Some decadent desserts are just sssooo worth the calories, don’t you think?
I can hear the dessert lovers out there screaming through their monitors at me thinking “Well, duh!”, but that’s saying a lot for me…because I am so not a dessert person. Sure…desserts are fine, but they just aren’t me. I didn’t get the sweet gene. I’d even venture to say, that I might be able to go a life-time sans-dessert. But, please don’t test me on that because I’ve been proven wrong once before.
Like this time.
Yet…when I asked the husband what he wanted me to make him this past weekend, he reluctantly riffled through my saved Pinterest recipes and stumbled on this scrumptious looking Raspberry Crumb Cake I’d found on Vanilla Sugar’s blog. I admit, it completely and absolutely allured me. So much so in fact, I was unable to resist the temptation and broke out the baking pan right then and there.
Maybe it was the gorgeous, rich, raspberry color (and it didn’t hurt that raspberries are one of my all-time favorites), but it looked creamy, soft, light…delectable.
I mean, really…raspberry, cream cheese, butter, brown sugar crumble.
What’s not to love?
Break out the Chambord girls, and you’ve got a winner!
The raspberry flavor is so smooth and sweet and the lemon zest adds just the right amount of zing. It literally dissolves delicious raspberry, lemon-y flavor into your mouth rendering you thoughtless as you savor every scrumptious bite.
Exquisite, delicate, light – its all there.
This cake is a love story in the making…the spongy layered cake is the foundation, married to the smooth cream cheese layer, blended with the raspberry coulis, topped with a sugary, crunchy top. Now I will tell you, as with all marriages, it has its ups and errr…it’s not-so-ups, so I’ll share with you that this delicious creation is somewhat of a process. And, as with all great things, they often don’t come for cheap or easy. But, that’s what makes them all the more worth it when they get here. Perfection.
This recipe goes together best in layers. First, you have the moist cake layer, then the cream cheese layer, then the crumble top and finally the drizzle of the sweet raspberry coulis. So, this recipe is all about the “gettin’ ready” because of the multi-layered composition. For that reason, I’ve tried to capture the method I used in the recipe details – and it worked great!
Try it. Please.
This cake is it.
Enjoy!
Raspberry Cream Cheese Crumb Cake
Ingredients
Coulis Preparation
- 3 6-ounce packages of fresh raspberries
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 miniature bottle Chambord liqueur 1/4 cup (optional)
Cream Cheese Preparation
- 1 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
- 1 large egg yolk
- 3 tablespoons granulated white sugar
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon zest
- 2-3 tablespoons of the coulis
Crumb Topping Preparation
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup light brown sugar packed
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 stick unsalted butter melted (1/2 cup, or 8 tablespoons)
- You're ready now - let's make the cake!
Cake Preparation
- ¼ cup canola oil
- ½ stick unsalted butter melted (+ 1 tablespoon to grease the pan)
- 2 tablespoons sour cream
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour + a little bit to flour the pan
- ½ cup + 2 tablespoons granulated white sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon coarse salt
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup + 2 tablespoons cream
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Coulis Preparation
- Mix raspberries, sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until fruit starts to break-down. Pour in Chambord liqueur (if desired), and continue to cook until coulis has started to thicken and raspberry solids have broken down and mostly dissolved (between 30-45 minutes).
- Strain through a fine mesh sieve, mixing and pressing to extract all juice into a bowl. Discard the seeds and solids. Set coulis aside to cool, or cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
Cream Cheese Preparation
- Mix all ingredients in a medium-size bowl until smooth, and set aside until ready to use.
Crumb Topping Preparation
- Mix all dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. Pour in melted butter, and cut-in using a pastry knife until crumbly. Set aside until ready to use.
Cake Preparation
- Lightly butter a 9 x 13 baking pan and dust all sides with flour, removing excess. Set aside.
- Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium-sized bowl and set aside. In a separate medium-sized bowl, whisk egg, melted butter, cream, canola oil, sour cream, and vanilla together.
- Gently fold the wet and dry ingredients together using a rubber spatula.
- Spread cake mixture into your prepped baking pan.
- Now, it's time for the layers!
- Layer the cream cheese mixture on top of the cake batter. Add the crumbs to the top of the cream cheese layer.
- Now the fun part!
- Drizzle the coulis on top. To make this easy, pour the coulis into a ziploc or pastry bag, and nip off the end of the bag.
- Place the pan in your pre-heated oven and bake for 14-15 minutes. Rotate pan.
- Bake another 10 minutes. Use a cake tester to verify done-ness (but don't be fooled, because it's difficult to tell with the cream cheese layer)!
- Be careful to not cook it to long (25 minutes seems to be just about right (at least it was in my oven)). Your oven temperature may vary.
- Let cake cool before slicing.
Recipe slightly modified from Vanilla Sugar blog. Many thanks to Vanilla Sugar for such a delightful recipe!
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