Pink Raspberry Spice Cake

Last week I made a special cake for a very special lady. Mr Makes' Nan turned 98! She is a truly amazing woman and she deserved an amazing cake. I pinned this Raspberry Spice Cake a while back. Oh yes! It has SIX layers of cake, spiced with cinnamon, ginger and mixed spice (I skipped the cloves), sandwiched together with Tiptree raspberry jam, and covered with creamy cream cheese icing. I left my raspberries in the fridge at home (ooops!), but luckily I had some bright candles and pink sugar hearts to hand.

I tinted my sponge pink for an extra wow factor! I was going for pink ombre, but didn't quite pull it off and ended up with just pink! In case the trend has passed you by, ombre is a french word meaning shaded and ombre cake has layers tinted to go from light to dark.

This is one of the most delicious cakes I've made (even if I say so myself!). It received great reviews and I will most definitely be making again. The spice isn't overpowering and goes oh so well with the jam and cream cheese icing. I must say that the BBCgoodfood recipe made too much icing - I used about half on the cake and the rest to ice 16 chocolate cupcakes! Here's my adapted recipe...

Pink Raspberry Spice Cake

250g unsalted butter, softened

450g plain flour

140g golden caster sugar

140g light soft brown sugar

5 large eggs

4 tbsp honey

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp ginger

¼ tsp salt

4 tbsp buttermilk

pink food colouring

For the filling and icing:

200g good quality raspberry jam

120g unsalted butter

120g cream cheese

120g icing sugar

raspberries to decorate (don't leave them in the fridge like I did!) 

1. Preheat oven to 160° (140°fan). Grease and line 3 x 20cm tins.
2. Pop all your ingredients into a bowl and use an electric mixer to beat until smooth. 
3. If you want to attempt ombre you can divide your mixture and tint. I used pink food colour paste. 

4. Divide the mixture between the prepared tins and bake for 25-35 minutes (mine needed 35 minutes).
5. Cut each cake in half and spread raspberry jam between the layers. 
6. For the icing, use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese, butter and icing sugar until smooth. 
7. Spread the icing all over. You can make it look pretty with some raspberries and a dusting of icing sugar.