Today’s recipe was inspired by a sherbet cake in Essentially Lily: A Guide to Colorful Holidays. Mine’s not quite the same because I just flipped through the book in the library then came home and made it as I remembered, but it’s pretty close.
Sherbet Cake or Pie?
It’s made in a 9 inch springform pan and has a vanilla wafer & pecan crust, two layers of sherbet and a topping of whipped cream and raspberry sauce. For me, the most helpful tool turned out to be the food processor, which I used for the crumbs, whipped cream and raspberry sauce. The raspberry sauce was excellent and worth making even if you don’t want to bother with the sherbet cake. I actually halved the recipe so I wouldn’t have to use as many berries.
Vanilla Wafer Crust
Another way to save some money on this is to make your own vanilla wafers. A half batch of Alton Brown’s recipe will give you more than enough for the crust, plus some leftover for eating.
And finally, for those of you who like the idea but don’t have a lot of people around to enjoy the final product, try halving the recipe and using a 6 inch round cake pan. Just line the inside of the pan with nonstick foil, build the sherbet cake as directed, then lift from pan and remove foil before serving and decorating.
Recipe
Sherbet Cake
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup 80 grams vanilla wafer crumbs
- 1/3 cup 40 grams chopped pecans
- 2 tablespoons 25 grams sugar
- 2 tablespoons 28 grams melted butter
Filling
- 1 quart lemon or lime sherbet
Raspberry Sauce:
- 2 cups fresh raspberries
- 3-4 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1-3 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 quart raspberry sherbet or sorbet
Topping:
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter a 9 inch round springform pan.
- Process crumbs, pecans and sugar until blended, then add butter and pulse to mix. Empty crumbs into pan and press tightly. Bake for about 10 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack.
- Soften the sherbet a bit, then place it in a bowl and mash it around to soften even more. Spread evenly over cooled crust, cover with a layer of plastic wrap and freeze until firm. Repeat with the raspberry sherbet (or sorbet), softening and then spreading over the lime sherbet.
- Cover with plastic wrap and freeze until firm.
- Make the raspberry sauce. Puree raspberries, 2 tablespoons of the sugar and fresh lemon juice in a food processor. Taste. Add remaining sugar and lemon juice as needed, and blend again to dissolve sugar. Strain through fine wire sieve into a bowl. Cover and refrigerate until chilled.
- When ready to serve, whip heavy cream, confectioners’ sugar and vanilla in medium bowl with an electric mixer or in the food processor.
- Before serving, loosen the cake from the pan and remove sides. With a knife dipped in warm water, cut into triangles. Garnish individual slices with whipped cream and raspberry sauce.
- Alternatively, you can garnish the cake before cutting it. I like to do one slice at a time so that I can keep the ungarnished cake tightly wrapped and frozen.
Sue
This sounds very refreshing. The red and green makes me think of Christmas.
T. Martin
The contrast of colors is so appealing…I keep coming back to look at the picture. I’m think this would be great with a shortbread crust.
Gloria
That is a fantastic and refreshing looking dessert with those colors!
Sonya
This looks so cool! I just made a raspberry sauce and served it over cheesecake, so I was curious to see yours. Ina Garten’s uses raspberry jam, fresh raspberries, sugar, and Chambord. It’s also delicious. I also wanted to vouch for Alton Brown’s Vanilla Wafers; I love that recipe. They taste so much more fresh than the Nabisco ones, though admittedly I can’t really taste the difference once they’re layered into Banana Parfaits. This sherbet cake looks delicious! I love the crust idea; I want to try that with my orange-vanilla sherbet dessert (just orange sherbet layered with vanilla ice cream).
By the way, I didn’t see a comments field under your last post for Self-Rising Flour Butter Pecan Cookies or anyone else’s comments (maybe it’s just on my end)…after 10 minutes, I can read the post, but the page still has a moving circle to indicate that it’s still loading and says “waitingforgoogleleads.g.doubleclick.net” at the bottom of my Firefox page, if that’s useful 🙂