Cream Cheese Butter Cake with Raspberry Buttercream

Recently I received "The Baking Bible" by Rose Levy Beranbaum as a birthday gift from my sister and I tell you I couldn't wait to dig in.  I already own one of her other famous tomes, "The Cake Bible" and I knew her latest publication would be equally fantastic.  

The first recipe that caught my attention was for Cream Cheese Butter Cake.  The accompanying photo in the book looked so simple and inviting - a small square piece of white cake frosted with lemon curd buttercream.   No one does a white cake better than Rose.  She uses a reverse creaming method which produces a fine, moist and tender crumb that tastes surprisingly light. 

Unfortunately I didn't have much success with the lemon curd buttercream included in the recipe.  It didn't quite set up to the firm texture that I was hoping for.  Probably because I wasn't paying as much attention as I should have when I was making the recipe.  Oh well, I'll definitely need to revisit it another time.  But luckily I had some leftover vanilla buttercream that I embellished with fresh raspberry puree to frost the cake with.    All it needed was a fresh raspberry on top and I had the perfect snack cake.

Whipped Cream Cake

Rose Levy Beranbaum was on the Martha Stewart Show recently to promote her latest cookbook "Heavenly Cakes."   Rose is a true authority in baking and her first book "The Cake Bible" is one of my favorites. When it comes to cakes this lady is an expert!

She made this whipped cream cake on the show and when I first heard that there was no butter or oil in the recipe I was definitely skeptical.   Is that even possible?  Indeed it is! 

The batter comes together so quickly you wouldn't believe it.  No business of creaming butter and sugar and adding the dry ingredients alternately with the liquid.  This recipe is a dream and the cake is so moist and delicious.  It's definitely a keeper!

Lemon Blueberry Pound Cake

Had a bunch of blueberries in my fridge that I didn't want to go to waste so I decided to add them to a lemon pound cake. Lemons and blueberries are always a great flavor combination. Used a butter pound cake recipe from Rose Levy Beranbaum's fantastic book The Cake Bible.

Followed Rose's recipe and added finely grated lemon zest and blueberries just at the end. I tossed the berries lightly in some flour before adding them to the batter so that they didn't sink to the bottom, but as you can see, it didn't really help. The blueberries were much heavier than the cake batter.

The glaze is really simple; freshly squeezed lemon juice whisked with powdered sugar until it has a consistency similar to condensed milk.