Lemon-Raspberry Cake

This is the ultimate in lemon cakes!  Summer berries season has started in the UK and raspberries pair wonderfully with lemon.  Olive oil gives this cake the springiness, moistness and guilt-free pleasure that only olive oil can.   

INGREDIENTS

For the cake sponge

1 and 1/4 cup caster sugar

2/3 of a cup Opus Oléa LEMON extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup soured cream

1/2 cup whole milk

4 eggs

2 and 1/2 cup all-purpose flour + 1 tbsp for the raspberries

1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

pinch of unprocessed sea salt

juice of half a fresh lemon

lemon zest from half a fresh lemon

1 cup fresh raspberries + more to decorate the cake

2 tbsp raspberry jam

For the frosting

White frosting of your choice or make your own with the following:

4 cups icing sugar

200g butter (softened, room temperature)

200 g cream cheese

1/2 tsp lemon zest

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

METHOD

Pre-heat your oven to 180°C.

Line the bottom of two round 8-inch cake pans with baking paper and lightly oil all around the inside of the pans with a pastry brush.

In a large bowl whisk your sugar and lemon zest with your lemon olive oil and the other wet ingredients (soured cream, milk, lemon juice) until well combined. 

TIP*: rub the lemon zest into the sugar with your fingertips before mixing the sugar with anything else.  This achieves two favourable results: a) the lemon zest sticks to sugar granules instead of all sticking together into a clump in one place in your bowl and b) the sugar draws out the aromas and citrusy oils from the lemon zest magnifying the zesty lemony flavour. 

Add your eggs, one at a time and whisk until well integrated and you end up with a creamy, fluffy liquid. 

In a separate bowl, mix your dry ingredients of flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and stir through with a whisk so they are well distributed.

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix in with a spatula lightly by hand.  Do not overmix. 

Evenly distribute the resulting mixture between your 2 cake pans.  

Lightly dust the fresh raspberries in 1 tbsp of flour and distribute them equally between the two cake pans. 

Place in the centre of your pre-heated oven and bake about 40 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean.

While your cake sponge is in the oven whip up the frosting by whisking the frosting ingredients together until they become a thickish homogeneous mass.

When the cake sponge is ready, remove from the oven and let cool.  Once cooled, run a knife around the edges of the pans and carefully remove the cake sponges from them.  Place one of the cake sponges on a cake plate and spread its top with the raspberry jam.  Place the second cake sponge on top of the first one. 

Use a pallet knife to evenly spread the frosting over the cake.  Decorate with the remaining fresh raspberries.

And voilá you have an amazing cake for the superstars in your life.