Raspberry and white chocolate loaf cake
This Raspberry and white chocolate loaf cake is a buttery, tender cake filled with luscious raspberries and chunks of white chocolate. It is topped with white chocolate icing to enhance the flavor and elegance of this delicious loaf cake.
I love baking loaf cakes because they are easy to make, easy to decorate, and are a perfect amount when you want something sweet. It’s a perfect dessert for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, or whenever you want a treat.
This loaf puts together one of the best flavor combinations of raspberries and white chocolate, mixed with a buttery, tender white chocolate cake. The white chocolate icing adds the perfect amount of sweetness, so don’t skip it.
This loaf may be my new favorite or it may be tied with this pumpkin bread with cream cheese frosting. It is a split in our house, the kids say the pumpkin bread, and the husband says the raspberry loaf. Let me know your pick with a comment down below.
Recipe testing
While testing this recipe, I originally used oil instead of butter because the crumb of cake is usually better with oil. But it made the cake too heavy due to the addition of the white chocolate, so I switched to butter and it was perfect. Butter has about 80% fat, 15% of water, 5% milk solids, compared to the 100% of fat in the oil. The water that is present in butter strengthens the gluten in a cake’s flour, resulting in a crumb that’s denser and not quite as tender as a cake made with oil which is not a bad thing, especially for this cake.
A couple of other differences, several recipes use a mixer, I just whisked the ingredients and it turns out perfect. Also, I used frozen raspberries instead of fresh here because frozen has better flavor than fresh.
Ingredients
- Eggs – make sure they are at room temperature. A quick way to heat them up, if not taken out prior, is to put them in warm water for 5 mins. The goal is to bring the eggs to about 65°F so they can be easily combined with the sugar.
- Sour Cream – needs to be at room temperature. Why room temperature? When cold ingredients touch the melted butter, the butter will cool down and solidify again which can cause issues with the baking. You could substitute greek yogurt or whole-fat plain yogurt for the sour cream.
- White Chocolate- I used a chopped white chocolate bar for this recipe instead of chips. I used a Lindt white chocolate bar (4.4 oz) and it was enough for the batter and the icing. What’s a good white chocolate for baking? A high cocoa butter percentage, such as 33% and up, helps. Higher amounts of cocoa butter help the white chocolate melt beautifully as they do in this cake. White chocolate chips replace some cocoa butter with hydrogenated oil which helps them hold their shape under heat.
- Raspberries- I used frozen raspberries because they taste better than fresh ones. Frozen raspberries are flash-frozen at the time of picking. If using frozen, use them right from the freezer without thawing. You can use fresh if you prefer.
- Salt: Salt is key in baking to enhance flavor and balance sweetness. My favorite salt to use is Diamond Crystal kosher salt. If you are not able to procure Diamond Crystal kosher salt, here is a salt conversion chart for your reference.
See recipe card for quantities.
How to make raspberry and white chocolate loaf cake
No need to use an electric mixer! This recipe can be made entirely by hand with a few simple steps.
Add chopped white chocolate and raspberries. Gently fold them in the batter.
Pour batter into the 9 x 5 prepared pan and bake for 60-70 mins or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let rest in pan for 15 mins then turn out and let rest onto a cooling rack.
How to make white chocolate icing
Place chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and melt chocolate in the microwave in 20-second bursts. Add butter and whisk into the white chocolate. Add powdered sugar, vanilla, milk, and salt. Whisk together until smooth.
Once the cake is cooled, spoon on white chocolate icing. Once complete, lick the spoon! 🙂
Top with fresh raspberries and white chocolate shavings if desired.
Substitutions
- Swap in strawberries, blackberries, or blueberries for a different berry variation.
- Try adding 1 teaspoon of lemon zest or 1/4 tsp of almond extract to the cake batter.
Storage
- Store cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
- This cake freezes well for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature before serving.
- I like to slice it and place the slices on a parchment-lined half-sheet pan, place the pan in the freezer for one hour. Take the pan out of the freezer and put the frozen slices into a freezer ziplock bag. I take one out and either let it come to room temp, eat it cold, or warm it in the microwave for 20 seconds. This makes for an easy afternoon treat with coffee or tea.
Success Tips
- Measuring ingredients – I recommend using a weighing scale and measuring out your ingredients the metric way. It is the most accurate way to bake.
- Spoon and level – If you are not weighing your ingredients and are using a measuring cup, then use the spoon and level method to measure your flour. This means that you should use a spoon to fill the cup and level it off. Go to this link here for instructions.
- Browning too quickly – If your loaf cake is browning too much in the oven, cover it with aluminum foil.
- Don’t over-mix the batter. Once the flour is added, mix the dry and wet ingredients just until everything is incorporated. Whisk until the flour has disappeared into the wet ingredients. Mixing flour with liquids activates the gluten proteins that give baked goods their structure. Over-mixing can lead to bread that is tough or unpleasantly chewy.
- Room temperature ingredients: Using room temperature ingredients as mentioned prior is important when making any kind of cake. This will help ensure your ingredients mix properly and helps produce a fluffy baked good.
- Melt the chocolate: When making the icing, make sure that the white chocolate is completely smooth and melted before adding in the powdered sugar or it will end up with lumps.
Frequently Asked Questions
I find the easiest way to melt white chocolate is by using the microwave. Place white chocolate chunks or white chocolate bar broken into pieces into a microwave-safe bowl. Heat no more than 20 seconds at a time. Each time you heat the chocolate, take it out of the microwave and stir. Repeat until fully melted.
The best way to tell if a loaf cake is done baking is to stick a toothpick or a skewer into it, somewhere in the middle where a crack has formed, and make sure the toothpick comes out clean, or with crumbs, but not batter. Use a cake tester, skewer, or wooden toothpick and insert it into the middle of the loaf where a crack has formed, make sure it comes out clean, or with crumbs, but not batter.
The reason most loaf cakes come out dry is either too much flour was added to the batter, or it was overcooked. Weighing your flour is such a helpful way to make sure you don’t have a dry or dense cake.
Yes, you can. I like to use frozen because they are flash frozen at the time of the pick unlike fresh which are shipped across the country and tend not to have the best flavor.
DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE?
I’d love to know how it turned out! Please let me know by leaving a review below.
Raspberry and white chocolate loaf cake
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (210 grams)
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon diamond crystal kosher salt (3 grams) for table salt, use about half as much volume or the same weight.
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200 grams)
- 1/2 cup 1 stick butter melted (113 grams)
- 1/2 cup sour cream (120 grams)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- ½ cup chopped white chocolate (2.4 oz)
- 1 1/4 cups frozen raspberries (150 grams)
Icing
- 1/2 cup (2 oz.) white chocolate bar broken into pieces
- 1 tablespoon soft unsalted butter (67 degrees)
- 1 cup confectioner’s sugar (125 grams)
- ¼ teaspoon diamond crystal kosher salt (1 gram)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Adjust the oven rack to the lower third position and preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Lowering the oven rack prevents the top of your bread from browning too much, too soon. Grease a metal 9×5-inch loaf pan with non-stick spray. Set aside.
- Whisk all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl until combined.
- Whisk eggs, and granulated sugar in a medium bowl until well combined about 35 seconds. Add melted butter, sour cream, and vanilla; mix well.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently whisk until dry ingredients are moistened. The batter will be thick.
- Gently fold in the chopped white chocolate and raspberries.
- Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and even out with a spatula.
- Bake for 60-70 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Baking times vary so keep an eye on it. The bread is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean with zero raw batter. Remove the bread from the oven.
- Cool cake in the pan set on a wire rack for 15 minutes before removing from the pan. Carefully remove loaf from pan. Let cool completely on wire rack.
White chocolate icing
- When the cake is cool, make the white chocolate icing. Place white chocolate chunks or white chocolate bar broken into pieces into a microwave-safe bowl. Heat no more than 20 seconds at a time. Each time you heat the chocolate, take it out of the microwave and stir. Continue to heat and stir until the white chocolate is fully melted, it is easy to burn white chocolate. Stir until white chocolate is smooth. Add butter and mix with a whisk until combined. Add the powdered sugar, salt, vanilla, and milk. Whisk until smooth. Drizzle the white chocolate icing over the cooled loaf cake. Cut into slices and serve.
