I am all for cooking with the freshest produce of the season, but sometimes you just crave an ingredient that is way out of season! Take this week for example; I had a hankering for this sun-filled lemon and vanilla-scented cake with a decadent raspberry frosting.

A great way to get around buying overpriced berries this time of year for a dessert like this one, is to add crushed, freeze-dried berries to a simple frosting for that burst of (out-of-season) berry flavor! The cake itself is super moist, thanks to the addition of homemade buttermilk to the batter, and oh-so-flavorful thanks to lemon zest and vanilla paste. (And feel free to swap in freeze-dried blueberries or even strawberries here, depending on what fruit catches your fancy.) Happy Baking!

Tagged: berries, cake, cream cheese frosting, dessert, freeze-dried fruit, lemon, lemon cake, lemon dessert, Martha Stewart, MarthaStewart.com, raspberry-cream cheese frosting