This Raspberry White Chocolate Loaf Cake is a tender white chocolate pound cake topped with a scrumptious raspberry glaze! The flavors are so amazing you'll find yourself taking seconds!
Preheat oven to 325° F. Grease a 9"x5" loaf pan and line with parchment (see note). Set aside.
In a small bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt). Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (at least 3 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, follwed by the vanilla extract, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Alternate additions of the dry ingredients and the buttermilk: half the dry ingredients, followed by the buttermilk, then the remaining dry ingredients. Mix until nearly incorporated, then add white chocolate and mix until just combined.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached, about 80-90 minutes. Allow cake to cool in the pan at least 15 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. (Refrigerate overnight for even better crumb!)
For Glaze:
In a medium saucepan, combine the raspberries, lemon juice, water, and sugar. Cook over medium-low heat. Once the mixture is bubbling, cook for an additional five minutes, or until the berries break down. You can hasten this process a bit by smushing (it's a technical term) the berries with a spatula.
Strain the mixture (you may want to let it cool a bit first) to remove the seeds and pulp. Return the raspberry juice mixture to the saucepan.
Over medium-low heat, cook until the liquid is reduced to about ¼ cup (5-7 minutes). Make sure to check/stir frequently, as the more the liquid reduces, the more likely it will burn. Take the saucepan off the heat and allow the mixture to cool slightly.
In a medium bowl, combine the sifted powdered sugar with the raspberry reduction. Stir to combine. Add 1 tablespoon of cream and mix until smooth. If the glaze is too thick, you can add a bit more cream. If it's too thin, you can add a bit more powdered sugar.
Pour the glaze over the cooled cake. Top with raspberries and more white chocolate, if desired. Allow the glaze to set up before serving.Enjoy!
Notes
Note on parchment paper: Lining your pan with parchment makes it easier to remove the pound cake later! I buy pre-cut nonstick parchment sheets that work really well. If you’re interested in checking them out, you can find them here.Note on buttermilk: For best results, I do suggest that you use buttermilk! That said, you can make a quick substitution if you don't have it on-hand. For this recipe, put ½ teaspoon vinegar or lemon juice into a liquid measuring cup, then add enough milk (I find that 2% milkfat or greater works best) to come up to the ½ cup line. Let sit for 5 minutes, then it's ready for use!Note on white chocolate: There are some ingredients you can skimp on, and I'm a firm believer that white chocolate is *not* one of them! I pulsed my white chocolate in a food processor so that the pieces were quite small. You can use whatever kind of white chocolate that you prefer, just ensure that the chocolate is chopped quite finely or grated. The weight of large chunks of chocolate in this cake won't have the best result. I used the white chocolate that you find at this link here.