Name: Raspberry Cake With Whipped Cream Filling
Yield: 12 servings
Ingredients: 4 large eggs, room temperature, separated; 1 tsp. Diamond Crystal or ½ tsp. Morton kosher salt; ½ tsp. cream of tartar; 1 cup (200 g) sugar, divided; ⅓ cup vegetable oil; 1 tsp. vanilla extract; 1 cup (125 g) cake flour; ½ tsp. baking powder; 1 cup (200 g) sugar; 1½ cups (37 g) freeze-dried raspberries; plus more crushed for serving (optional); 3 cups heavy cream; 1 tsp. vanilla extract; 1 tsp. Diamond Crystal or ½ tsp. Morton kosher salt; ¼ cup (80 g) raspberry jam; 2 cups (170 g) fresh raspberries; A pastry bag and a ½"-diameter tip

Raspberry cream cream cake on a cake stand next to slices of cake on small plates

Photograph by Emma Fishman, food styling by Pearl Jones, prop styling by Summer Moore

This raspberry-filled chiffon cake is inspired by the layered fruit and cream cakes in Japanese bakeries—it’s light, airy, and delicately sweet. It’s both visually striking and startlingly deep in flavor, and as far as most cakes go, it’s fairly make-ahead friendly. Since cakes with whipped cream filling always need to be refrigerated, using chiffon cake—which uses oil, not butter—is a strategic choice as the layers will remain soft and tender even straight out of the fridge. (Butter-based cakes, on the other hand, seem hard and leaden after a stint in the cold.) The whipped cream, which is flavored with freeze-dried raspberries and dotted with whole fruit, stays stable for a few days. Be sure to use ungreased regular (not nonstick) cake pans so that the batter can cling to the sides and rise tall as it bakes.

Watch Shilpa make the cake and talk through her decisions here, or at the bottom of this recipe.