Seventeen items and an hour and a half, in a 9-inch square pan.
The raspberry does two separate jobs here — a streaked layer buried inside the cake, and whole berries crowded across the top before it bakes.
Why This Recipe Works
- Sour cream gives a coffee cake the tender close crumb it needs.
- Beating the cream cheese with sugar makes a band firm enough to hold its line.
- Streaking the preserves beneath that band keeps the two layers distinct.
- Cold butter rubbed into the streusel gives coarse crumbs rather than paste.
- Whole berries on top bake into the streusel rather than sinking through.
Ingredient Notes
- Sour cream
- Three quarters of a cup. Its acidity works with the soda and its fat gives the tender close crumb a coffee cake needs.
- Cream cheese with sugar
- Eight ounces with a quarter cup, beaten and spread as one horizontal band rather than swirled through.
- Raspberry preserves and fresh raspberries
- Half a cup streaked inside and a cup of whole berries on top. Two forms, two positions, both defining.
- Streusel flour, brown sugar and melted butter
- Three quarters of a cup, half a cup and five tablespoons, mixed into coarse crumbs and scattered thickly.
How to Make It
Oven to 350°F, a 9-inch square pan lined
Heat oven to 350°F and line a 9-inch square pan.
A sour cream batter made, half spread in the pan
Make a tender cake batter with flour, leaveners, salt, butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and sour cream; spread half in the pan.
Cream cheese spread as a distinct band, preserves streaked beneath and around
Beat cream cheese with 1/4 cup sugar and spread as a distinct horizontal band; streak raspberry preserves directly beneath and around that band.
Covered with the remaining batter
Cover with remaining batter.
Streusel scattered thickly, fresh raspberries across the top
Mix the streusel flour, brown sugar, and melted butter into coarse crumbs; scatter thickly over the cake and add fresh raspberries across the top.
Baked forty to forty-five minutes, cooled, dusted, refrigerated
Bake 40 to 45 minutes until the cake is set; cool, dust with powdered sugar, and refrigerate leftovers.
Five Strata, and the Cream Cheese Is a Line
In this coffee cake the fruit is raspberry, in two places, and the cream cheese is a clean horizontal LINE rather than a marbled swirl. Read the square from the bottom up.
1 cup of WHOLE FRESH RASPBERRIES, across the top
Added over the streusel BEFORE the bake, and crowded rather than dotted - across the whole surface. Raspberry is TOP FRUIT here as well as an internal layer, not a simple garnish. Then 40 TO 45 MINUTES at 350°F UNTIL SET, cooled, DUSTED WITH POWDERED SUGAR - a component the title does not name, and it must go on cool or it dissolves - and LEFTOVERS REFRIGERATED at 40°F OR BELOW.
STREUSEL, thickly - COLD butter rubbed
3/4 cup FLOUR, 1/2 cup BROWN SUGAR and 5 tbsp MELTED BUTTER mixed INTO COARSE CRUMBS and SCATTERED THICKLY. Coarse is the endpoint - stop while it is still in irregular lumps rather than working it to a uniform sand, because those lumps are what give the golden rubbled top.
The REMAINING batter, covering it over
Spread over the top so the band is fully enclosed. Work gently here as well; dragging the spoon pulls the cream cheese and the preserves up into the top layer and the clean strata are lost.
The CREAM CHEESE - a DISTINCT HORIZONTAL BAND
8 oz beaten with 1/4 cup SUGAR and SPREAD AS A DISTINCT HORIZONTAL BAND. Distinct and horizontal both matter. Spread it gently and evenly and then leave it alone - working it into the batter turns a band into a marble. The sugar in it matters too: unsweetened cream cheese against a sweet crumb reads as savoury.
The RASPBERRY STREAK - beneath and around the band
1/2 cup of RASPBERRY PRESERVES STREAKED DIRECTLY BENEATH AND AROUND the cream-cheese band. Streaked rather than spread: a solid sheet of preserves would seal the two batter halves apart and the cake would split along it when cut. Streaks let batter meet batter in places while still reading as a crimson layer in the cut face.
HALF the batter - and SOUR CREAM is why it is tender
2 cups FLOUR, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 cup BUTTER, 3/4 cup SUGAR, 2 EGGS, 1 tsp VANILLA and 3/4 cup SOUR CREAM. The sour cream is doing two things at once - its acid activates the soda, and its fat shortens the crumb into the close tender texture a coffee cake is meant to have. Half goes down first, spread level, because everything above depends on a flat surface.
Success Tips
- Spread the cream cheese gently so it stays a band rather than blending in.
- Streak the preserves rather than spreading them, so the crimson stays distinct.
- Dust with powdered sugar only once the cake is cool, or it dissolves away.
Serving Ideas
Twelve thick squares with a pale tender crumb, a cream cheese band and crimson raspberry streak through the middle, under a coarse golden streusel dusted with powdered sugar and crowded with whole raspberries.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should the cream cheese be swirled?
No. It is spread as a distinct horizontal band through the middle - the band should show as a clean line in the cut square.
Why raspberries inside and on top?
Both are defining. Preserves are streaked beneath the cream cheese band as an internal layer, and whole fresh berries are crowded across the top before baking.
Do leftovers need refrigerating?
Yes, at 40 degrees Fahrenheit or below. There is a cream-cheese band running through it and fresh fruit baked on top.
