Raspberry Zinger Cake

Divine providence. It displays itself often in my life. Like the other day when I was taking the kids out to ice cream and Boots wanted to go to the junkiest ice cream place in town that displays scary, old dolls on shelves on the walls. Somehow I ended up agreeing. As it turned out, a farmer was selling gigantic, fresh tomatoes on the side of the road there which I would never have found otherwise. Now tell me if that is not divine providence.



Then there was the time that I was going to make Grandma a birthday cake. I was planning on having a custard filling and a raspberry filling, but the custard didn't ever get thick enough, so I ended up just doing the raspberry. Then I didn't let it cool enough because I was being too impatient, so some of the raspberry filling squirted out the sides and made it really ugly. But otherwise, I would never have had the idea of covering the sides with coconut. So it ended up being sort of like a Hostess Raspberry Zinger. Only better. Divine Providence!

A classy looking slice of cake with a classy looking plastic fork.


Raspberry Zinger Cake

Vanilla Butter Cake from Baking by James Peterson:
( I'm still partial to the Fluffy White Butter Cake from that book, but this one was easier to make)

2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
3 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of butter, sliced

Preheat the oven to 350º. Butter and flour two 9 inch round cake pans.
Mix together the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder.
Add a cup of the milk and the butter. Using the paddle attachment on your mixer or a wooden spoon, beat for about two minutes.
Whisk together the remaining half cup of milk, the eggs, yolks, and vanilla.
Add 1/4 of the egg mixture at a time, mixing well after each addition until smooth.
Bake in the prepared cake pans for about 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 
Cool completely before frosting.

Raspberry Curd:

24 oz. frozen raspberries
1 cup sugar
5 1/2 tablespoons cornstartch

In a medium saucepan, cook down the raspberries on medium heat. The strain them through a fine mesh strainer to remove the seeds. Just do a little at a time and use a rubber spatula to squeeze them through.
Stir in the sugar and cornstarch until smooth. Return to heat.
Constantly scrape the bottom with the rubber spatula so it doesn't burn and cook until thickened.
Put in a jar to cool.

Frosting:

5 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 sticks butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cut the butter into cubes. Add half of the powdered sugar. Beat in stand mixer with whisk attachment for a few minutes. Add the vanilla and half of the whipping cream and mix well. Add a fourth of the remaining powdered sugar and mix well. Add the remaining whipping cream and mix well. Then add the last of the powdered sugar and beat well.
Refrigerate so it's easier to frost the cake when the time comes.

To assemble, first cut off any dome on the top that you might have so that they are perfectly flat (I didn't do this. It's called being lazy). The score the sides and using a long serrated knife, carefully cut them in half so that you have four thin layers.
Frost each layer with a quarter of the raspberry curd. I also did a little frosting under the curd on each layer. Don't frost the top layer with raspberry curd.
Now frost the entire cake with frosting. Once it's as smooth as you can get it, you can decorate the top.
Using a spoon, drip the remaining raspberry curd into about 8 parallel lines across the top. Then run a small, sharp knife through the top in parallel line in the opposite direction. Go back and forth in the direction that you pull the knife.
Finally, press some coconut around the sides. And voila. You have a beauteous cake.

My sister, Piggie, is such a gorgeous model.