This is one delicious cake. The Lemon Olive Oil Cake with Balsamic Raspberries is a winning combination. Add a dollop of homemade whipped cream to bring the whole dish together. YUM!
This isn’t a sweet dessert. It has a lot of flavor combos happening and the richness of the lemon olive oil and balsamic vinegar make it most, delicious and different. The lemon juice and olive oil in this recipe are perfect together and when the zest is added, you get that sweet and delicious lemon flavor throughout the whole cake.
For the whipped cream, I use a high quality pure Tahitian Vanilla extract and just a little sugar. I can whip it up a couple of hours before serving and keep it in the fridge. If you want to make a vegan lemon olive oil cake, just omit the whipped cream and substitute an almond, oat or soy milk.
The berries get a surprise treatment with the balsamic vinegar. The raspberries just sing after sitting in the vinegar and sugar mixture. The real surprise comes with the addition of the pepper. Unexpected, right? I had seen it on a few recipes and thought I’d give it a try. The pepper does to this dish what salt does to sweet dishes… just gives it a little something extra that no one is expecting. Try it.
For the cake itself, I’m sure you’ve all tried olive oil cake at one time or another. If not, you are in for a treat. The cake is so moist and rich. My use of the lemon and olive oil just ups the lemon flavor and works beautifully with the zest in the recipe.
You can get both the balsamic vinegar and lemon olive oil at Patricia and Pauls.
HOW TO MAKE LEMON OLIVE OIL CAKE WITH BALSAMIC RASPBERRIES
To get started, let’s make the balsamic raspberries. In a large bowl, add the raspberries, sugar and vinegar and gently stir to combine. Let the berries macerate for at leas and hour at room temperature. Add that pepper I talked about, right before serving. Be sure to mix it into the berries.
Then, let’s make the whipped cream. Pour the heavy cream, sugar and vanilla into a chilled bowl. I like to chill my bowl and the beaters from a hand mixer in the freezer for 10 minutes. When they are ice cold, it helps whip up the cream faster. Using your hand mixer, beat the cream until light and fluffy. I like soft to stiff peaks (your choice). Taste and adjust sugar if needed. You can pop this in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve the dessert.
Time to make the cake. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Add about a teaspoon of the lemon olive oil to a round 9-inch cake pan. Brush the entire inside of the pan (bottom and sides) with the oil. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper and brush that with the oil too. This will make removing the cake from the pan so much easier. Put the prepared cake pan to the side.
In a large bowl, whisk the two cups of flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda until combined.
In a stand mixer bowl, bet the 1 1/2 cups of sugar, eggs and lemon zest until light and fluffy. This will take about five minutes. With the mixer still on, drizzle in the lemon olive oil until it is completely incorporated into the mix.
Reduce the mixer to low and add the milk and lemon juice. Slowly start adding the flour mixture letting it completely mix into the batter. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl periodically with a spatula to make sure everything is incorporated.
Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and shake gently to smooth out the top. Sprinkle with the remaining two tablespoons of sugar. Bake the cake for 40-45 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Let it sit on a rack for 20 minutes to cool. Run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the cake , then carefully invert it onto a plate and then invert it again onto a second plate or cake stand so the top is facing up. Let it cool completely.
Dust the cooled cake with confectioner’s sugar. Now, simply slice and serve with the balsamic raspberries and some of the homemade whipped cream. TIP: I keep my confectioner’s sugar in a powdered sugar shaker right in my spice cabinet. This makes finishing my desserts a breeze so I don’t need to whip out the sifter and make a mess.
Lemon Olive Oil Cake with Balsamic Raspberries…it doesn’t get any better! If you liked this dessert, be sure to leave a comment below. Then, try some of my other favorite desserts using flavored olive oils and balsamic vinegar.
Balsamic Pear and Macadamia Bites
Blood Orange Olive Oil on Ice Cream
Lemon Olive Oil Cake with Balsamic Raspberries
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 2 Cups of flour, all-purpose
- 1+ Cup Patricia and Paul’s Lemon Olive Oil
- 1 Tsp. Kosher Salt
- 1 Tsp. Baking powder
- 1/4 Tsp. Baking soda
- 1 1/2 Cups plus 2 tablespoons Sugar, granulated
- 3 Large Eggs, room temperature
- 1 Lemon, juice and zest
- 1 1/4 Cups Milk, whole at room temperature
Balsamic Raspberries
- 16 Oz. Fresh Raspberries
- 2 Tbsp. Patricia and Paul’s Raspberry Balsamic Vinegar
- 1/4 Cup Sugar, granulated
- Pinch of freshly ground black pepper
Homemade Whipped Cream
- 1 Cup heavy cream
- 2 Tbsp. + Confectioner’s sugar plus more to garnish
- 1/2 Tsp. Pure Vanilla extract
Instructions
- Make the balsamic raspberries. In a large bowl, add the raspberries and top with the sugar and the vinegar and gently stir to coat. Let the berries macerate for at least an hour and up to 4 hours at room temperature. Right before serving, add the pepper and stir into the mix.
- Make the whipped cream. Pour the heavy cream, sugar and vanilla into a chilled bowl. Using a hand mixer, beat the cream until light and fluffy and soft to stiff peaks form. Taste and adjust sugar level to your liking. Hold in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
- Make your cake. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Add about a teaspoon of the lemon olive oil to a 9 inch round cake pan and brush the entire inside of the pan with the lemon olive oil. Line just the bottom of the pan with parchment paper and brush that with the lemon olive oil too. Put your prepared cake pan to the side.
- In a large bowl, whisk together two cups of flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda until combined.
- In a stand mixer bowl, beat the 1 1/2 cups sugar, eggs and lemon zest until light and fluffy. (Five minutes).
- With the mixer still on, start to drizzle in the lemon olive oil until it is all incorporated into the mix. This should take about 1 1/2 – 2 minutes.
- Reduce the mixer too low and add the milk and lemon juice. Once incorporated, begin adding the flour mixture slowly so it all has a chance to incorporate. Stop the mixer once or twice and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula to fully incorporate the flour into the mix. Helpful hint on lemons: often store bought lemons are hard and don’t give off a lot of juice. When possible, buy from a farmer’s market or fruit stand for fresh, juicy lemons. If you do have a store bought lemon that is hard, you want to give it a little help to get the juices flowing. Rub the whole lemon on the kitchen counter top pressing on the lemon. Then, pop it in the microwave for about 15 seconds. This will get all the juices flowing and will double the amount of juice you get.
- Pour into the prepared cake pan and shake gently to smooth out the top. Sprinkle with the remaining two tablespoons of sugar.
- Bake the cake for 40-45 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let sit on a rack for 20 minutes to cool.
- Run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the cake then carefully, invert it onto a plate and then again so the top is on top. Let it cool completely.
- Dust with confectioner’s sugar. Slice and serve with the homemade whipped cream and balsamic raspberries. Helpful hint: I keep one of those powdered sugar shakers filled with confectioner’s sugar in my spice cabinet ready to go at a minutes notice. Since I like to finish a lot of my desserts and brunch items with it, it has become this super handy way to get it done fast. I used to pull out a small handheld sifter and scoop the sugar into in and then dust over my baked goods. That gets old fast and I would often skip the step. Having that little tin ready to go makes my desserts look so much better. I also have a second one with cinnamon.
