely flavored.
Or a white cake with buttercream faintly flavored with mastic gum with candied violets on top. As old fashioned as a Chanel suit.
Mmm cake!
MP is my initial too! My perfect cake would be a chocolate cake,with different textures of components, from soft to hard (eg mousse, cake and meringue), as for the flavor, from sweet milk chocolate gradually to 72% bittersweet chocolate. Does such cake exist?
I always request a rich, creamy, dense cheesecake. I’ve had delicious German Chocolate & Carrot cakes, too
Whatever it is, please make it rich & no candles, please!
Your blog just adorable! What a perfect cake. It would be perfect for my b’day too.
Good job!
Merhaba,
Tanisabilir miyiz? Dogum gunum icin bu pastanin tipkisinin aynisini isteyecegim, ama tanimadigim birinden bana pasta yapmasini isteyemeyecegim icin once tanismak mantikli geldi.
Ruya gibi. Mukemmel, hatta fazla mukemmel.
Excellent site, I have found it accidentally, and since then I am enjoying it !!!
Gorgeous cake Cenk!
I absolutely hate baking b’day cakes!! Although I attended to sugar craft courses I don’t like the taste of marzipan so that type of cakes are not my cup of tea and when it comes to icing a cake there is only one word that can summarise my talent : CRAP!!!
Lucky me (!!), this weekend is my hubby’s b’day and I need to bake one
I would love to try this one but I already bought my ingredients. I’ll bake a soft chocolate cake layered with pistachio pralines and whipped milk chocolate ganache then I’ll cover it with dark chocolate ganache. Hope it will look as good as yours, I’m seriously nervous about it!!!
Dolly - I owe you a chocolate lavender cupcake recipe! Candied violets? Your ideal bday cake is quite ambitious…. but very tempting!
Mandy - I love the idea of different textures and I think I’ll steal that idea for a trifle.
JEP - I hear you.
Odete, Melrose - Thank you!
mz - Tanışalım tabii
Teşekkür ederim.
Zeynep Seda - I am not a huge fan of marzipan either. As far as icing, I must say buttercream makes it quite easy. Good luck with the cake. It sounds great; can’t wait to see it!
Hmmmm, this looks fantastic. I want a slice too? I hope you have some saved for me in the fridge!
Here is my brief though, for my birthday!
Chocolate almond meringue crust, dark chocolate-matcha filling covered with dark chocolate ganache…I leave the decoration to your creative mind, mi amor!
It looks magnificent, Cenk - I want mine with dulce de leche as the filling, ok??
Years ago (like 15 years ago) I ate a wedding cake from divan and since then have been trying to find it/a taste-alike/a recipe… It would be great if you could bake that for my birthday (you have 10 months!): A chocolate-y cake as I have never had it before and after (texture-wise), with pieces of pistachios and maybe caramel-brittle in it, covered in a white buttercream. Not too sweet, not too chocolate-y, just perfect…
my birthday cake is easy.
6 layers of thin french crepes. first layer filled with caviar, second with fine chopped onion, third caviar again, forth boiled egg white and yolk(very fine), fifth caviar than you can lay the 6th crepe and cover all those with sour cream. Why six layers because it is january 6th.
Key lime pie for me, please… Classic and simple, eh?
You know what,I will cheat and leave a second request on your Turkish blog
Another lovely execution. What are the letters made out of? I liked that finishing touch…half-dipped in raspberry jam. Brings it all together nicely. They kind of look like puff pastry or perhaps cookie dough?
P.S. Did you strain the jam? Or do you like the little seeds?
Mine is simple. My favorite kind of birthday cake is moist chocolate cake with lots of white buttercream.
Beautifully luscious photos!!My always requested bday cake is a cloying sweet strawberry number. My mom has made me (upon request) the pink little ditty since I was little. It is made with strawberry jello, and fresh or frozen strawberries beaten into the white cake batter and frosting turning the cake into a delicious pastel pink color. It is a cake for princesses. =)
Just lovely. Lucky friend!
I think I might actually want this cake! I am a huge lemon fan, and prefer it to chocolate or vanilla any day. But if I had to be original and pick my own, I’d say a 4-layer lemon cake with whipped cream and toasted coconuts. White cake, thin layers of lemon curd, fresh whipped cream piled high and sprinkled with bits of toasted coconut. YUM.
Gorgeous cake! If it were my birthday, I would have to go with a chocolate cake flavored with coffee. In between the layers would be a blackberry mousse, and the whole thing would be frosted with a chocolate ganache.
My Darling Baking Fairy - What happened to Matcha Opera Cake? You’re not in love with that anymore?
Patricia - OK
Hande - I think I had that cake at a wedding too! Good choice.
Master of the Mansion - That is not a cake. You are disqualified.
itir - haha! You’re evil.
Laily - Thank you. The letters are made out of tart dough. I did strain the jam. I personally like some seeds in my jam. I usually strain %75 of it and add the rest with seeds, but the birthday boy wanted without seeds.
kelly - Yummy!
mindy - Lovely cake! I like the idea of strawberry jello.
Bea - Thank you! And congrats on the portfolio website. It looks amazing.
Clare - Yes, yum!
Beth - Very interesting. I believe I have never had blackberry mousse before. I should give it a try.
You left out the most intriguing part. How did you make those letters and out of what?! The cake looks gorgeous and perfect, and now that you’ve asked me the question I think I would want something just like that!
Hi! Cafe Fernando, believe it or not just made the same cake for my mom’s birthday and she loves it! Mine didn’t turn out as white though any tips? I would have loved to use fresh raspberries but since they aren’t readily available here in Manila I settled on raspberry jam as the recipe called for. love the way the red pops out of your cake
Hillary - The letters are made out of tart dough. Glad you liked it.
SimplePleasures - I really don’t know why yours didn’t turn out as white.. I followed the recipe word for word..
Mine would be super-rich and moist chocolate layers with some kind of mango mousse in between.You have time until next June to think about it! =)
Hi Cenk,
It’s has been a while since my last visit. Cooking has been put a side lately.
Cake looks delicious. Believe it or not I made the same cake for my cousins birthday, this past summer. Turned out just as delicious as yours. Hoping all is well! Aysegul
Wow this cake looks amazing just the way I like not dry and with lemon and raspberies.Your friend is a lucky guy.
All I can say Cenk is Waouuuu! Beautiful cake, lucky friend and gorgeous gorgeous pictures. My birthday cake would be a very moist vanilla genoise,flavored with a coffee syrup, but not too sweet, and espresso buttercream in between each layer and topped with a dark chocolate frosting.
Holy cow–I’m drooling over here
this looks amazing. Actually my birthday is on Tuesday, so I know exactly what kind of cake I’m asking my sister to bake–it’s an old fashioned chocolate cake with coffee in the batter and icing–nothing fancy, just something a grandma would bake 
. I wish I could have 2 cakes–I would definitely request this one too!
You are so amazingly talented! And the egg white photo is out of this world!
Absolutely beautiful. I’ll be making this for an anniversary party, no doubt!
Yes! Dorie comes through again!
I used to always have a black forest cake for my birthday but now I’ve taken to making my own cause I think that’s more fun. I would definitely be one of those people not giving you enough detail though, I’d be vague like “i like caramel and chocolate and cheesecake and fudge and berries and cherries and alcohol… make me something!”
can i give you the details of the cake i like
this cake looks absolutely stunning. Neat and clean , perfect layers and gr8 colours. Fantastic flavours and i must say your friend was rather fortunate to have you make such a wonderful cake.
It just looks perfectly pure. I want to bake some too.
şu mikswerin olduğu son fotoğraf harika çıkmış.tebrik ederim!
[...] Amie Gillingham Lemon and Raspberry birthday cake [...]
Wonderful cake and stunning pictures! I especially like the photo with the whipped meringue - shades of white are so hard to capture but you’ve done a perfect job!
Absolutely gorgeous! My mother in law saw it in the book and want me to amke it for Thanksgiving instead of all the regular desserts and pie. I am happy to oblige!
This looks really good. I am supposed to be getting that book soon.
I would love to have someone ask me for specifics about what cake I would like for my birthday. Unfortunately I am the cake baker in my family, and that includes even the family I grew up in. I’m the oldest of 8 children, so birthday cakes were made often. I have four daughters and I managed to teach them to sew and knit and cook, but cake baking has almost always been left to me. How about a genoise, four layers, with oodles of fresh (Oregon) strawberries and top quality whipped cream. Maybe soak the cake layers with a little bit of a brandy syrup. Trouble is my birthday is in February.
This looks great! Did you shred your own coconut? It looks alot smaller and aesthectically pleasing than what you normally see.
[...] this cake, I wanted to include some links to other people who have tried and loved this part cake. Cenk at Cafe Fernando made it and it looked divine. Over at Dessert First, the cake was minimized for individual portions [...]
where do i get the recipe with out haveing to buy the whole book?
My favorite cake (I dream of it)!
Specifics:
Vanilla Bean Cake. One layer of chocolate ganache, followed by mixed berry medeley (almost jam like consistency), followed by another layer of chocolate ganache, then top layer of vanilla bean cake. The frosting would a white chocolate butter cream frosting.
There you go…..enjoy some heaven on a fork.
This was no birthday cake….this was my wedding cake. Yuuuuummmmmm!