Eggless Raspberry Vanilla Bean Cake … some cakes are delicate, soothing, calming, and some cakes are wickedly delicious and satisfying. This Eggless Raspberry Vanilla Bean Cake is all that and more, all these beautiful adjectives coming together in one dessert.
The cake also ticks off an important box I tick every October, it has PINK, so yay, I’ve got #Pinktober covered as well!
What is Pinktober you might ask?
October 1st marks the beginning of breast cancer awareness month all over the world. American Cancer Society uses this time to boost their campaign to raise awareness to breast cancer and to inform people that there is now a 98 percent rate of survival if the cancer is detected early. October is the month where you will see pink ribbons everywhere, which has been the national symbol for breast cancer awareness since it was first introduced back in 1991.
So yes, it’s that PINK time of the year and October begins with Mr PABs birthday and it’s always a cake with a pink element for Pinktober. It’s been over a decade that I’ve been doing pink desserts to raise awareness for breast cancer, to spread the message. The cake above was the one I made for Mr PABs birthday 2 years ago, the cake that made it to the cover of my cookbook with Penguin.
I’ve missed sharing the cakes on the blog for a few years but that’s only because of so many distractions, generally too much to do. Pink cake however has always been home made and has always seen some pink, a colour I use often in my desserts, styling and photography!
This year I’ve decided to be a little more proactive, keep things up and running, so here we go screaming PINK into October. This Raspberry Vanilla Bean Cake, Mr PABs birthday cake this year, turned out to be everything I hoped it would be. I had my fingers crossed that it would set neatly and it didn’t disappoint.
The flavours were something I knew would work, and they did in perfect harmony. An eggless sponge flavoured with fresh orange zest, mascarpone with a raspberry compote {what’s not to love}, and a delicious vanilla bean mascarpone layer. The cakes moistened with a dash of Cointreau, an orange liqueur, added oomph to the Raspberry Vanilla Bean Cake and how!
I didn’t use fresh raspberries since they are far too expensive as we are not native raspberry growers. I did have a couple of boxes of frozen raspberries in the freezer that FroGo had sent to me a short while ago. They are a breeze to use and so much more economical. Of course, the charm of fresh berries, the delicate beauty of raspberries would make the cake look even prettier yet I loved how this looked!
You can find more EGGLESS recipes here!
You can find recipes with BERRIES here.Do tag me on Instagram at Passionate About Baking if you make this, or any other recipe from the blog. I’d love to see it!
Eggless Raspberry Vanilla Bean Cake
Ingredients
Eggless orange sponges {6″ + 4″}
- 105 g buttermilk
- 25 g oil
- 50 g castor sugar
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- Pinch of salt
- Zest of 1 small orange
- 85 g plain flour/maida
Raspberry compote
- 60 g frozen raspberries
- 30 g sugar
- Juice of 1/2 lime
- 1 tsp cornflour
- 1/4 tsp agar agar
Mascarpone filling
- 225 g Amul Fresh cream / 25% fat cream
- 2 tsp agar agar
- 15 g sugar {to taste}
- 100 g white chocolate chopped
- 200 g mascarpone
- 1/2 scraped vanilla bean
- Cointreau to moisten {optional}
Instructions
Eggless orange sponges
- Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a 6″ tin and a 4″ tin with parchment.
- In a large bowl, add all the ingredients and give them a good whisk.
- Divide the batter between the tins {about 170g in the 6″/ 90g in the 4″ tin}. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the tester comes out clean. Cool completely, then trim the tops.
Raspberry compote
- Stir together, and leave in the pan to macerate.
- Simmer over very low heat until the raspberries break down and thicken slightly. Strain out about 1 tsbp to colour the frosting if you like. Reserve.
Mascarpone filling
- Place the cream, sugar and agar agar in a saucepan and whisk until smooth. Simmer over low heat for 2-3 minutes stirring often to activate the agar agar.
- Pour this over the white chocolate and leave until the chocolate melts. Whisk until smooth.
- Whisk in the mascarpone just before you need to pour it in.
- Divide into 2, approx 270g each.
- Layer 1 – Stir in the raspberry compote into one half, then blend with an immersion blender.
- Layer 2 – Whisk the scraped vanilla bean into the other half.
Assemble
- Secure an acetate sheet snugly around the 6″ orange sponge. Moisten with Cointreau.
- Pour over the raspberry mascarpone filling. Place the 4″ sponge in the centre of the filling and very gently push in a little. Moisten the small sponge with Cointreau, then pour the vanilla bean filling over to cover it completely.
- Place in the freezer for 3-4 hours until frozen, then peel off the acetate sheet and leave in the fridge overnight.
- Frost with mascarpone if desired.
