This white chocolate raspberry cake is decadent without being overwhelming. The frosting is light and subtly sweet. The cake is perfect AND gluten-free (no one will ever know). And the layer of sweet raspberry jam ties everything all together with a little red bow.
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I had the joy of spending this past Christmas with my brother and his fiancé. It had been years since I had seen my brother and I was thrilled to be able to spend a holiday together. He and his fiancé joined our family, my husband’s parents, and my brother in law as we celebrated, shared gifts, and ate so much good food.
My brother is gluten-free, and while I didn’t prepare everything gluten-free, I tried to be sure there would be plenty of good things for him to enjoy. We had amazing homemade lasagna on Christmas Eve– prepared in advance a few days before. On Christmas morning, we had sweet potato, sausage, and kale strata (a delicious recipe from my cookbook), more sausage, homemade cinnamon rolls, and orange juice.
Christmas dinner was melt-in-your-mouth pot roast and gravy (another cookbook recipe), Instant Pot cauliflower au gratin, roasted Brussels sprouts, and everything dinner rolls.
Y’all. Everything was so good.
And then after dinner, we had this White Chocolate and Raspberry Layer Cake. Gluten-free, so no one would miss out.
White Chocolate Raspberry Layer Cake (Gluten-Free!)
Before I jump into the recipe, I want to share a little backstory on how this cake came to be. I first made this cake seven years ago, also for Christmas day. Since then, I have been holding on to the recipe page, torn from a Taste of Home magazine, in my kitchen. It’s rather remarkable that it lasted all these years.
That first cake was delicious, but as I’ve said here on the blog many times, our eating habits have changed significantly over the years. So even though I knew I wanted to make a white chocolate raspberry cake again, I knew I wanted to update it. (The fact that my husband found his traditional birthday cake to be too rich this year only reinforced my desire to makeover this recipe a bit.)
Half the sugar. Less fat. All real ingredients.
Still oh-so-yummy.
To make this cake gluten-free without an excessive amount of testing and tears, I used Bob’s Red Mill One-to-One Gluten-Free Flour. Did I mention I made this on Christmas Eve? I needed it to be good the first time.
That said, I’ve since made it a couple more times and tweaked a little here and there to make sure it’s ready for the ol’ blog.
I love having a bag of 1-1 gluten-free flour on hand for those times I need to easily make a recipe gluten-free. It doesn’t work perfectly for everything, but it is a good substitution in many baking recipes.
You can find this flour on Amazon (of course), or in the baking aisle of many grocery stores. As for the white chocolate, quality matters. Hint, hint, get the ghiradelli.
And now, after staring at pictures of this cake all day, I’m going to need to bake another one soooooon. If you make it, I want to see! Tag me on Instagram, post a pic on Facebook, email me…whatever! And don’t forget to come back and leave a comment and some stars!
Necessary tools/ingredients ::
- Icing Spreader
- Bob’s Red Mill 1-1 Gluten Free Flour
- Stainless Steel Strainer
- Parchment Paper Rounds
- Ghiradelli White Chocolate Morsels
White Chocolate Raspberry Cake (Gluten-Free!)
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 1 9" layer cake 1x
- Category: Dessert
Description
This white chocolate raspberry cake is decadent without being overwhelming. The frosting is light and subtly sweet. The cake is perfect AND gluten-free (no one will ever know). And the layer of sweet raspberry jam ties everything all together with a little red bow.
Ingredients
CAKE
- 1 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp milk
- 4 tsp lemon juice
- 1/4 cup melted coconut oil, cooled
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 4 eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup white chocolate morsels, melted
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 cups 1-1 Gluten-Free flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
FILLING
- 2 1/2 cups fresh raspberries
- 1/4 cup honey
- 3 tbsp water, divided
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
ICING
- 1 1/2 cup cold heavy cream
- 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 cup white chocolate morsels, melted
TOPPING
- 1/2 –1 cup fresh raspberries (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350.
- Combine the milk and lemon juice in a liquid measuring cup and let stand five minutes.
- Prepare the cake batter. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the oil, butter, and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Turn the mixer down to low, and add the melted white chocolate and vanilla. Increase the speed to medium and mix for another 2 minutes.
- Alternately add the flour and the clabbered milk (milk + lemon juice) to the cake batter, mixing on low speed until incorporated. Add the baking soda and baking powder after the first flour addition. Continue to mix just until the ingredients are well incorporated.
- Bake the cake. Grease two 9″ round baking pans. Cut a piece of parchment to fit in the bottom of each pan (or use precut rounds of parchment). Sprinkle the pans with a light coating of flour, shaking out the excess. Evenly divide the cake batter between the two pans, then bake them in the preheated oven for 28-32 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- While the cake cooks, prepare the filling. In a small saucepan, combine the fresh raspberries, honey, and 2 tablespoons of water. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes, until the raspberries begin to break down. Strain the mixture through a wire strainer, stirring and pressing gently, until all the liquid falls into a bowl and only the seeds are left in the strainer. Return the raspberry puree to the saucepan. Stir together the remaining tablespoon of water and the cornstarch in a small dish. Slowly whisk the cornstarch slurry into the raspberry puree. Return to a simmer and cook for 2 more minutes until thickened. Set aside to cool completely.
- When the cakes are finished cooking, remove them from the oven and let them cool for 10 minutes in the pans before removing from the pans to cool completely on a cooling rack.
- Make the frosting. In the bowl of the stand mixer with the whisk attachment, whip the heavy cream on high speed until soft peaks form, about 5-10 minutes. Gently transfer the whipped cream to a small bowl. Combine the cream cheese and powdered sugar in the bowl of the stand mixer. With the paddle attachment, beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Blend in the melted white chocolate. Fold in the whipped cream.
- Finish the cake. When the cake is completely cooled, you can assemble the layers. Level off the top of one of the cake layers (I do this with a long bread knife). Spread the raspberry filling on the leveled cake layer, stopping a half inch from the sides of the cake. Place the second cake layer on top of the raspberry filling.
Use an icing spatula to spread the frosting over the top and sides of the cake. Top the cake with fresh raspberries (optional).
Notes
I like using Bob’s Red Mill 1-1 Gluten-Free flour for this cake, and other GF recipes.
One 11-12oz package of white chocolate morsels is enough for both the cake and frosting.
Store the cake in the fridge until you are ready to serve it.
You can substitute raspberry jam for the filling if you’d prefer not to make it.
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Amazing Recipe! I will definitely try this recipe!
★★★★★
Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe!
★★★★★
This cake looks absolutely delicious! I love how you’ve adapted it to be gluten-free using Bob’s Red Mill One-to-One Gluten-Free Flour. It’s always a relief to find a flour that works well in baking without needing a lot of trial and error. And using quality white chocolate, like Ghiradelli, is a great tip! Can’t wait to try this recipe and share it with my friends and family. Thank you for sharing, and I’ll be sure to tag you when I make it!
★★★★★
Thanks for sharing such a helpful recipe. Cake looks yummy.
Looks very delicious..
★★★★
Gluten-free? Don’t add flour to pans!
Looks Delicious ,,,,wow raspberry cake right gonna try soon.
★★★★★
Absolutely wow! nice recipe for Rasberry.
★★★★
Hi, Lisa! I’ve wanted to bake this cake for so long, , but I’m allergic to coconut in all forms so can’t follow the recipe exactly. Should I sub 1/4 cup melted butter for the coconut oil? Or just use 3/4 cup of softened butter?
Five stars because I am a baker by profession. And I love the way you describe the recipe.
★★★★★
Help, please…I live at altitude, which doesn’t usually effect my g/f cakes. I made this cake. The batter was beautiful, baked up gorgeous, beautiful round rise……but as it cooled it sunk- oh no! Any ideas of why possibly?
I followed directions & same products. Added 3/4c cassava flour, 1/4t xanthan, +1/2t coconut oil, + 1T milk….
This recipe resulted in an excellent cake. Thank you for sharing the recipe, highly appreciated!!
My family did thank me but credit goes back to you.
★★★★★
Absolutely perfect guide to make raspberry cake gluten free. I tried cooking by using your article and it really worked for me. My husband really liked it.But, I was quite confused in some places. It would be better if you can make videos too.
★★★★★
The cake is so fluffy and yummy. Amazing recipe. Thank you for sharing.
★★★★★
Can I use King Arthur gluten-free flour? I just bought a big bag of that so I have it on hand. Need to bake it fairly soon because January 7 is my daughter’s birthday LOL
Am I able to use regular flour in substitute with the gluten free? We aren’t gluten free and I wouldn’t want a bag to go to waste.
You can use regular flour, I would suggest sifting it first.
This looks awesome!! Just a tip that we used to use Bob’s Red Mill Flour but then we discovered Pillsbury and we like it so much more! Bob’s is good for some things, but for recipes where the flour really matters, Pillsbury wins every time. Using that may help with some of the recipes that aren’t converting well to GF for you ? Can’t wait to try some of your dessert recipes!