Fresh raspberry puree creates a pretty pink, fruity swirl inside this tender, buttery pound cake.
My foodie friend, Colleen from Souffle Bombay, was thinking about just what cookbook it was that made her fall in love with cooking recently, then she decided to ask the same question to a number of her foodie friends, myself included, and #CookbooksandCalphalon was born! Enjoy these food bloggers stories as well as the recipes that go along with them as we celebrate our love of cooking and the perfect pairing of Cookbooks and Calphalon!
My story? Well, I like food. Making it, eating it, sharing it. And since a career in the culinary industry didn't work out, I started this blog to share my love of cooking and baking.
I've always liked food. As soon as I was old enough, I was the designated birthday-cake-baker in my family (yes, that included my own). I was a bookworm kid, and you would be just as likely to find me with my nose in a Babysitters' Club book as my mom's tattered old Betty Crocker cookbook.
That old cookbook had recipes for just about everything, from appetizers to drinks to main dishes to desserts. One of the first things I made out of that cookbook was pound cake. The recipe below is not from that book, as it's long-since fallen apart. But it does remind me of my early baking attempts.
Pound cake got its name because when the recipe was first developed in the 1700s, it was made with a pound of butter, a pound of flour, a pound of eggs, and a pound of sugar. Yikes!
The recipe has been refined since, and the ratios altered, and new flavors added. This one uses the juice of fresh raspberries to create a pretty pink swirl, and adds a mild raspberry flavor. If your raspberries are not very ripe, you can add a small splash of raspberry extract to enhance the raspberry flavor.
This wouldn't be complete without a fun giveaway for you to enter—you can't cook without cookware and you can't use cookware unless you can cook, right? So when you're done drooling over this pound cake, take a moment to scroll to the bottom of the post and enter our awesome Cookbooks and Calphalon Giveaway!
Also, now through September 1st, Calphalon is celebrating couples! From the first meal they create together in their new home to the meal they share on their 25th anniversary, couple cook up memories! The cookware they choose serves as the foundation for which these “Couples Cooking” memories are made.
Calphalon wants to recognize these #CouplesCooking moments by asking couples to share pictures of the meals they cook together for a chance to win $1,000 in Calphalon cookware! Calphalon is inviting couples to post photos of the meals they prepare with their significant other on Calphalon’s Facebook page. To enter, couples will be asked to share why the dish is unique or special to them and use the hashtag #CouplesCooking. How fun is THAT?
Follow the #CookbooksandCalphalon fun on social media for great recipes, tips and more and good luck in BOTH giveaways!

Raspberry Swirl Pound Cake
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoon whole milk
- 3 large eggs
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups sifted cake flour, 5 ¼ oz
- ¾ cup sugar
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 13 tablespoon unsalted butter at room temperature
- 3 oz fresh raspberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8x4-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a small bowl, lightly whisk together the milk, eggs and vanilla.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix all the dry ingredients (flour through salt) on low speed until combined (about 30 seconds).
- Add the butter and half the egg mixture, and beat on low speed until all dry ingredients are moistened, then beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Scrape down the bowl.
- Add half of the remaining egg mixture, beat for 20 seconds, and scrape down the bowl. Add the last of the egg mixture and beat for 20 seconds.
- Remove ½ cup of the batter and place in a small mixing bowl. Press the raspberries firmly through a fine-mesh sieve with a rubber spatula until you get a tablespoonful or so of thick juice. Add to the reserved cake batter and mix until well-combined.
- Scrape ⅓ of the vanilla batter into the prepared pan. Add half of the raspberry batter down the middle, and use a butter knife to swirl with the vanilla batter. Add another ⅓ of the vanilla batter on top, then scrape the rest of the raspberry batter down the middle, and swirl again. Top with the remaining vanilla batter and smooth it out with a knife or spatula.
- Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack, then remove the cake from the pan to cool completely.
Adapted from Rose Levy Berenbaum's "Perfect Pound Cake" (found in The Cake Bible)
Don't forget to check out the other #CookbooksandCalphalon recipes!
Cooking:
- Pecan Encrusted Chicken with a Creamy Dijon Sauce - Souffle Bombay
- Tomato Jam – Healthy. Delicious.
- Roasted Salmon with Peanut Sauce - Tiny Farmhouse
- Pesto Pasta and Peas with Grilled Shrimp - The Suburban Soapbox
- Homemade Spinach and Cheese Ravioli - Food Lust People Love
Baking:
- Classic Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting – Urban Bakes
- Cookie Dough Fudge Brownies – Sugar Dish Me
- Plum and Pluot Galette - Fork Vs Spoon
- Peanut Butter Squares - Kelly Bakes
- Simple Apple Crisp – Real: The Kitchen and Beyond
- Raspberry Swirl Pound Cake – The Redhead Baker
- Beirut Tahini Swirls – Pastry Chef Online
Drinks:
- Oat-chata – Healthy Slow Cooking
Disclosure: I was not compensated with money or products to write this post. Thanks to Page Street Publishing and Calphalon for offering fun prizes!
Colleen (Souffle Bombay) says
This is gorgeous! The simple addition of the swirl takes it to a whole new level...love it!! Boy, Betty Crocker sure did influence the way America cooks...so cool! Thanks for joining in!
Jenni says
I love The Cake Bible and turn to Rose again and again when I need technical help with cakes. I love her two-stage mixing method and the fine, mellow crumb it creates. What a gorgeous pound cake, Coleen. =)
Stephanie @ Back For Seconds says
This looks absolutely divine! I love pound cake and that swirl looks so so good!!
Beth @ The First Year says
I just entered to win - I wish I had a slice of the pound cake for breakfast right now!
Amy M. C. says
I fell in love with baking when I saw how much joy it brought others!
Joanna says
This pound cake looks gorgeous! I'll be adding this to my "To bake" list 🙂
Lauren @ Healthy Delicious says
I was a bookworm too - yay for Babysitters Club! I'm pretty sure that Betty book was my Mom's go-to as well.
Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine says
Sounds fabulous! Raspberry is so delicious!
Kathy Hester says
There's nothing better than a piece of pound cake with a swirl in it. When I was little it seemed like the fanciest thing in the world to me.
Marie @ Little Kitchie says
Such a pretty cake!
Christina says
It was actually a recipe in a school book for a Lemon Cake which got me started. I loved all the attention I received for making a cake when I was only 7 or 8! I've never stopped, since!
Robin Chesser says
The cookbook that first inspired me was Joy of Cooking, it was a second hand book that wasn't in great condition but I bought it anyway, because it was only one dollar and back in those days I could have bought a slice of pizza and a soda for that one dollar, but I had to have that book, I've been cooking and baking ever since then, and that's been a LONG time.
Julie M says
I can't wait to try this recipe, it's so pretty with the added swirl. So impressive and I'm sure just as delicious!
Stephanie Marie says
The recipe sounds delicious! I love raspberries but it is very hard to find good quality ones here in Florida.
Kimberly says
Oh my goodness ... I would do pretty much anything for a slice of your raspberry swirl pound cake right now! Looks beautiful and delicious!
Courtney @ Neighborfood says
The recipe that made me fall in love with baking was definitely peach pie. With cooking? I'm not so sure...but it started with a Betty Crocker cookbook we got for our wedding. Absolutely love this theme and the Couples Cooking contest. What a great idea!
Elizabeth @ Food Ramblings says
The raspberry swirl looks absolutely beautiful! Yum!
Mallory @forkvsspoon.com says
You are a serious pro at that swirl! The cake looks lovely!
valmg @ From Val's Kitchen says
I have never had any Calphalon but hear it's great. That pound cake looks amazing!
Rose | The Clean Dish says
This recipe is so simple, I love it!! Perfect swirl, Coleen.
Stacy says
I aspire to bake cakes with pretty swirls, but, try as I might, mine never seem to turn out so swirly. Yours is raspberry perfection, Coleen!
Aly ~ Cooking In Stilettos says
My first cookbooks that I bought during my "How the heck do I cook" days were Colin Cowie's Everyday Elegance (LOVE that show) and Nigella Lawson's book, Nigella Bites. It's amazing how a recipe can start one on a culinary journey. This pound cake is gorgeous Coleen!
Amy @ tiny farmhouse says
Colleen, that is one gorgeous pound cake! And not a bad job to be the family cake baker, either!
Connie | URBAN BAKES says
Wow, I had no idea pound cake really had a pound each of all of those ingredients! Learn something new everyday... Yours looks stunning. Love the additional of the raspberry swirl.
Angela {Mind Over Batter} says
Can you imagine the pound cakes of old?! I am down with a pound of sugar and butter, though. This raspberry swirl cake looks so pretty and delicious!
Kellie @ The Suburban Soapbox says
Gorgeous recipe! I love pound cake and raspberries so this is absolutely perfect in my book!
Kelly @ Kelly Bakes says
This is just the loveliest pound cake. I'm on board with raspberry anything, but I am all about that swirl! Also, now that I'm back in Philly, we should grab coffee (or, who am I kidding? pastry 🙂 sometime!
Coleen says
We definitely should!
Jeffrey says
The recipe sounds great, I would be inclined to add a bit of lemon zest but that's because I love lemon with raspberries.
Kristen says
This recipe looks delish! My husband would love it!
rust says
The cookbook that really got me going was Talk About Good, my cajun cooking bible.