Creamy Vegan Raspberry Shortbread Cake

Many of you have been waiting for this: Finally, we came up with a vegan recipe for raspberry shortbread cake. While most of us in the office knew it already from family gatherings or children's birthday parties, I had no clue what it looked like. Previously I already had to confess that I have never had a slice of the famous German Benjamin Blümchen Cake(a premade strawberry sponge cake for children) in my life. I'm starting to question my birthday party experiences from my childhood.
So out of curiosity and to enable you to bring some delicious vegan raspberry shortbread cake to your next family gathering, I worked really hard on this recipe.

The bottom layer of the cake is a classic sponge cake. Unlike the original recipe, I added some chopped shortbread to the cake batter. They add a nice texture and ensure that the bottom of the cake already suggests the top layer.

Tip: To make the sponge cake base nice and fluffy, we use sparkling water in this recipe. If you don't have that at home, you can use regular water and add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to the batter. This helps to activate the baking soda in the batter.

For the raspberry layer, you can use frozen or fresh berries. However, other fruits such as currants or peaches are perfect substitutes if you can't get your hands on raspberries or don't like them. The fruit layer adds a nice acidity to the cake. To keep it that way, we only add a little sugar. Optionally, you can use lemon juice instead of water.

Since it is a summer cake, the cream layer should be as fresh and light as possible. Therefore, we use a mix of plant-based whipped cream, plant-based skyr and vegan cream cheese. It is important to whip the cream until really stiff. There are different kinds of plant-based whipped cream with different ingredients, that's why they all behave a little differently. It is essential to store the cream in the refrigerator beforehand and to whip it in a cool place. If the cream is not firm enough, add an extra packet of cream stiffener. You won't taste it in the end anyway. But it would be a pity if all the layers flowed apart.

The cake is topped with the star of the show: the vegan shortbread cookies. We bought them at a vegan supermarket, but now you can find them in almost every major supermarket. With the size of our cake pan, we could add exactly nine cookies to the top, determining the number of pieces of cake. Of course, you can use other cookies, such as chocolate chip cookies or Oreos. If you want to try a Christmas version of the cake, you can already find vegan speculoos tangerine cake on the blog!