Olive Oil Cake with fresh mandarin zest and vanilla bean seeds is covered in a sweet and delicious raspberry buttercream.

We love making rich and delicious cakes, like our popular Chocolate Flourless Cake,  Oreo Chocolate Cake and Baileys Chocolate Cake.

Olive Oil Cake

This Olive Oil Cake is covered in a sweet raspberry buttercream. First it’s absolutely delicious, its soft and moist with a tender crumb. Also, its fragrant, sweet and fresh, because the citrus flavor works so nice with the sweet raspberry cream. May I add that this Mandarin Olive Oil Cake is also very easy to make. The cake is very tender, but I added a little cornmeal, so every tender bite packs a little crunch.

Topped with chocolate ganache and fresh summer fruits, this cake won’t last long in your kitchen. This Olive Oil Cake is actually loaded with freshly grated mandarin zest and mandarin juice for an extra boost to that beautiful citrus flavor. Vanilla bean seeds are added to create a dimension of flavors.

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Why You’ll Love this Olive Oil Cake

• Firstly, it is rich and creamy and are a show stopper dessert.
• Easy to find ingredients and minimum prep work and dishes to clean.
• Also, it’s perfect for brunch parties and for bigger crowds.
• In addition, it is easy to transport if you have to take them to a brunch party.
• Perfect for special occasions like Valentine’s Day.
• Can be made 1 or 2 days in advance so you don’t have to worry about a last minute dessert.

How to make mandarin zest

Follow the easy steps below:

• First, rinse the mandarin.
• Then, set your tool over a cutting board. A microplane produces a very fine zest, perfect for baking and cooking. If you don’t have a microplane, use the smallest holes on an ordinary grater.
• Next, grate the yellow skin of the mandarin only. Grate just enough to get through the yellow skin, this way you can avoid the bitter white pith underneath.
• Rotate the mandarin and repeat. Once the white pith is exposed, rotate the mandarin and zest the next strip of peel. Repeat until most of the peel is removed, or until you have enough zest for your recipe.

HOW TO FREEZE CAKE LAYERS

You can make the cake layers in advance and freeze them, thaw them when you are ready to decorate the cake. To freeze the unfrosted cake layers, follow these steps:

• Bake the cake layer and cool each layer on a wire rack. Make sure the cake layers are fully cooled before freezing.
• Wrap each cake layer in plastic wrap, preferably freezer wrap. After that wrap tightly in aluminum foil and place in a freezer zip lock bag (if it fits).
• Write the date and cake type on the zip lock bag.
• Lay the cake layers flat in the freezer.
• Cakes can be frozen for up to 3 months.

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Olive Oil Cake

Olive Oil Cake with fresh mandarin zest and vanilla bean seeds is covered in a sweet and delicious raspberry buttercream.

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Author: Catalina Castravet Serves: 12 servings
Prep time: 50 minutes Cook time: 35 minutes Total time: 1 hr 25 mins

Ingredients

Cake:

• 3 cups all Purpose Flour 
• 1/2 cup corn meal 
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 
• 1 tablespoon baking powder 
• 6  large eggs 
• 2 cups granulated sugar 
• 1 1/4 cups extra virgin mandarin olive oil 
• 5  mandarins 
• 3/4 cups fresh mandarin juice  (from the mandarins or store bough)
• 2 tablespoons mandarin zest 
• 3  vanilla beans  (seeds only)
•  Orange gel food color  (optional)

Raspberry Buttercream:

• 1/2 cup fresh raspberries 
• 1 cup butter 
• 8 ounces cream cheese 
• 6 to 8 cups powdered sugar 
• 3  vanilla beans  (seeds only)

Ganache:

• 1 cup whipping cream 
• 12 ounces yellow candy melts 

Garnish:

•  cherries and berries 

Instructions

Cake Layers:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Prepare three 8-inch round cake pans by spraying them with baking oil and adding parchment paper to the bottom, and another coating of baking spray.
3. Combine flour, corn meal, salt and baking powder in a small bowl, whisk and set aside.
4. Whisk eggs and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer until lighten in color, add the mandarin zest and vanilla bean seeds.
5. Whisk in the mandarin olive oil.
6. Add half of the dry ingredients, followed by the mandarin juice and the rest of the dry ingredients and a few drops of orange gel food coloring. Using a spatula scrape the sides of the bowl and whisk on low.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
8. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, invert the pans onto a cooling rack and cool to room temperature.

Raspberry Buttercream:

1. Puree the raspberries in a food process or blender, if you don’t want seeds in the frosting, press the puree through a strainer held over a bowl. You may get approximatively 3 to 4 tablespoons of seed free raspberry puree. You can also leave the seeds in and just use 3 - 4 tablespoons of the puree.
2. Add butter and cream cheese to the bowl of a mixer and beat until combined for about 2 - 3 minutes. Add powdered sugar cup by cup while beating after each addition. Add raspberry puree and vanilla bean seeds and beat until completely combined.
3. Once the cake has cooled frost it.

Ganache:

1. In a microwave safe bowl, heat whipping cream in the microwave for 40-60 seconds until hot. Place candy melts in a bowl and pour hot whipping cream on top. Let it sit for two minutes and then stir until smooth. Let the ganache come to room temperature (about 10 minutes) before pouring over the cake to cupcakes.
2. Garnish with fresh fruit and berries.
3. Store cake in the fridge until serving.
4. Enjoy!

Nutrition information

Calories: 584 Carbohydrates: 69 Protein: 8 Fat: 31 Saturated Fat: 10 Cholesterol: 119 Sodium: 406 Potassium: 381 Fiber: 3 Sugar: 39 Vitamin A: 1500 Vitamin C: 17.2 Calcium: 157 Iron: 2.9

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