I made a wedding cake for a friend of mine and she wanted a very simple, rustic looking cake with a taste perfect for her summer camp house wedding.

I came up with a combination of flavors to make this cool summertime flavor. It’s a white vanilla bean cake with a raspberry gaze, topped with a raspberry butter cream icing. If you make this cake for an outside event remember, this is butter cream icing. It will melt.

For the White Vanilla Bean Cake:

3 cups of cake flour, sifted (no substitution for cake flour)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 and a half sticks of real butter, softened

1 and a half cups granulated sugar

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

1 teaspoon pure Madagascar Bourbon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste or all of the seeds scraped out of 1 vanilla bean

6 egg whites

Cake Release

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom of 2 8-or 9-inch round cake pans with Wilton’s Cake Release.

Sift together flour and baking powder in a bowl and set aside. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Set aside. Beat egg whites until stiff, but not dry. Set aside. With a mixer at slow speed, add flour mixture to butter mixture, alternating with milk and heavy cream. Beat well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract and vanilla bean seeds. Gently fold in the egg whites into the batter. Pour into the prepared pans and bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pans on a cooling rack for about 15 minutes. Then turn out onto cooling racks for about an hour or until cooled completely to the touch. Level your cakes and set aside.

For the Raspberry Glaze:

6 to 7 ounces seedless black raspberry spreadable fruit, a little more than half a jar.

1 tablespoon of water

Heat the two ingredients in the microwave for about 20 seconds and mix well with a fork. Pour half the mixture on the cut side of one of the cakes and spread out leaving a half-inch boarder not glazed around the sides.

Repeat on the outside of the other cake. Set aside or put in the refrigerator to stay cool while making your icing.

For the Raspberry Butter Cream Icing:

1 cup solid vegetable shortening

2 sticks real butter, softened

1 tsp Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla

1 and a half tablespoons pure raspberry extract

8 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

4 teaspoons Meringue Powder

2 tablespoons milk

2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

In a large bowl, cream shortening and butter with an electric mixer. Add vanilla and raspberry extract. Gradually add sugar and Meringue powder that has been sifted together one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of the bowl often. When all the sugar has been folded in, icing will appear dry. Mix the milk and heavy cream together. Add milk mixture and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep the bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use. You can also color your icing now.

Ice the center of one cake to the edges using a large dalop of icing in the center. I like to use a super large tip and an icing bag to do this part. Then, carefully put the other cake on top, glazed side down. You’re now free to ice and decorate as you like. •

Laura Clements is a food writer for pink magazine.