This gorgeous raspberry mango cake screams summer! The vibrant pink and orange hues and fruity flavors will certainly brighten your day!
Pop quiz time: At what age do children stop becoming insanely jealous? Well, I don’t know the answer to that, but I do know that it’s not 10. In fact, our dear Addie got SUPER mad in June when she learned that my husband was getting two cakes. One was for his birthday, and the other was for Father’s Day. All we heard for about 5 straight minutes was, “NO FAIR! I want two cakes!”
In order to appease her and to stop the incessant screaming, I told her that we could declare an Addie Day. All I needed her to do was to pick a cake, and I would bake it for her. And then voila – Addie Day.
After scrolling through pages and pages of cakes, she got bright-eyed when she saw this raspberry mango cake. It was essentially love at first sight. I baked this cake for her during a morning when I didn’t have too many work meetings going on.
This was my first time attempting any type of ombre cake. While I may not have successfully achieve the desired effect, I am still happy with the way this came came out. I opted to decorate the cake with some frosting flowers, additional raspberry and mango powder plus some freeze-dried raspberries.
So what was the final verdict? Well, Addie was thrilled about her cake and Addie Day, of course. And the taste? Well, the good news is that the buttercream was amazing. Although mine began out soupy, I put the bowl in the refrigerator for 20 minutes and then whipped it again. My buttercream finally turned out after the brief chill in the fridge. The cake itself was dense. I believe it is because the freeze-dried fruit soaked up all the moisture that was in the cake. The texture wasn’t as light and fluffy as I was hoping it would be.
Addie liked the cake, while my husband and I did not as much. If you do make this cake, I recommend subbing with your favorite white cake recipe and going from there (I suggest trying this cake as the base).
Husband’s rating: 2 out of 5
Addie’s rating: 4 out of 5
My rating: 2.5 out of 5
Raspberry mango cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 and ¼ cups cake flour
- ¼ cup freeze-dried raspberry powder I bought Trader Joe's freeze-dried raspberries, put them in a zip-top bag and used a rolling pin to pulverize them
- 2 and ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 and ½ cups granulated sugar
- ¼ cup vegetable or canola oil
- 5 large egg whites room temperature
- 1 and ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 and ¼ cup whole milk
- fuchsia colored gel optional (I used a few drops of red food coloring)
Swiss meringue buttercream
- 6 large egg whites
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter room temperature
- 6 Tablespoons freeze-dried mango powder I bought Trader Joe's freeze-dried mangoes, put them in a zip-top bag and used a rolling pin to pulverize them
- fuchsia colored gel optional (I used a few drops of red food coloring)
- orange colored gel optional
Instructions
Bake the cake
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Generously grease and line 3 8-inch cake pans with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the cake flour, raspberry powder, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl if using a handheld mixer, cream the butter on medium high speed until light and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes. Add the sugar and oil and mix well until the batter becomes very pale (about 2-3 minutes).
- Turn the mixer down to low and slowly add the egg whites, one at a time, until well incorporated. Then add the vanilla.
- Alternatively add the dry ingredients and the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. If desired, add your gel coloring now.
- Evenly distribute the batter and divided into your 3 prepared pans. Bake in your preheated oven for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Allow the cakes to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before turning them onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Make the Swiss meringue buttercream
- As the cakes are cooling, make the buttercream.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the egg whites and the sugar. Mix well. Set the bowl over a smaller bowl filled about ¼ or the way with water. Turn the stove on high and allow the water to come to a boil. Essentially, we are creating a double boiler. Keep mixing your egg whites as the water starts to boil. Then turn the stove down to medium low and keep mixing until your egg white mixture reaches 160°F. It will take about 10 minutes or so if you are using an electric stove top.
- Place the bowl of the stand mixer into your mixer with the whisk attachment. Whisk on high speed until the mixture cools down to room temperature and the mixture appears glossy and you start to achieve stiff peaks.
- Turn the mixer down to medium speed and slowly add the butter. Once all the butter has been incorporated, turn the mixer to high until the buttercream gets fluffy and cloud-like. If your frosting appears runny, do not fear. Take the bowl and place it in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes and beat in your mixer again.
- Once the frosting is light and fluffy, you can color it as desired. Set aside half of the buttercream in a separate bowl. Add mango powder and the orange gel coloring and mix well. Then add raspberry powder and the fuchsia gel coloring to the other half.
Assemble your cake
- Place one cake layer down on a cake plate or a plate. Top with about ⅔ cup of frosting (any color is fine). Top with another cake layer, and add another layer of frosting. Top with the final layer of cake.
- To achieve an ombre effect on the cake, cover about the bottom third of the sides of the cake with the pink (raspberry) frosting. Combine about ½ each of the raspberry and mango frostings together and then spread on the middle third of the side of the cake. Then cover the top third of the side of the cake with mango frosting. Using a large offset spatula, smooth the sides or create a ripple pattern.
- For the top of the cake, outline the outer-most edge with the raspberry frosting in a circular pattern. Then add the mixed frosting, and finally the mango colored in the center. Using an offset spatula, smooth the top or create a ripple pattern.
- Add decorative elements as desired, with frosting flowers, fresh or freeze-dried raspberries or even leftover raspberry or mango powder.
Really pretty! My son also had Father’s Day jealousy, but my husband announced that there’s Sunday every week. Sorry the line doesn’t work as well on girls …
Author
Glad we aren’t the only ones dealing with jealousy!