A quick, easy and delicious raspberry buttermilk cake, studded with fresh raspberries. A perfect summer dessert that is endlessly adaptable to use any fresh summer fruit.
It’s finally raspberry season in Muskoka and the berries this year are great! They deserve to be backed up in to this delicious Fresh Raspberry Buttermilk Cake.
I picked up a quart of fresh raspberries with my CSA this week. I decided to make this simple but oh-so-lovely raspberry buttermilk cake that I’ve been patiently waiting for raspberry season to make.
I think this is a perfect summer dessert. The cake is not super sweet but there is a nice crispy, sweet topping from the sprinkled sugar and the raspberries keep their great, fresh flavour.
Serve with a dusting of icing sugar or maybe a dollop of whipped cream (or vanilla iced cream), if you like. I plan on trying this same recipe with blueberries and peaches as the season goes on. I’m sure it would be nice with any fruit.
Raspberry Buttermilk Cake
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter softened
- 2/3 cup granulated white sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup buttermilk well shaken
- 1 - 1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries I used a bit more, maybe 1 1/2 cups
- 1 1/2 Tbsp white sugar for sprinkling (course sugar would be good, as well)
- Icing Confectioner's sugar, for dusting
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 400° F. and place rack in centre of oven. Grease a 9-inch cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper, for easy removal. You can also bake this in a greased cast-iron skillet.
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In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
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With an electric mixer or with a stand mixer, beat the butter and 2/3 cup sugar at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the vanilla. Add the egg and beat well.
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With the mixer at low speed, add the flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour. Mix just until combined.
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Spoon the batter into prepared cake pan or skillet, smoothing top. Scatter raspberries evenly over the top and sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar.
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Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into centre comes out clean, about 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in the pan 10 minutes. If baked in a skillet, serve right from the skillet. If baked in a cake pan, then turn out onto a rack and allow to cool 10 to 15 minutes more. Invert onto a plate.
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*I have baked this recipe successfully with an 8-inch pan but some have reported it spilling over with an 8-inch pan. If you only have 8-inch, give a try but bake in on top of a baking sheet to catch any spill-over, just in case.
Recipe Notes
Be sure to read the "Cook's Notes" in the original post, where I share some valuable tips, options, substitutions and variations for this recipe!
More Raspberry Recipes from the Seasons and Suppers Archives
Hi Jennifer, I’m thinking of making this into a loaf, thoughts? Decreasing cooking temp to 350 but baking longer, thoughts? I was also planning to dust raspberries with flour before putting them in the batter. 😊
Hi Starr, yes, I think this would work. Simply bake until it’s done, testing regularly. I suspect it will be near an hour, if not a bit more. I would suggest an 8×4-inch loaf pan as equivalent to the 9-inch round. Let me know how it works out!
Hi Jennifer,
I was looking for an easy cake recipe to use my raspberries – and oh my goodness did I find it in this recipe!!!
I made this last week and just made it again. I coated the raspberries in flour to avoid them sinking to the bottom. It was a tip I read elsewhere and works really well – splash the raspberries in flour and then put them on top, and there is no flour taste or caking after the cake is baked.
Thank you for this recipe! It is already much-loved in my household :)
So glad you enjoyed this one, Cait! I love a buttermilk cake and it’s so nice with raspberries, especially. Thanks for coming back to let me know :)
Dear Jennifer, I tried this recipe a year ago, and I’m obssesed with it. I love the spongy of the cake and the moist of the raspberries….heaven! Sadly in Bogota, Colombia, where I live, raspberries are a luxury so I’ve only enjoyed this original recipe twice. But I’ve made some changes replacing them for frozen raspberries or frozen blueberries….and even once I made it with caramelized rhubarb…. It’s a different story, but your recipe inspired me to take some risks. Thank you for your blog!
Hi Monica and I’m so glad you are enjoying this recipe! I imagine it would be lovely with any fruit :)
Would this cake freeze well? Looking for some ideas for a dessert buffet for a wedding reception?
I think it would, Karen. Honestly, I’ve never frozen it myself, so can’t say for sure, but generally cakes freeze fairly well.
So glad you enjoyed it! Makes me long for raspberry season to come again soon.
This cake was so yummy. A definite “do again” and again :)
Wow! That looks like a scrumptious cake! I love using raspberries and other fruits in recipes…it just makes eating cake and other treats seem like you are eating healthy stuff too!
Photographs are lovely as well!
I love this recipe! I’ve made it 3 times now–twice for my family and once as a gift for a sick friend. Everyone raved about it and it is so, so easy to make. The first time, I didn’t have buttermilk so I used regular milk that I added a few tablespoons of lemon to and let sit a bit. It worked great. This cake has such wonderful flavor and smells lovely while it bakes. As I type, I have another with some extra blueberries we picked over the weekend. Thanks for a wonderful recipe.
So glad you are enjoying it, Miz. I made it with peaches last weekend and it was really nice, too. – Jennifer
i made this the other day and all my berries sunk to the bottom! i didnt press them into the batter either, i just lightly sprinkled them on top. i saw that you didnt have that problem, is there anything that you suggest to help with that?
Hi Alex, the batter should be fairly thick when you put it into the pan, and that should keep the berries on top. Was yours thick? Did you use real buttermilk? – Jen
oh, i have made this! it is so perfectly good!
We loved it too. So simple but a lovely way to end a meal (or for breakfast ;)
I just made this cake and I hate to say, but the 8″ pan is far too small. It ran all over the oven and that spill burned as the cake finished baking. My kitchen has a burned smell of course. I would suggest a 9″ pan for this cake. It looks very good. Still cooling after I scrapped all the over-spill off the sides of the pan to release it and of course have cleaned the oven.
On dear, Dorothy. I’m sorry for your mess. I just went and re-confirmed my pan size and I definitely baked mine in an 8-inch (1 3/4 inches high). It did puff up while baking but not to the point of boiling over the side. Perhaps because of the extra berries I put on top? That said though, I’ll alter the instructions to suggest a 9-inch (or at least a baking sheet underneath).
Beautiful cake! I’ve made this recipe before as well. My cake turned out a little too moist- almost to the point of sogginess- both times times I made it. Did this happen to you? Wondering what I’m doing wrong…
I found the cake definitely got soggier by the second day but didn’t find it too moist on the day I made it. I think it’s certainly best eaten soon after being baked. Maybe just cut back on the buttermilk a tad?
That cake looks wonderful. I’d definitely give this a go. I really enjoy baking for my kids. Lately we’re really into experimenting with different fruits in my cake recipes. You see they love fruit bits in their pancakes. So now, we’re trying to figure out which fruits will go best with my cake recipes. I think this will be a good candidate, lol, they love raspberries! :)
I think this cake would lend itself to any number of fruits. Maybe just tweak the sugar a bit depending on how sweet or tart the fruit is. – Jennifer
This looks gorgeous.. i made something similar using lemon.
Beautiful pics… and i love that it isn’t too much fat.
I was pleased at how little butter went into it as well, Honey! (And used 1% buttermilk, as well). You wouldn’t know it from tasting it. It was moist and full of rich flavour. – Jennifer