This lemon raspberry loaf cake is soft, moist, flavourful, and topped with a gorgeous naturally coloured raspberry lemon glaze. Tangy, zesty, and studded with whole raspberries. It’s a one bowl recipe and can be whipped up real quick! You don’t need an electric mixer, just a hand whisk or a spoon if you don’t have one.
To get it extra moist and delicious, I used a mixture of both oil and butter. I prefer the flavour of butter in my cakes but oil makes it so much more moist! By doing a half and half combo, you get the best of both worlds: a spot on texture and finger-licking buttery flavour.
The buttermilk gives this lemon and raspberry loaf cake some extra tang and even more flavour. Also, it makes sure that the loaf stays moist after cooling.
🍞 The Loaf
Full recipe and ingredients in recipe card below
To make the loaf, combine the wet ingredients and sugar into a bowl and mix well. Sift the dry ingredients right into the same bowl and fold it all together. The key is to not over mix! Fold until most of the dry flour streaks are gone. That way you get a super soft loaf.
Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of flour into the raspberries and mix so that the raspberries are all coated. Add them into the rest of the batter and fold. Pour into a prepped 9” by 5” loaf pan, bake, and cool!
Halfway through, tent the top of the loaf with some aluminum foil to prevent it from burning if you notice it browning too quickly.
When checking the loaf with a toothpick, you want to make sure that there is no wet batter stuck to it. It may appear wet because of the raspberries.
💧 The Glaze
For the easy glaze, I mashed some raspberries and pushed them through a sieve to remove the seeds to get a very concentrated raspberry juice. Mix it with some freshly squeezed lemon juice and powdered sugar and pour over the cooled loaf cake to get a show stopping dessert. The glaze tastes like sweet and tangy raspberries!
If you have seedless raspberry jam on hand, you can dissolve it in a bit of hot water and use it instead of the raspberry juice. I like my glaze to be extra thick but you can make it thinner to your preference.
I like to leave the glaze to set on the loaf for about 10 minutes so that it doesn’t get messy when I cut it.
✔️ Your Questions Answered
Make sure you weigh your flour! Weighing flour is the best way to get consistent results every time. Invest in a cheap scale, it will really improve your baking!
If you don’t have a scale on hand, you can measure the flour properly using dry measuring cups. Mix up your flour with a spoon, spoon it into your measuring cup, and level off the top with the flat edge of a knife without packing in the flour. It isn’t as accurate as using a scale but is the next best option!
Lemon glaze will work just as well on top of this loaf cake! Replace the raspberry juice or jam with freshly squeezed lemon juice, adding as much as needed to get the consistency you prefer!
A little bit of liquid goes a long way when making the glaze. Add little by little and stir in between each addition so that you get the consistency you like. If it’s too thin, add some more icing sugar. If it’s too thick, add more lemon juice or a splash of water to thin it out a bit.
You can make your own buttermilk by adding 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar or white vinegar in a measuring cup and adding enough room temperature milk to get a total of ¾ cup. Stir and let sit for 5 minutes. It should become lumpy and thick. Use soy or almond milk for a non-dairy option.
Plain kefir also works as a good replacement for buttermilk.
Frozen raspberries work great in this recipe! Do not defrost and add them exactly the same way as the recipe says.
The loaf cake will store well refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 5 days. You can also freeze the slices with parchment paper in between each piece in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Let come to room temperature before eating.
Check out my other zesty recipes:
Happy Baking! xx
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Lemon Raspberry Loaf Cake with Raspberry Glaze
Equipment
- 9" by 5" loaf pan
Ingredients
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ cup butter melted and cooled
- ¼ cup vegetable oil I used grapeseed
- 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¾ cup buttermilk room temperature
- 1 lemon juiced and zested
- 2 ¾ cups all purpose flour 325 g
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 6 oz raspberries fresh or frozen (170g)
- 1 teaspoon all purpose flour
Raspberry Lemon Glaze
- 2 cup powdered sugar
- 3 oz raspberries fresh or frozen (85g)
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Instructions
- Prepare 9×5 loaf pan by lining with parchment paper, leaving longer parchment paper handles on the sides so that it is easier to pull out the loaves. Preheat oven to 185°C (365°F).
- Whisk together eggs and sugar until combined. Add the salt, butter, vegetable oil, vanilla, buttermilk, and lemon juice and zest. Whisk until combined.3 large eggs, ⅔ cup granulated sugar, ⅛ teaspoon sea salt, ½ cup butter, ¼ cup vegetable oil, 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, ¾ cup buttermilk, 1 lemon
- Sift flour, baking powder, and baking soda into the bowl. Fold until almost fully incorporated.2 ¾ cups all purpose flour, ¼ teaspoon baking soda, 2 teaspoon baking powder
- In a separate bowl coat raspberries in 1 teaspoon flour.1 teaspoon all purpose flour, 6 oz raspberries
- Add coated raspberries into the batter and fold just until no streaks of flour remain. Do not over mix. Some lumps in the batter is normal.
- Pour into prepared loaf pan and smooth the top. Tap on counter a few times to remove large air pockets.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. The toothpick may come out wet because of the raspberries just as long as it isn't coated in batter.
- Remove from oven and let cool completely in the pan. Lift out using the parchment handles.
Raspberry Lemon Glaze
- Smash raspberries with a spoon and push through sieve to remove seeds. Alternatively use 2 tablespoon seedless raspberry jam dissolved in 1 tablespoon boiling water.3 oz raspberries
- Sift powdered sugar into a bowl and gradually add raspberry juice. Whisk until a thick glaze forms. Add lemon juice as needed to get desired consistency. I made my glaze very thick. If you want to thin it out even more, add drops of water at a time.2 cup powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- Let the glaze set for about 10 minutes, slice and serve!
Notes
- Weigh the flour or measure properly with a measuring cup (see questions section above)
- Do not over mix the batter. Lumps are ok! Mix just until you stop seeing streaks of dry flour
- Add the raspberry and lemon juice into the glaze gradually so that you get the thickness you want
Elise
Super simple to make. I doubled the recipe and its made the calculation for me which was super helpful and a time saver. It also shows which ingredients you need it each step so you dont need to scroll up and down constantly (LOVE this feature).
Great recipe and will add this go to recipes 🙂
Mary
So happy you loved it, thank you so much!