Please note: This post was sponsored by Filippo Berio. All opinions are our own.
Citrus season is probably one of our favorite seasons with all the bright and vibrant fruits and incredible flavors. Meyer lemons are at the top of our list during this time of year and we love baking and cooking with these beautiful lemons! To bring out all the flavors of Spring, we created this tasty Meyer Lemon Olive Oil Cake with Bavarian Cream & Raspberry Agrodolce that is perfectly light to complement a weekend brunch, afternoon tea or cocktail hour, or a refreshing dessert!
What are Meyer Lemons?
Meyer lemons are a hybrid of lemons and mandarins. They typically have a slightly deeper yellow rind with some orange hues. The taste of Meyer lemon juice can be a bit sweeter and not as tart as typical lemon varieties. In the US, Meyer lemons are available between December to March, so grab them while you can!
Because of their beautiful color and unique flavor, Meyer lemons are perfect for baking in a variety of treats as well as savory dishes. We love adding Meyer lemon to seafood dishes, pasta sauces, as part of a marinade or salad dressing and more!
If you can’t find Meyer lemons, you can substitute regular lemons for this recipe.
What is an Olive Oil Cake?
An olive oil cake is just like it sounds – a cake that uses olive oil in place of other oils, and often in place of butter altogether.
Why should you bake cakes with olive oil?
Olive oil, especially extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), is widely considered one of the healthiest oils and is encouraged as a replacement for other oils and fats in cooking and baking. Using extra virgin olive oil in cakes instead of butter may also result in a soft texture that will stay moist for longer.
Additionally, the distinct olive oil flavor will add another level of complexity to your cakes without overpowering the other flavors. And don’t worry, your cake will not taste like olives!
How to make Meyer Lemon Olive Oil Cake?
If you are familiar with baking cakes at all, this cake will seem like a walk in the park! We make this using our stand mixer, but an electric hand mixer is just as easy for this recipe.
The most important ingredient in this cake is good extra virgin olive oil. We use Filippo Berio’s Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil which can be found at most grocery stores or find it HERE. We like this particular olive oil because it has an intensely fruity flavor profile and notes of herbs which complements the Meyer Lemon in this cake.
The cake has sugar glazed Meyer Lemon slices baked in the bottom of the cake pan. The result is a gorgeous presentation once the cake is turned out of the pan. This type of upside-down cake is easy to make and is always a crowd pleaser.
Sugar Glazed Meyer Lemon Layer
To make the sugar glazed Meyer lemon layer, at a minimum all you need is granulated sugar and water. To make our version more interesting, we used the raspberry flavored liqueur Chambord. If you do not want to include this ingredient, simply replace it with water, no harm no foul. Although, we feel that this really adds a special touch to the lemon layer and highly recommend using it.
You are basically making a simple syrup here then pouring it over the thin lemon slices lining the bottom of the cake pans. This allows the lemon slices to caramelize and become candied slices. Make sure you slice the lemons as thin as possible to prevent extra chewy or bitter pieces.
Thoroughly grease your pans with olive oil before adding the lemon slices and syrup. This will prevent sticking. We like to use two 6-inch round cake pans to make two smaller layer cakes. One large 9-inch round cake pan will work for this recipe as well if you are planning to serve more people.
Once your pan is coated, you can add your lemon slices to the bottom. Overlap the lemon slices because they will spread out as the cake bakes, but feel free to get creative with your pattern, then pour the syrup right over the top of the lemons before adding your batter to the pan.
The cake bakes at 325°F for about 45-60 minutes, but use a toothpick inserted into the middle to check for doneness. The toothpick should come out clean and dry if the cake is done. Add 5 minutes onto your time if the cake is not quite done and check again.
Raspberry Agrodolce
Agrodolce is a fancy Italian word literally translating to “sour sweet.” So, you can probably deduce from this that this sauce is a raspberry sweet and sour sauce! The sauce is made by caramelizing sugar and deglazing it with an acid (e.g., lemon juice, vinegar, etc.). This can then be used as the base of a variety of sauces or vinaigrette.
For this particular sauce, we used the agrodolce base consisting of the caramelized sugar deglazed with Filippo Berio’s White Wine Vinegar, then added raspberries briefly cooked with some water and sugar. The berries were strained into the sugar and vinegar base, which created a nice tasty raspberry sauce that paired perfectly with the cake! We drizzle the raspberry agrodolce between the layers of the cake and on top for serving.
Bavarian Cream
For the cake filling, we opted for Bavarian Cream to give the cake a delicious creamy layer between the bright citrusy olive oil cake layers. You can enjoy this cake alone as well.
Bavarian Cream is made by making a custard of milk, cream, sugar, and eggs. Then gelatin is added and folded into sweetened whipped cream.
Once chilled and set, this results in a luscious, yet light cream filling. You can also top the cake with the Bavarian Cream for serving. Or eat it as a separate dessert with fresh berries and the agrodolce drizzle.
Assembling the Cake
To assemble this cake, turn the baked and slightly cooled cake out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Once cool, slice the cake horizontally to create two layers. You can do this with a sharp serrated knife, but for ease, we recommend purchasing one of these cake slicer tools. This creates completely even layers. This will also allow you to even off the top or bottom of any cake if it domes during baking.
Once you have your slices, add some of the raspberry agrodolce to the bottom layer almost to the edges. Then add a layer of Bavarian cream, followed by the top layer of the cake with the lemons. At this point, we recommend placing the cake in the fridge for about 30 minutes to an hour so that the center cream layer doesn’t squish down when you cut it.
To serve, drizzle the agrodolce on top, slice and serve.
Enjoy!
We hope you enjoy this recipe for Meyer Lemon Olive Oil Cake with Bavarian Cream and Raspberry Agrodolce drizzle! This is the perfect Spring and Summer cake to delight any crowd!
If you give this recipe a try, leave us a comment below, or tag us on Instagram @cooking_with_wine!
If you love this recipe, check out some of our other popular recipes below:
- White Chocolate Raspberry Bundt Cake
- Meyer Lemon Elderflower Cake
- Blood Orange Elderflower Rosé Granita
- Spinach and Sun Dried Tomato Pesto Stuffed Pork Tenderloin
- Crunchy Chicken with White Wine Lemon Butter Sauce
Meyer Lemon Olive Oil Cake with Bavarian Cream & Raspberry Agrodolce
Course: DessertDifficulty: Medium8
servings1
hour1
hour2
hoursTo bring out all the flavors of Spring, we created this tasty Meyer Lemon Olive Oil cake that is perfectly light to complement a weekend brunch, afternoon tea or cocktail hour, or a refreshing dessert! This makes two 6 inch smaller layer cakes or one larger 9 inch round layer cake.
Ingredients
- For the Raspberry Agrodolce
2 pints 2 fresh raspberries
1 tbsp 1 sugar
1 tbsp 1 water
additional sugar
1/2 cup 1/2 Filippo Berio White Wine Vinegar
- Meyer Lemon Olive Oil Cake
1 tsp 1 Meyer Lemon zest (***see note)
1 tbsp 1 Meyer lemon juice (***see note)
1/4 cup 1/4 whole milk
3 3 Meyer Lemons thinly sliced (***see note)
2 cups 2 all-purpose flour
1 tsp 1 baking powder
1/4 tsp 1/4 baking soda
1/4 tsp 1/4 salt
1 1/4 cups 1 1/4 sugar
2 2 large eggs
2 2 large egg yolks
1 tsp 1 almond extract
- Sugar Syrup Glaze
1/3 cup 1/3 sugar
3 tbsp 3 Chamboard (Raspberry Liqueur ****see note)
1 tbsp 1 water
- Bavarian Cream Filling
7 oz 7 Whole milk
7 oz 7 Heavy Cream
8 oz 8 sugar – divided in half
1 tsp 1 vanilla extract (or 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped)
4 4 egg yolks
.25 oz .25 gelatin (1 packet or 7 grams)
1 pint 1 heavy cream
2 tbs 2 sugar
Directions
- Make the Agrodolce (*see note)
- Wash the raspberries and add to a saucepan with 1 tbsp sugar and water. Cook on medium low heat for about 10 minutes. Using a tool to mash the fruit, crush the raspberries into a pulp. Cook an additional 5 minutes or so and strain through a fine mesh into a bowl. The goal is to remove the small raspberry seeds that won’t be useful in the final sauce.
- Complete the sauce by heating the 1/4 cup additional sugar over medium heat in a shallow pan, skillet or saucepan. Move the sugar around to melt and caramelize by moving the pan, don’t stir the sugar. If there is still solid sugar and some of the melted sugar is browning, just lower the heat.
- Once all of the sugar is melted and the color is a light amber, turn the heat to low and pour in the vinegar and stir with a spoon (wooden preferred). This will take some time as the sugar will seize up and become like a candy, but continue to stir and it will melt as the vinegar evaporates and mellows with the sugar. Continue to stir, and stir, and stir.
- Once the mixture is combined and cohesive, you can add the raspberry mixture – add half and continue to add while tasting until you get to the raspberry taste you desire. Save the remaining raspberry syrup for cocktails, desserts, or to drizzle over pancakes, waffles, or yogurt for breakfast.
- Meyer Lemon Olive Oil Cake
- Preheat oven to 325°F and grease one 9-inch round cake pan or two 6-inch round cake pans
- Add sugar, Chambord and water to a saucepan and heat on low until sugar is completely dissolved (approximately 5-7 minutes).
- Zest your Meyer lemon and set zest aside, then juice the zested lemon and measure out 1 tbsp and add to your milk and set aside. Thinly slice the remaining Meyer Lemons and place slices in the bottom of your cake pan, overlapping slightly. The lemon slices will spread as the cake bakes. Pour the sugar syrup over lemon slices in cake pan.
- In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a bowl of a stand mixer add sugar, eggs, egg yolks, and lemon zest and mix until thoroughly combined. Slowly pour in olive oil and continue to mix until combined, then pour in your milk and lemon juice mixture and almond extract. Add dry ingredients and mix on medium for about 2 minutes until mixture appears smooth and slightly thickened.
- Pour cake batter into cake pan over lemon slices, then bake on the center rack for 45-60 minutes or until a toothpick poked into the center comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool briefly (about 5 minutes), then turn out upside down onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- Make the Bavarian Cream (**see note)
- Stirring often, combine the milk, cream and half of the sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil, then immediately turn the heat to low.
- Whisk the yolks, vanilla and the other half of the sugar in a separate bowl until the yolks form ribbons, sugar is dissolved and the color is light yellow. Add about a quarter cup at a time of the hot milk to the egg mixture while whisking to temper the eggs until you have added half of the milk mixture. Pour the tempered egg mixture back into the saucepan and stir constantly until the mixture reaches 185ºF.
- Strain through a fine mesh strainer into a clean bowl and add the gelatin and stir. Once incorporated, put the bowl in an ice bath to cool to 70ºF while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
- Add the cream and additional sugar to a bowl and whip to soft peaks. When the custard base has cooled to 70ºF, fold this into the custard.
- Cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge for about an hour or until cake is cooled and ready to fill.
- Assemble the Cake
- To assemble this cake, turn the baked and slightly cooled cake out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Once cool, slice the cake horizontally to create two layers.
- Once you have your slices, add some of the raspberry agrodolce to the bottom layer almost to the edges. Then add a layer of Bavarian cream, followed by the top layer of the cake with the lemons. At this point, we recommend placing the cake in the fridge for about 30 minutes to an hour so that the center cream layer doesn’t squish down when you cut it.
- To serve, drizzle the agrodolce on top, slice and serve.
Notes
- *The agrodolce can be made ahead of time and kept in the fridge, or it can be made while the cake bakes. We drizzle it over a variety of desserts and even use it as a sauce for savory meals.
- **The Bavarian cream can also be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge in an airtight container for 1-3 days before using in the cake.
- ***Regular lemons can be subbed in this recipe if Meyer Lemons are not available in your area.
- ****Raspberry liqueur is not necessary, but recommend. You can sub this for a different flavored liqueur or water if you do not want to use alcohol.
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