Description

This soft and buttery 4 layer vegan almond cake is layered with creamy dairy free vegan cream cheese frosting and raspberry jam. Light, fluffy, and a complete showstopper!

Ingredients

Scale

Cake styling inspired by Baker By Nature’s Raspberry Almond Cake

1 1/2 cups (300 mL) vegan buttermilk, room temperature
1 1/2 cup (300 g) granulated sugar
1 cup (225 g) unsalted vegan butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 cup (240 g) dairy free yogurt, room temperature
2 tbsp vanilla extract
2 tsp almond extract
1 1/3 cups (170 g) almonds, ground into a flour
2 1/2 cups (325 g) all-purpose flour (or gluten free 1:1 baking flour + 1 tbsp arrowroot or cornstarch)** (see notes for GF)
3 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 cup raspberry jam
2 batches vegan cream cheese frosting
1 cup raspberries, for decoration
1 cup crushed almonds, for decoration

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Instructions

Prep: Preheat the oven to 350F, and line two 8″ cake pans with parchment paper. Measure out all ingredients. Make sure that the almonds are pulsedinto a rustic flour. You can use a food processor.
Make the almond cake batter: In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, melted vegan butter, dairy free yogurt, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Add in the ground almonds, all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt. Slowly pour in the vegan buttermilk as you whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Stop just as the wet ingredients are fully integrated into the dry ingredients.
Bake: Divide the cake batter into the two pans, and bake for 40-42 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from the oven.
Cool and slice: Allow the cakes to cool in their pans for 10 minutes. This will help the tops of the cakes sink back down so you don’t have to torte the layers. Then transfer the cake layers to fully cool on a cooling rack. Once they’ve completely cooled, carefully slice each cake layer in half so that you have four round 8″ cake layers. I recommend using a large kitchen knife and placing the cake layers onto a cake turntable to easily slice the cakes in half. If you don’t want to create a four layer cake, you can just keep it as a two layer cake!
Make the cream cheese frosting: Once the cakes are cooled and sliced, make the vegan cream cheese frosting.
Assemble the cake: Place one cake layer onto a plate and then onto a cake turntable for easily assembly. Scoop about 1/2 cup vegan cream cheese frosting on the top of the cake layer and spread it to the edges. Create a well in the frosting for where the raspberry frosting will go and so that the frosting has walls along the edges (see blog post photos). Scoop about 1/3 cup of raspberry jam into the middle of the frosting, and spread it to the walls of the frosting. Place the next cake layer on top and repeat, then place the third cake layer on top and repeat once more. Place the final cake layer on top, and smooth the frosting around the edges to create a crumb coat (see blog post photos for reference). Place the cake into the fridge to chill for 20 minutes.
Finish frosting the cake: Remove the cake from the fridge, and frost the remainder of the cake with the cream cheese frosting. Top with raspberries and sliced almonds. Serve and enjoy!

Notes

Gluten free: I really only recommend using King Arthur Measure-for-Measure Gluten Free Flour or a similar blend with xanthan gum that also weighs 125 g per cup. Please note that Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 GF Flour will NOT work here.

See blog post for all tips and tricks!