Here’s a little secret for you: an empty juice carton can actually work wonders in the kitchen. Not quite convinced? Then check out the following recipe where an empty carton really does most of the heavy lifting in our effort to make the best layer cake known to man. We’re using it as a baking pan to stack up layers of light sponge cake, a dreamy raspberry mousse, tart raspberry jam, and a final layer of raspberry jello. Garnish the finished product with some fresh raspberries and a few mint sprigs and you’re ready to serve everyone’s new favorite dessert!
Dreamy Creamy Raspberry Layer Cake
Equipment
- Baking tray
- Parchment paper
- Hand mixer
- Juice carton
- Saucepan
Ingredients
- 4 egg yolks
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 4 egg whites
- 1 pinch salt
- 2/3 cup flour
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 1 tbsp raspberry jam
- 1 cup whipped cream
- 1 empty 32 fl oz juice or milk carton
- 3/4 cup raspberry-flavored juice (like cranberry raspberry or apple raspberry juice)
- 3 tbsp raspberry jam
- 5 tsp unflavored gelatin powder (or 5 gelatin sheets)
- 8 fresh raspberries
- 4 mint sprigs
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F and separate the eggs. Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar and vegetable oil, sieve in the flour, and mix everything with a spoon until combined.
- Add a pinch of salt to the egg whites and beat with a hand mixer. Transfer about half of the egg whites to the egg yolk mixture and carefully mix everything together. Then add the rest of the egg whites.
- Line a baking tray with parchment paper, spread the batter evenly over it, and bake for 10 minutes. Cover the finished sponge cake with a dishtowel and let cool.
- For the raspberry mousse, add the cream cheese and jam to a bowl, mix until combined, and then fold in the whipped cream.
- Use the empty juice carton as a template for the sponge cake: cut it into 5 equally wide strips.
- Cut off one of the long sides of the juice carton with a sharp knife, rinse it out, and dab it dry.
- Place one of the sponge cake strips in the juice carton and lightly brush some raspberry juice over it for a moist layer. Spread about 1/5 of the raspberry mousse on top of the cake layer and then spread a tablespoon of raspberry jam on top of the mousse. Repeat this process until the last sponge cake layer is covered with the raspberry mousse. Now refrigerate the layer cake while you get started on the raspberry jello.
- Add the rest of the juice to a saucepan, heat it, and then let it reduce for about 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the rest of the jam. If you're using gelatin sheets, soak the gelatin in cold water and then squeeze out the liquid. As soon as the juice in the saucepan has cooled down a little, add the soaked gelatin or the unflavored gelatin powder and stir it in. Then allow everything to cool down some more.
- Pour the raspberry jello in the juice carton as a final layer and refrigerate the cake for at least another 3 hours, or preferably overnight. Once the raspberry layer cake has set, cut open the juice carton at the sides and carefully remove the cake from the carton. Cut the layer cake into 4 equal squares and garnish with fresh raspberries and a few mint sprigs.
VIDEO
The airiness from the sponge cake and the creaminess from the raspberry mousse alone make this the perfect summer dessert, but it’s the slight tartness from all the different raspberry-flavored layers that makes this cake extra special!
Get the recipe for the Mini Raspberry Yogurt Mousse Cakes featured in the bonus video.