Recently my family went raspberry picking for the first time at Millar Berry Farms near London. Although I’ve picked strawberries many times, raspberries were new to me. Living in Toronto, it was a treat to spend a sunny day on a farm with the kids. The raspberry bushes were full and the fruit was easy to pick—just a gentle tug and the berry came away. We filled nine pints quickly and the kids loved how simple it was to harvest them.
The farm had long rows of raspberry bushes. There were plenty of visitors, but each group seemed to find its own spot and space to pick comfortably.
With so many raspberries at home, I wanted to try a few recipes. I love lemon loaf, so I adapted a raspberry and lemon loaf recipe. The resulting loaf is moist and fluffy with a cake-like texture. The lemon adds a bright tang that balances the sweetness of the raspberries. It’s a crowd-pleaser and usually disappears quickly at our house.
Raspberry Lemon Loaf
20 minutes
1 hour
1 hour 20 minutes
1 loaf
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 tsp vanilla
- zest of lemon
- 2 1/4 cups flour
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 pint (2 cups) raspberries
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 1/2 cup icing sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
- In a bowl, beat the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs, sour cream, vanilla and lemon zest, and mix until combined.
- In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
- Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet mixture, mixing just until combined—do not overmix.
- Gently fold in 1 1/2 cups of the raspberries.
- Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.
- Bake for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Allow the loaf to cool on a wire rack.
- Make the icing by whisking the icing sugar with the lemon juice until smooth.
- Drizzle the icing over the cooled loaf and top with the remaining raspberries.
