A moist raspberry-orange and vanilla marble cake made with plenty of yogurt, a tiny bit of oil, and no butter.
What’s better than a piece of cake? A piece of two cakes, of course. That’s the joy of marble cakes – they’re a two-for-one cake deal.
Instead of the typical chocolate and vanilla marble cake, this one’s half vanilla, and half raspberry (with a hint of orange). And we almost have a red, white and blue theme happening here. But, instead of the typical Fourth of July trio, we have purple, white and blue.
Berries, being the misbehaving but delicious fiends that they are, have a tendency to turn purple when baked – or when blended into smoothies, or when they end up on your clothes and/or hair. Nevertheless, I find those beautiful berries completely irresistible and didn’t want to risk losing the flavor by adding beet puree (which is kind of purple anyway), nor did I want to use food coloring.
So, purple and white swirls it is!
If you’re someone who bakes primarily because you love licking the beaters, then I’m sorry to say that you’ll be disappointed. Since there’s no butter, there’s no need to get the electric beaters involved when making this cake batter (or the icing).
There is, however, the need for one piece of electrical equipment (other than the oven, of course): a blender. The pinky-purple cake batter gets its color from raspberry puree, which is made by blending some (thawed) frozen raspberries. I always use frozen berries for purees and smoothies – I just can’t bring myself to blitz beautiful (and expensive) fresh berries.
Once the raspberry puree is sorted, all you need is a couple of forks and spoons to mix everything together. Then the icing’s made by simply whisking together confectioners’ sugar – aka icing sugar, aka powdered sugar – and orange juice.
So, for better or for worse, those electric beaters will need to stay in the drawer/cupboard/wherever you left them.
As the name suggests, there’s a lot of yogurt in this cake – a whole cup of it.
The yogurt adds a ton of moisture to the cake, so we can get away with only using a tiny bit of oil. When it comes to the yogurt, any fat percentage is fine – but make sure you use a thick and creamy yogurt. If the yogurt has a pourable consistency, stay away from it. Far away.
(I know I blather on about yogurt a lot, but it’s really important!).
Now for the fun part: decorating the cake.
As tomorrow’s the Fourth of July, I went with a red (okay, pink), white and blue theme by pressing some raspberries and blueberries into the icing. The icing sets quickly, so don’t delay when decorating the cake.
If you don’t have any berries, you could decorate the cake with some nuts, candied orange slices, white chocolate chips, sprinkles… or really anything else you can think of.
Last, but not least, happy Fourth of July to everyone celebrating tomorrow!
Regardless of whether you’re celebrating or not, I hope tomorrow is a fabulous, fun-filled day. And with any luck, you’ll get a chance to eat some cake.
After all, shouldn’t every Monday should come with a side of cake?
- Raspberry Batter
- 2 cups (235g) frozen raspberries, thawed
- 1 egg
- ½ cup (120g) Greek-style yogurt
- ¼ cup (50g) superfine (caster) sugar
- 2 tablespoons (30mL) orange juice
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 1 tablespoon (15mL) canola oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup (130g) all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Vanilla Batter- 1 egg
- ½ cup (120g) Greek-style yogurt
- ¼ cup (50g) superfine (caster) sugar
- 1 tablespoon (15mL) canola oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
- ⅓ cup (80mL) milk
- 1 cup (130g) all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Orange Icing- ½ cup (60g) confectioners’ (icing) sugar
- 2 - 2 ½ teaspoons orange juice
- Fresh berries
- Preheat the oven to 340°F (170°C). Grease a 9x5 inch (23x13 cm) loaf pan with cooking oil spray. If desired, also line the pan with non-stick paper.
- Raspberry batter: Use a blender or food processor to puree the raspberries until smooth. Pass the raspberry puree through a fine mesh strainer to remove the seeds. Measure out ⅓ cup (85g) of the remaining puree and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk the egg with a fork. Whisk in the yogurt, sugar, orange juice, orange zest, canola oil and vanilla extract. Add the reserved ⅓ cup of raspberry puree, and mix until well combined.
- Sift in the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add the salt, and mix until just combined.
- Vanilla batter: In another large bowl, whisk the egg with a fork. Whisk in the yogurt, sugar, canola oil and vanilla bean paste. Add the reserved milk, and mix until well combined.
- Sift in the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add the salt, and mix until just combined.
- Place alternate spoonfuls of the raspberry and vanilla batters into the prepared loaf pan. Use a butter knife to gently swirl the batters.
- Bake for 50 - 60 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean (or with a few moist crumbs).
- Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Cool completely before decorating.
- Orange icing: Sift the icing sugar into a medium-sized bowl. Add 2 teaspoons of orange juice, and whisk until completely incorporated. If the icing is too thick, add the additional ½ teaspoon of juice.
- Quickly spread the icing on top of the cooled cake, and decorate with some fresh berries. Store the cake in an airtight container.
Any thick and creamy yogurt should work in this recipe – it does not need to be authentic Greek yogurt. Ideally, measure out the yogurt using a ½ cup measurement, as the weight in grams will vary depending on the brand and type of yogurt. Half a cup of yogurt generally weighs between 120 and 135 grams.