Raspberry Cheesecake Cake

Preheat oven to 325°F. Spray a 9-inch springform pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Place cream cheese in a large bowl and blend with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Add sugar and salt and blend 2 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add eggs and mix until blended. Add sour cream, heavy cream, jam, vanilla and food color (if using). Sprinkle in flour and mix until blended. Gently stir in halved raspberries. Scrape batter into prepared pan.

Bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until the cheesecake is set to the touch and not terribly jiggly. Remove cheesecake from oven and let it cool on a wire rack for about an hour. Once cooled, wrap pan with plastic wrap, place pan into freezer and let cheesecake freeze completely. This can be done several hours ahead (or overnight).

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray two 9-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray with flour, line bottoms of pans with rounds of parchment paper, then spray again to coat.

In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, egg whites and vanilla. Set aside. In a separate large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. With an electric mixer on low speed, beat in butter until mixture is crumby. Add half of milk mixture to flour mixture and beat at medium speed until incorporated. Add remaining milk mixture and continue to beat for 1 1/2 minutes or until everything is well-combined and smooth (scraping the sides of the bowl, as needed).

Divide batter evenly between prepared cake pans. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until tops are completely set and a toothpick inserted into center of cakes comes out clean. Let cakes cool in pans on a wire rack at least 20 minutes, then run a knife along the sides and invert onto cooling rack to cool completely (don't forget to remove parchment paper). Once cooled, wrap each cake in plastic wrap until ready to assemble cake.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla until it is smooth and creamy (do not overbeat).

Place one cake layer on center of a cake plate or platter. Spread a small amount of frosting onto cake. Remove cheesecake from freezer. Run a knife along the edge of pan, remove sides of pan, and slide a knife under the cheesecake to release it from bottom of pan.

Measure cheesecake layer against cake layers. If cheesecake layer turns out to be a slightly larger around than cake layers, move it to a cutting board and gently shave off some of the exterior of cheesecake to get it to the same size as cake layers. Place cheesecake layer on top of first cake layer. Spread a small amount of frosting onto cheesecake. Place remaining cake layer on top of cheesecake.

Use a long, thin spatula to cover cake completely with a thin and even layer of frosting. Be sure to wipe off your spatula each time you are about to dip it back into the bowl to get more frosting (this way you won't be transferring any crumbs into the bowl of frosting). Once cake has a thin layer of frosting all over it, place into refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to "set" frosting. (Don't worry at this point about the crumbs being visible in the frosting on the cake.)

Once the first layer of frosting is set, apply second layer. Start by adding a large scoop of frosting onto top of cake. Use a long, thin spatula to spread the frosting evenly across top and then spread it down the sides of cake too (because you applied a crumb-coat layer, you shouldn't have any crumbs floating around in the final frosting layer). Decorate, as desired with fresh raspberries. Keep refrigerated.

Tips:

• On cake flour: Yes, you need to use cake flour. If you don't wish to buy it though, you can easily make your own: Measure out your 2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour, remove 4 tablespoons, and then add in 4 tablespoons of corn starch. Whisk together your flour and cornstarch, and then sift. A lot. You now have cake flour!
• On clear vanilla extract: You don't have to use clear, but if you're shooting for really white cake, it helps. You can buy it cheap online: Clear Vanilla Extract.

• On getting flat cake layers: I recommend Bake Even Strips (you can order on Amazon). They are cheap, and they work perfectly for creating flat, even cake layers.
• On high altitude baking of the cake layers: (above 5,000 feet- I'm at 5850), I reduced sugar by 1/4 cup, reduced baking powder by 1/2 teaspoon, and added an additional tablespoon of milk.