This is an elegant spring loaf cake that's bursting with juicy berries, bright lemon zest, and the delicate tang of creme fraiche. It's buttery, moist, and incredibly simple to make.
This moist creme fraiche cake is studded with fresh berries and zesty lemon. It has a fine, delicate crumb and it’s all too easy to scarf. What I love about this cake, aside from the juicy berries and tender texture, is the simplicity.
It’s naturally beautiful to look at— no fancy decorating tips or swiss meringue frosting are required. All you need are really delicious berries, creme fraiche and a loaf pan. To dress it up just a tad, I brush the warm cake with a lemon glaze for a crystally, crunchy, citrusy crust. It’s totally optional, but as far as cake decorating goes, it’s my kind of doable.
how to make this triple berry creme fraiche cake:
- Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
- Whisk together sugar, creme fraiche, eggs, vanilla and lemon zest.
- Add dry ingredients to wet, whisk to combine.
- Fold in vegetable oil until well mixed. You’ll feel like this is a completely ridiculous thing to do and that the batter will never come together. That's normal. Just be patient and stay the course!
- Fold in fresh or frozen berries.
- Pour batter into a parchment paper lined 8-inch x 4-inch loaf pan.
- Bake for about 65 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Let cool 10 minutes, remove from pan, then brush with lemon glaze while the cake is still warm.
baking with creme fraiche:
This creme fraiche cake only requires ½ cup of creme fraiche, but it’s such an important ingredient! It adds tenderness, moisture and a delicate tang to baked goods.
If you have a lingering, half used tub of creme fraiche in your fridge, this is the cake for you. But if you don’t have creme fraiche or can’t find it in your local grocery store, don’t worry. You have two options:
- Substitute full-fat sour cream or yogurt in place of the creme fraiche
- Make your own creme fraiche, which is so easy and so much cheaper than buying it. If you’re at all curious about the process, I definitely recommend giving it a shot one evening.
- Whisk together 1 cup heavy cream and 1 tbsp buttermilk together, cover loosely, and let sit at room temperature for about 12 hours, or until thickened to your desired texture. Learn more here!
notes on the triple berry creme fraiche cake:
- While I call this a triple berry cake, you can use any combination of berries you’d like. I prefer the blueberry, blackberry, raspberry combination. But you can also use strawberries, as seen in the pictures! If you do use strawberries, make sure to dice them into ½” pieces so they don’t take over the cake.
- Fresh or frozen berries can be used. Frozen berries have a tendency to bleed color in the batter, so your cake won’t look at clean as the cake in the photos. It will taste just as great. Avoid frozen strawberries, which can be very watery and are also a pain to cut into small pieces.
- You can use a 9-inch x 5-inch loaf pan without any change in taste. The creme fraiche cake will just be wider and shallower.
more cake recipes to try:
raspberry and white chocolate loaf cake
lemon olive oil cake with candied lemon zest
cherry rye buckle cake with walnut streusel
Printtriple berry creme fraiche cake
This is an elegant spring cake that's bursting with juicy berries, bright lemon zest, and the delicate tang of creme fraiche. It's buttery, moist, and incredibly simple to make.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 65 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
- Yield: 8
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ¾ tsp kosher salt
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup (4 oz) creme fraiche (can substitute sour cream)
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- zest of 1 lemon
- ½ cup neutral oil, such as canola oil
- 2 cups mixed berries, fresh or frozen (raspberries, blueberries, blackberries)
lemon glaze
- ¼ cup confectioners' sugar
- 2 tsp lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 8-inch x 4- inch loaf pan, line it with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. In another large bowl, whisk together sugar, creme fraiche, eggs, vanilla and lemon zest until very well blended.
- Slowly mix dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, whisk until completely combined, then fold in oil with a rubber spatula until well mixed. Fold in berries, pour batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake about 65 minutes, or until top is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- While cake bakes, prepare lemon glaze. In a small bowl, whisk together confectioners' sugar and lemon juice until no lumps remain and set aside.
- When cake is done, let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then invert and place on a cooling rack. While cake is still warm, use a pastry brush to gently brush the cake with the glaze until tops and sides are completely covered. Let cool then enjoy!
Notes
- the cake keeps for up to 4 days at room temperature in an airtight container
Nutrition
- Serving Size: ⅛ of cake
- Calories: 438
- Sugar: 31g
- Sodium: 391mg
- Fat: 24g
- Saturated Fat: 5.6g
- Unsaturated Fat: 16.7g
- Trans Fat: 0.3g
- Carbohydrates: 51g
- Fiber: 2g
- Protein: 5.5g
- Cholesterol: 88mg
Keywords: creme fraiche cake, triple berry cake
isobel says
I intend to make this recipe and appreciate the amounts for doubling and even tripling the ingredients. I’d like to double it but don’t know what size baking pan to use. Thank you for your advice.
Indi Hampton says
Of course! I'd just use two separate 8x4 inch loaf pans!
isobel says
Thank you very much.
Indi Hampton says
So I've been thinking more about your question and wanted to share a great site on pan sizes and volumes. If you doubled the recipe, you would need a pan with about 8 cups of volume-- so whatever pan you have that's around that size should work! Just make sure you line it with parchment paper, otherwise it may be difficult to get out of the pan.
isobel says
Thank you again. Your response is very helpful as I’d like to make this cake in a 13” x 9” pan and now know how to calculate the ingredients.
Victoria says
I made this and it came out AMAZING - better than Starbucks pastries! 10/10 would make again
★★★★★
Indi Hampton says
that's so great to hear!! you're so right, it is way better than Starbucks!
Emily says
Just made this for a play date with a couple other mums and WOW , delicious! I used coconut yoghurt in place of creme fraiche as it’s all I had.
★★★★★
Indi Hampton says
Thank you so much! I'm so happy to hear you loved it! What a great idea to use coconut yogurt!
Mary Levinski says
I doubled the recipe and used two 8 x 4 inch pans. I had to prep a third pan because there was too much batter. It also boiled over in my oven. Flavor is tremendous. Would like to try again.
★★★★
Indi Hampton says
Hmm I'm not sure why that happened. How frustrating! The only thing I can think is maybe there were too many berries?
JL says
Hi, i made the cake this morning but all the cut strawberries sank to the bottom. How should I rectify this? I did cut the strawberries into small cubes before folding them into the batter. Fyi, i used only strawberries as that was the only fruit I had in the fridge. Please advise. Thanks a lot.
Indi Hampton says
Shoot, I'm sorry that happened! I'm not sure why they all sank, but next time you make it you could try this: pour about 1/4th of the batter into the pan and then toss the berries in the remaining batter-- this should give a little "buffer" in the pan to keep the berries up. Let me know if it helps!
BarbL says
Hi JL,
I know it’s a few months since you posted your issue with the berries sinking but I’ve only just come across this recipe and thought I’d reply. What I would do to help rectify this problem is to take a tablespoon or so of the flour and coat your berries in it before adding to your batter. I do this all the time and it works well, is especially good when using frozen berries, it helps to prevent them sinking. Hope it helps! I’ve got some crème fraiche to use so am going to give this recipe a try. 😊
Mary L says
Though I have not tried this myself, I had a baker tell me to lightly flour the berries before putting them in so they "stick" to the batter and do not sink.
Indi Hampton says
Yes! I have mixed experience with it, but it doesn't hurt!
Alexandria says
I’d like to use frozen berries… do I need to thaw them at all before adding to the mixture?
Indi Hampton says
Nope! Frozen work great!