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This seedless raspberry cake filling is so easy to make! It’s stable, with a perfect balance of sweet and tart. It pairs beautifully with cakes, cupcakes, and desserts, and stores well in the fridge or freezer.

WHY I LOVE THIS CAKE FILLING

The Perfect Make-Ahead Fruit Filling – I love this filling because it comes together in minutes, it keeps well in the fridge, and doesn’t turn into a runny mush inside the cake.
Easier Alternative to Fresh Fruit – Using fresh fruit in cakes can be unpredictable, but a stable fruit filling makes the process easy and reliable.
Versatile – I use it in cakes, Raspberry Frappuccino Cupcakes, tarts, a layered Vanilla Meringue Strawberry Cake, and to flavor buttercream. And one of my favorites to make is Blueberry Babka with a blueberry variation. It’s to die for! But, without exaggeration, honestly, it’s delicious enough to be a dessert on its own – just top it with whipped cream and enjoy.
Fruit Options – You can make blueberry, strawberry, cherry, or even peach filling using the same recipe. The world is your oyster.

THINGS YOU NEED

Find all the tools you need in my Amazon Shop
Fine Mesh Sieve
Ultra-Fine Cheese Cloth
Immersion Blender or Small Chopper

RASPBERRIES

To make raspberry cake filling from scratch, you can start with fresh or frozen raspberries. However, I’m partial to using frozen ones. Fresh ones I save for garnish or eating. They are just so precious to me. I can’t help it.

RASPBERRY PUREE

I like to cook fruit with just a touch of water, to prevent scorching, for about 10 minutes, or until it’s soft to intensify its flavor. And then blend the mush using an immersion blender or a small chopper.

REMOVE SEEDS

While not all fruits have seeds, some may have skin, some seeds some both. Raspberries contain quite a lot of seeds. To improve the texture, I like to remove the seeds. After cooking and blending the raspberries, I press the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve (steps 1-3). Since the puree is so precious, I then press the remaining seeds through an ultra-fine cheesecloth to extract every last bit. It is simple, I spoon the seeds from the colander onto a cheesecloth, gather it into a pouch, and twist it over the bowl to let the puree drip through. Continue twisting until no more juice is released. Discard the seeds, then wash the cheesecloth, allow it to air dry, and store it for future use.

Use a tightly woven cheesecloth. If the weave has larger holes, double or even triple-layer the cloth to prevent seeds from slipping through into the puree.

Straining raspberry mush through a fine mesh sieve and cheese cloth.

Fruit purees can be stored in the fridge for at least a week and frozen for up to 3 months, and they are great in desserts, smoothies, or yogurt.

Raspberry puree in a white dish with fresh raspberries next to the bowl.

COOK FILLING

Plain raspberry puree is often too thin and tart to use as a cake filling on its own. To balance the flavor and improve the texture, I add lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar or honey, and a bit of starch as a thickening agent.

To avoid dealing with lumps, mix cornstarch into a small portion of fruit puree first, then add it to the remaining puree.

Whisking lemon zest, lemon juice and starch into fruit puree.

Heat the mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly. As it thickens, the color will deepen and the mixture will change from opaque to more translucent. Bring it to a gentle boil, continue stirring, then cook for about 2 minutes to remove any starchy taste.

COOL

The filling will be thick and hot. Pour it into a bowl and cover it directly with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming. Let it cool to room temperature before using.

Speed up the cooling! Submerge the bowl with the filling into cold water, taking care not to let water overflow into the filling. Replace water as it warms up with a cool one. It will take about 30 minutes to cool the filling using cold water bath.

When making Cranberry Cake Filling, use less corn starch. Cranberry puree thickens up naturally on its own. Use 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons of starch.

HOW LONG DOES RASPBERRY CAKE FILLING LAST?

Filling keeps well for over 7 days and can also be frozen for 3 weeks. Let it defrost in the fridge before using.

Slice of a cake with raspberry cake filling.

Print Pin

Raspberry Cake Filling

Make delicious and easy fruit filling for your cakes and tarts.

Yields 1 1/4 cups of fruit filling.

Makes enough to fill a 2-tier 6-inch or a 2-tier 8-inch cake.

Course Dessert, Frosting, icing

Cuisine American, Czech, French, Slovak

Keyword berries, cake filling, easy cake filling, fruit filling, raspberry cake filling

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 15

Cooling 30

Author Hani

Ingredients

Raspberry Puree

12 oz frozen or fresh raspberry or other berries
1/4 cup water

Cake Filling

1 cup fruit raspberry puree or other fruit puree
1/4-1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp lemon zest
juice of one lemon, strained
2 1/2 tbsp corn starch

Instructions

Raspberry Puree

Into a pot, pour frozen or fresh raspberries (12 oz.) and water (1/4 cup). Bring to a slow simmer, on medium heat, until very soft, about 10 minutes.
Remove from the heat and break up the mixture with an immersion blender.
To remove seeds, strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve. To further extract juice, you can scrape out seeds onto a clean cheesecloth. Form a pouch and twist it over a bowl with strained juice. Let it drip and keep twisting the pouch, then discard the seeds.
You should have about 1 cup of fruit puree.

Cake Filling

Pour runny fruit puree ( 1cup, 240-250ml ) into a small pot.
Add granulated sugar (1/4 to 1/3 cup | 50 grams to 65 grams), freshly squeezed lemon juice ( juice from medium to large lemon, strained), lemon zest (1 tablespoon), and corn starch ( 2½ tablespoons).
Whisk well to combine and till no longer white streaks remain. Taste and if needed, add more sugar.
Tip: If you are a few tablespoons shy of 1 cup of fruit puree, you can top it off with water or other juice (apple juice, strawberry, for example).
Cook mixture on medium heat. Mixture as it cooks will thicken and deepens in color. Bring it to boil and then reduce to slow boil. Stirring constantly cook for about 2 minutes.
Remove from the heat and pour into a bowl. Cover with a piece of food wrap to prevent crust from forming. Allow to cool to room temperature before using.
Cooled fruit filling can be stored in the fridge for a week and frozen for 2-3 weeks.

Video

Notes

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