Italian Lemon Olive Oil Cake Recipe
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The best Italian Lemon Olive Oil Cake of your dreams, dressed with creamy layers of whipped mascarpone cheese, lemon curd, a lemon blueberry sauce and sprinkled with fresh blackberries. A Tiramisu like berry mascarpone cake but without coffee, simply Amazing!
Berry Mascarpone Italian Lemon Olive Oil Cake
I present to you the first official cake recipe on CiaoFlorentina blog and the only cake recipe you need. It now goes by the Florentina Cake and I’m so excited about this one which is big, because yours truly excited about cake just doesn’t happen.
Melt in your mouth layer cake, lemony and berrylicious, soft and rich with a custardy pudding like lemon curd layer.
Fuhgeddaboutit!
This Italian lemon berry mascarpone cake is also the most and greatest cake recipe ever stollen on the internet, and to that all I have to say is: I am flattered little ones!
It’s the perfect cake all year round, from summer garden parties to birthdays to the holiday table like Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter. If you aren’t in the mood for creamy lemony luscious layers and summer berries you can just bake the cake and enjoy with a sprinkling of powdered sugar.
Mascarpone Cake
Lemon Olive Oil Cake Ingredients
- Blueberry sauce – because lemon pairs amazingly with blueberries and blackberries I just had to make a quick stove top blueberry sauce that will ad tons of flavor and extra moisture.
- Mascarpone filling – basically I’m following the same principle for making authentic Tiramisu, whipped mascarpone cheese with sugar and egg yolks in which I fold stiff whipped cream. Out of this world!
- Lemon Curd – this homemade lemon custard is where the cake gets its bright and fresh lemon flavor. No extract, no limoncello, just pure zesty lemon.
- Olive oil – I prefer using a fruity cold pressed extra virgin olive oil for this but for a more neutral flavor use an extra light olive oil. In any case you won’t really be able to tell if the cake was made with butter or oil. You can’t really taste the olive oil itself, just a lovely aroma.
- Blackberries – fresh juicy blackberries are the perfect contrast to the cooked blueberry sauce and make a beautiful garnish as well.
Now close your eyes for a second and imagine taking a bite out of fluffy layers of olive oil cake packed with mascarpone, lemon curd and blueberry sauce. Then sprinkle blackberries all over the place, pretending you are the foodie Picasso or something.
Tell the truth! Can you even handle those luscious creamy layers?!
Make Ahead
Although It might seem like a very self involved recipe at first look, it is really easy actually. There are a few simple steps you can do a day ahead:
- make the lemon curd.
- prepare the blueberry sauce.
- whip the mascarpone filling.
- bake your cake, cool it off then dress it nicely with all the goodies you prepared. EASY!
Garnishes – my lemon thyme was blooming so i just had to use the thyme blossoms for garnish; you can use pretty rosemary and even lavender flowers.
Storage – this cake must be refrigerated, ideally in a cake storage box if you have one. It taste better the second and third day so you can make it in advance.
Cake Variations
- Berries – replace the blueberries + blackberries with fresh strawberries, raspberries or cherries.
- Glaze – cover with this blueberry glaze.
- Figs – use these balsamic figs as a sauce and decorate with fresh figs.
- Chocolate variation – make a chocolate glaze / frosting and sprinkle with coconut.
- Orange – garnish with candied oranges and rosemary blossoms.
- UPDATE 2019: you can now make this cake 100% Vegan, snatch the recipe from the VeggieSociety blog.
Italian Desserts
- Lemon ricotta cookies
- Blueberry ricotta muffins
- Tiramisu
- Cranberry bread
- Lemon blueberry bread
- Italian Wedding Cookies
- Lemon muffins
- Sicilian ricotta cheesecake
- Ricciarelli Almond Cookies
- Rosemary Shortbread Cookies.
Italian Lemon Olive Oil Cake Recipe with Berries + Mascarpone
Ingredients
- 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/3 cup ricotta cheese
- 2 cup all purpose flour
- 5 eggs organic pasture raised
- 1.25 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- Zest from 1 lemon
- A pinch of sea salt
- 1 lb blackberries
- 1/4 cup edible flower blossoms
Blueberry Sauce
- 1/2 lb blueberries
- 1/2 lemon juiced
- 2-3 tbsp wild honey
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Mascarpone Cream
- 4 large egg yolks organic pasture raised
- 4 tbsp granulated sugar
- 3/4 lb mascarpone cheese
- 1.5 cup whipped cream ( Stiff )
- zest from 1 lemon
Lemon curd
- 1/2 cup lemon juice freshly squeezed
- Zest from 1 lemon
- 5 large egg yolks organic pasture raised
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 5 tbsp butter cut into 5 pieces.
Instructions
Make the Blueberry Sauce:
- Start by adding the blueberries with the lemon juice, vanilla and honey to a small sauce pan. Bring to a simmer and cook for a couple of minutes, just until the blueberries burst. Remove from flame and adjust sweetness to your taste with more honey. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Make the Lemon Curd:
- To make the lemon curd, prepare a double boiler with 2 inches of water in the bottom pan. Bring to gentle simmer.
Add the egg yolks, sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice to the top pan. Whisk together over the steam until combined well. Keep whisking for a few minutes until the curd has thickened and coats the back of a spoon. About 5 to 10 minutes or so. Turn off the flame and whisk in the butter until melted. Transfer the curd to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until cooled completely. It should be very thick at this point. - Preheat your oven to 325"F.
- Prepare a 10 inch spring form pan by lightly buttering it with a dab of butter. Place on a baking sheet.
Make the Olive Oil Cake:
- In the bowl of a mixer add the eggs, lemon zest and sugar and using the whisk attachment beat them together until well combined. A few minutes.
- Pour in the olive oil and continue whisking on medium low speed until all incorporated. Add the ricotta cheese and sea salt and whisk till combined.
- Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and slowly mix or fold everything together until incorporated.
- Transfer the cake batter into the buttered spring form pan.
- Bake the olive oil cake in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean.
- Transfer the cake to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.
Make the Mascarpone Cheese Filling:
- Add the egg yolks and sugar to a large mixing bowl. Use a mixer with a whisk attachment to cream the sugars and egg yolks until fluffy and pale in color.
- Add the lemon zest and spoonfuls of the mascarpone cheese until incorporated.
- Using a spatula fold the whipped cream (must be stiff) into the whipped mascarpone cheese until combined. Make sure to not over mix. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use. It should not be runny, it should be thick and creamy.
Assemble the Cake:
- Once cooled off, remove the cake from the spring form pan by releasing the sides first, then remove the bottom.
- Very carefully slice a thin layer off of the top to remove the top crust and expose the inside of the cake.
- Extra carefully slice the cake in half using a serrated knife.
- Place the bottom part on a plate or cake stand.
- Using a small spatula spread the chilled lemon curd on top of the olive oil cake. Spoon half of the mascarpone filling on top, or as much as you feel comfortable working with. If it seems like too much for you, simply save some for later use. Then top it with half of the blueberries from the blueberry sauce and some of the fresh blackberries. Reserve as much of the liquid from the blueberry sauce as possible for the next layer.
- Add the next olive oil cake layer and spoon all the remaining blueberries with the sauce on top. Add the remaining whipped mascarpone (or however much you feel comfortable working with) and with the back of a spoon or spatula rustically spread it over the top. Place the fresh blackberries all over the top, reserving some to decorate the sides of your olive oil cake.
- Garnish your lemon olive oil cake with edible flower blossoms and enjoy chilled.
Notes
- Make sure the whipped cream is Stiff not runny.
- If whipping your own cream, start with 1 cup of organic heavy whipping cream + 1 tbsp sugar. Whip with the whisk attachment until stiff, it should yield just about 2 cups of whipped cream.
Thank you so much for this great recipe. I made this last night to celebrate a friend’s birthday and got rave reviews. I’m not a baker but I loved this recipe because although there were a lot of steps, each step was easy. I prepared everything a day in advance and assembled it just before serving. I was wondering how much in advance you think it could be assembled? It’s not only a beautiful cake but it was so delicious.
So happy you loved it Karen, I’m working on the vegan alternative for this cake and I’m super excited myself. To answer your questions, I wouldn’t assemble it more than a day in advance. Enjoy!
I made this last week for a neighborhood Italian dinner and it was unbelievably delicious and looked amazing too! Definitely recommend if you are looking for a showstopper in both taste and appearance. Thank you for a fabulous recipe!
This cake looks absolutely gorgeous and delicious! I have a quick question though, can I substitute the blackberries for raspberries?
yes you can 🙂
Stumbled on this recipe by chance and made it yesterday. A lot of work but it was incredible! I used King Arthur gluten free flour which worked well. I can’t wait to try more of your recipes!
Hi Kyle–did you have to add anything else aside from the GF flour? I’d like to try this GF and have some King Arthur gf flour.
This cake looks so good. I’ve just finished making the blueberries and lemon curd and will do the cake and mascarpone tomorrow morning for father’s day here I the UK. Definitely the most intricate cake I’ve made and I can’t wait to taste it
Thanks so much for this recipe, Florentina! I made it for Mother’s Day and it was great!
Making this beautiful cake for the second time and found a great way to assemble it and keep it all together. After it cooled I put the bottom slice back i side the same springform pan which was rested on a cake stand. I then put it all together with the fillings, after completion I let it sit in the refridgerator for several hours. When it eas ready to serve I gently pulled the springform pan ring up to reveal the cake. I placed more blackberries between the layer. It held up perfectly and once again…this cake is delicious. Thank you for this recipe!
Is this regular olive oil or light olive oil? I know sometimes using regular extra virgin olive oil can leave a distinctive taste. Making this for my daughter’s birthday. Thanks!
Extra virgin olive oil but If you mind the flavor just use extra light olive oil.
A great tasting cake that was a birthday hit! mine was not as pretty… but it being March in Canada, the fresh berries and flowers are limited. I made the blueberry sauce with the blackberries since they were not very sweet, I also made the mascarpone without the raw egg yolks and it was fine; I diluted the cheese with some un-whipped cream prior to folding in whipped cream. The curd layer is indeed slippery and I did make the mistake of assembling it before travelling to my destination and had to reconfigure it a bit after. Will make it again when berries are actually in season! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
I am SO excited! I made this cake a couple months ago for a dinner party, and I am about to make it again, this time for as a birthday cake for me and a couple friends! YUM, YUM, YUM!! This is one of the best cake recipes ever!
If I make my own 1.5 cup whipped cream with the recipe you provided at the bottom, I would just fold that in to what I have already in my mixing bowl correct? I bought frozen cool whip last time to fold into the mascarpone filling and it didn’t turn out well at all! I assumed stuff meant frozen which obviously wasn’t the case! Lol
Oh yes, just make sure your whipped cream is stiff and chilled 🙂
This cake was fantastic and the recipe is a keeper! That said, I have a few recommendations. First, the cake does rise and I got a good sized mound at the top. I didn’t really want to trim off all that mound, so I only trimmed a little. I inverted the top half of the cake onto a dish with a bit of a well in it, and I used the bottom half of the cake (cut side up) for the top of the cake. This enabled me to have a flat cake, which is really important because assembly is TRICKY!
ASSEMBLY: I am an experienced and confident cake maker, and this cake almost caused me to panic when I followed directions exactly. The whipped cream and berries slid out from the middle layer as soon as I put the top layer on, overflowing beyond my cake plate. It looked a mess. (But it cleaned up OK and still tasted great!) Next time I will put the metal cake ring back on the cake while I assemble the layers and then refrigerate it for at least several hours. Then take the cake out and finalize by placing some blackberries into the edge of the middle layer. BTW, the cake looks and tastes even better on the second day, so don’t worry about assembling it early! Also, lemon curd was so yummy, if I didn’t go the route of using the cake ring for assembly, I’d consider doubling the lemon curd and using only lemon curd and blueberry sauce for the filling and saving the mascarpone for just the top.
THANK YOU, SO HAPPY YOU LOVED IT 🙂
The nutritional information says a serving size is 1g; is that accurate? Is that roughly a sixth or eight of the cake? Thank you!
Hi Amy, that is an error in the recipe plugin The serving size is meant to be 1 slice. I’ll reach out to the developer to correct that. Thank you, Happy Holidays!
Can’t wait to make this cake for Thanksgiving. I have a few questions. Should I assemble this cake day of or is make ahead ok…I want to do whatever makes it taste best.
Also we are traveling about 2 hours, will this cake be a mess by the time I get there?? I can possibly assemble when I get there.
Thanks for your help
The cake tastes great If you assemble it before as all the flavors get to mingle and make magic. However, If you plan to travel and might have a bumpy ride I’d probably wait to assemble it there. I wouldn’t want you having to carry the cake on your lap for 2 hours hahaha. Keep everything chilled and make sure to refrigerate it for about an hour before serving. Enjoy and Happy Holidays!
Hi, when you say a cup of olive oil, do you mean a liquid cup? As in, 8 ounces Or a cup for dry measuring, like we would use to measure the flour????
I use whichever cup I have handy and even measured by pouring the olive oil from the liquid to the dry cup version and it is exactly the same for me.
Hi Florentina!
I have to say that when I saw this gorgeous cake I just HAD to make it for hubby’s birthday this past weekend. I ran into the same problem with the mascarpone fillings someone else did. I did make sure my whipped cream was stiff (in a chilled bowl) after I made it, but my mascarpone was not super thick in the containers I purchased. It was too runny to apply a lot of the cream to the cake. Are there better brands of mascarpone to buy?
Otherwise, the cake turned out beautiful. After being in the refrigerator all night it held together better as well. Next time I make it should I leave it in overnight before serving?
Many thanks!
Liza
Hi Liza, I’m so glad you love the cake and sorry for the mascarpone troubles. The fact that the brand you purchased wasn’t super thick is a concern as mascarpone cheese should be thick like a regular cream cheese. I usually grab some from Trader Joe’s here in California and it is always smooth and thick. If you can’t find a different brand I’d probably still give this cake a go with regular cream cheese. Keep me posted 🙂 ~ Florentina!
This cake is SUBLIME! Gorgeous (well, in the picture, although not mine) and so delicious. We loved it that it is not super sweet. The lemon flavor is just right, and complements the berries so well. The mascarpone filling is decadent. I found elder flowers for the decoration, very delicate and pretty, but mine did not look like the picture. 🙁 I am an experienced baker, and I was very careful to make sure the lemon curd and mascarpone were stiff, but against my better judgement I tried to use too much of the fillings, and the mascarpone especially sagged badly – cake wreck! I still had lots of filling (all 3) left over. All delicious, so not a problem, but I would recommend that you do not try to use more than half of each. I will make this cake again for a special occasion. It is definitely a celebration cake.
I just made this cake last night for a coworker’s birthday today, and it was a huge hit! So beautiful! There are a few components, but all of them come together quickly and easily. The cake itself is PERFECT! I will definitely make this cake again!
Woohoo! This makes me so happy to hear Kate! Thank you for taking the time to come back with your report, have a great rest of the week! ~ Florentina Xo’s
I searched high and low for mascarpone in my town with no luck. Any suggestions for a substitution? I was thinking a lemon whipped cream?
Use a regular cream cheese instead, the whipped cream alone won’t hold things together.
Totally going out on a limb here. I’m making this recipe in cupcake form for a dessert bar at my granddaughters graduation. Her request! I think if I top the cupcake with the lemon curd and pipe a decorative dam with marscopone whipped cream then add the blueberry sauce in the center topping off with 1 blackberry, blueberries an a slice of candied lemon peel on top… any suggestions? I’ll try to get back to you with the results.. I’m excited to do this! Thank you for this beautiful recipe!
Hi Linda, that sounds really interesting and exciting! I would totally go for it! Just make sure you chill the mascarpone filling well before adding it to the cupcakes and that your whipped cream is beaten stiff before mixing it in with the mascarpone.
How did it go?! I’m dying to try in cupcake form too!
Is it alright if I use two 9” pans instead of the spring form pan?
It should be fine Hailey, just adjust for the cooking time. You’ll need to keep an eye on it and test it sooner, not sure exactly how long it would take since I haven’t made it that way.
Don’t I have to worry about the egg yolks? They will be raw in the cheese mixture right?
If you are worried about the raw egg yolks just leave them out. I’ve been doing this all my life but only use organic free range eggs.
Hello! I’m looking forward to making this cake but wanted to know where you got your thyme blossoms? I’m not sure where to find edible flowers but I love the way they look. Thanks!
Hi Dee! I grow my own herbs so I use whatever blossoms are available at that time. I would try your local farmers market or just start growing some herb son your window sill 🙂
This has now become my favorite cake of all time! I made it last week as a tasting option for my italian clients and they loved it. I will now make it again for my mother for mother’s day.
Followed to a T and the recipe and cake turned out just like yours.
thanks again!
Thanks Carmen, you made my day! So happy everyone loved the cake ~Florentina Xo’s
WOW!!! What a beautiful cake- it was the highlight of my dinner party. Thanks for such a wonderful recipe, it’s definitely in my top cakes of all time, wouldn’t change a thing.
I’m sooooo excited about this! Thanks for reporting back Xo’s ~ Florentina