You’ve got to love summer berries, especially when they are at the peak of their short-lived season. Right now, this is the case for raspberries. They are at their best, picked straight from the bush but they also taste great on top of this cake.

This cake is also very summery, in the way that German cakes are often lighter and less sweet than a Victoria Sponge for example. It has a light Quark topping under which a thin layer of meringue is hidden, which gets baked at the same time as the base of the cake, so it doesn’t take hours of preparation.

As this is a German receipe I am using German packs of vanilla sugar, which contain 8 grams of Vanilla Sugar. If you don’t have vanilla sugar, I’d suggest using 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence for 1 vanilla sugar pack instead.

You’ll need:

• 2 eggs
• 65g butter
• 1 pinch of salt
• 2 packs vanilla sugar
  (or 2 tsp vanilla essence)
• 250g caster sugar
• 75g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3 Tbsp milk
• ½ tsp lemon juice
• 600g fresh raspberries
• 5 leaves of gelatine
  (I am using Dr Oetker, which are 1.66gram per leave)
• 250g whipping cream
• 750g quark
• a little oil or butter to grease the cake tin
• a round spring cake tin with a 26cm diameter
  (possibly a cake ring)

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.

Separate the eggs and start by making a quick meringue base from the egg whites, by – using an electric whisk – whisking them with the lemon juice and 100g sugar until stiff.
Set aside.

In a small bowl, mix the flour and baking powder. In another bowl, mix the butter, salt, 1 package of vanilla sugar (or 1 tsp of essence) and 60g caster sugar until a creamy consistency forms – again, using an electric whisk. Add the egg yolks one by one, followed by some of the flour-baking powder mix with a little bit of the milk, whisking it in before repeating this until all the flour and milk are incorporated.

Grease your cake tin and spread the cake mix in it. Now top the cake mix with the meringue mix but don’t spread it to the edges, instead leave a 1cm gap to the cake tin all around the base (I gather this is so that the meringue can rise and doesn’t stick to the tin). Bake for 25 minutes.

After it’s baked, take the cake out of it’s tin as soon as it comes out of the oven and let it cool on a wire rack.

For the topping, whip the whipping cream to soft peaks. 

Soak your gelatine in a bowl of cold water. In another bowl, whisk together the Quark, 90g caster sugar and the second pack of vanilla sugar. Take the gelatine leaves from the water, gently squeeze the excess water out. Dissolve them by warming up 5 tablespoons of the Quark mix on the hob – careful not to boil! – then stir in the gelatine until dissolved. Stir this in to the Quark mix and fold the whipped cream under.

Spread the topping onto the cake – if it is running all over the sides and you find this effect too messy, use a cake ring at this stage, which will help contain the Quark topping in one place until its set. Let the topping set in the fridge for 15 minutes. After this initial cooling, top the cake with around a third of the raspberries, lightly pressing them into the topping. Again, let it set in the fridge – this time for 2,5 hours.

Now add the rest of the raspberries and tuck in immediately!