Olive and Grapeseed Oil Almond Cake with Mascarpone Raspberry Cream

I’m very pleased with this cake. I started from Life Love Food’s Honey Olive Oil Almond Cake, but I made a few changes because I either didn’t have the ingredients, the pan or the patience :). I can also proudly say that the mascarpone raspberry cream was all me! I do use a lot of recipes online to help me with my baking adventures because of ratios, proportions and other scientific stuff that comes with baking, but not for the cream.

Baking healthy means changing many things, like butter, sugar, eggs, flour, etc. Although I haven’t reached the healthiest point in baking (like I still use AP flour which I’ve heard was bad but other flours are just way too expensive and I’ve been wanting to try cashew cheesecake forever but cashews are also very expensive), I’m happy with baking because it still tastes good and doesn’t take too much of my time.

This cake contains olive and grapeseed oil, which doesn’t negatively affect the cake’s taste as some of you might think, but makes it rich and delicious. I would’ve just used olive oil, but I didn’t want the olive taste to overwhelm the cake, which is why I added grapeseed. By the way, there is no chocolate in this, but the cake just looks dark brown on the outside because of the baking time.

For the mascarpone raspberry cream, I am aware that cream means using whipped cream, but that’s kind of unhealthy plus I didn’t have any to start with anyways, so I substituted that with almond milk and it worked much better than I anticipated. And yes, those are strawberries on the cake and not raspberries. It would’ve worked better with the raspberry cream and all, but I used up all my raspberries in the cream!

I hope you try making this. It is really worth it. Really.

• Servings: 10
• Time: 1 hr (Prep 20 mins)
• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

A delicious combination of oils in a sweet almond cake layered in between an easy to make mascarpone cream with raspberries. Instead of grapeseed oil, you can substitute with more olive oil, but the olive taste might be a bit strong.
Adapted from: Honey Olive Oil Almond Cake – Life Love Food
Ingredients:
Almond oil cake:
120 g ground almonds (a.k.a. almond flour)
120 g flour
2 tsp. baking powder
Pinch of sea salt
4 medium eggs, lightly beaten
220 g liquid honey
1 tsp. vanilla extract
60 g extra virgin olive oil
60 g grapeseed oil
Mascarpone Raspberry Cream:
8 oz. (227 g) mascarpone
1/3 cup raspberries
1/4 cup liquid honey
1/4 cup almond milk
Extra: Strawberries or raspberries for decoration.

Instructions:

1. Almond oil cake: Preheat oven to 180 °C (360 °F). Line a 8-inch cake pan (with tall sides) with parchment paper and grease the sides very well.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the ground almonds, flour, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl, mix together the eggs, honey and vanilla extract. Combine the wet mixture into the dry, mixing until incorporated. Pour the two oils in a light stream into the mixture while mixing at the same time until fully combined.
3. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes. If you do not want the cake to be that dark, cover with aluminium foil midway through baking time. The cake should be ready when an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes in the pan before removing it and transferring onto a metal rack to cool down completely.
4. Mascarpone Raspberry Cream: In a stand mixer, whip all the ingredients together until smooth. Keep the cream in the fridge until the cake is cooled down and ready for assembly.
5. Assembly: Carefully slice the cake in two layers horizontally (I also sliced the domed top off for presentation looks). Place the first layer on a serving plate and cover with half of the mascarpone raspberry cream. At this point you can add a few slices of strawberries or raspberries. Place the second layer on top and cover the top with the remaining cream and strawberries/raspberries. Serve right away or place in the fridge for up to 3 days.