citrus olive oil mousse cake

with a dusting of freezer dried raspberry powder for the ole razzle dazzle

hey hi hello!

Welcome back to bake chats! Today’s recipe is brought to us by our friends over at Smash Kitchen, say thank you Smash Kitchen xx

The beauty of winter is that it’s citrus season which rivals summer for my favorite time for produce. It’s a bright spot on what should be a cold and dreary time, but once again forever and always typing this is sunny San Diego where it was 90F out today.

This cake starts with a baby riff on my olive oil cake recipe, which for the most part goes as written, except I massage a melange of citrus zests into the sugar to really express their flavors int to the cake. The cake features a little bit of Sonora whole wheat flour that adds a creamy almost corn like note to the cake- which is totally optional, you can sub this for an equal amount of AP flour if you can’t get your hands on it! A thin layer of raspberry jam covers the cake before being topped with a tart and creamy mixed citrus mousse. In a sea of very spice heavy holiday recipes, consider this a bit of a palette cleanser.

The beauty of citrus season in Southern California is the sheer variety of options we have. Of course lemons, oranges, the usual suspects. But, in the thick of it we’ll find mandriquats, bearss limes, bergamot, oro blanco and valentina grapefruits, pomelos, calamansi, the list goes on. All of which bring their own unique range of flavor notes. All of which would be great options to use in this cake. But, use what ever you like and can get your hands on ya know.

Enough of the yappin, on with the recipe :)

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CITRUS OLIVE OIL MOUSSE CAKE

*If you like your recipes in a quick-glance format, paid subscribers get a clean, printer-friendly PDF version at the end of the post. It’s easier to scroll and keep open on your phone. Plus, perfect to print for your recipe binder.

I assembled this cake in a 9” spring form pan for a clean sleek look, which is totally optional. Feel free to just top the cake swaths of the light mousse. There’s going to be a touch of mousse left over, but fret not, it makes a great little chef snack while you wait for the cake to set in the fridge.

And don’t feel married to raspberry, strawberry jam (most jams for that matter) would work great here and swap the FD raspberry powder out for FD strawberry powder. This is now your cake after all, put it together however you’d wanna eat it.

TOOLS:

• Digital scale

• Mixing bowls

• Microplane

• Hand/Stand mixer

• Rubber spatula

• 9” cake pan

• Precut parchment rounds

• Medium saucepan

• Whisk

• Instant read thermometer

• Heat proof container

• 9” springform pan *optional*

• Small offset spatula

• Fine mesh sieve

CITRUS OLIVE OIL CAKE

Like I mentioned earlier, this is a baby riff on this olive oil cake recipe. A few of the changes I made to the recipe: baked in a 9” pan rather than an 8” pan for a *slightly* thinner cake layer = more room for mousse in the springform later. I add the zest from about 2 lemons, 2 limes and an orange to the sugar to bring a citrus note, instead of using bergamot oil. Which in place of the berg oil I use Smash Kitchen’s Classic extra virgin olive oil for a very tender and moist crumb. Instead of sour cream I used yogurt in it’s place. They have similar pH (acidity) so can be used interchangeably. You know, for when you impulse buy the Costco sized tubs of yogurt that are now taking up space in the fridge. The batter is a little thinner than when you use sour cream but just as tender and delish.

INGREDIENTS

• 200 grams granulated sugar

• Citrus of choice, it’s approx the zest of 2 large lemons, 2 limes and an orange- if that helps. You’ll need about 15 grams of zest

• 130 grams all purpose flour

• 60 grams sonora flour

• 1 teaspoons diamond crystal kosher salt

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 120 grams full fat yogurt

• 120 grams whole milk

• 100 grams egg (approx 2 large eggs)

• 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

• 125 grams Smash Kitchen Classic Extra Virgin Olive Oil

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat your oven to 350F.

2. Add the 200 grams of granulated sugar to a medium bowl. Use a microplane to zest the citrus into the sugar. Use your fingers to massage the zest into the sugar to express its oils/flavor.

3. To the bowl add the 130 grams all purpose flour, 60 grams sonora flour, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 3/4 teaspoon baking soda ,whisk to combine.

4. In a smaller bowl whisk together the 120 grams yogurt, 120 grams whole milk, 100 grams (2) eggs and the tablespoon of vanilla extract. Set aside.

5. To the dry ingredients add the 125 grams of Smash Kitchen Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Using a hand mixer (or you can do this completely by hand but prepare yourself for the upper arm workout) combine the olive oil in to the dry ingredients until they are evenly coated and the texture resembles small wet clumps or sand. There should be no visible dry pockets.

6. Add in the wet mixture slurry and whisk on a medium mixer setting until everything is evenly combined. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and mixer the batter for an additional 45 seconds.

7. Pour the batter into a greased and parchment lined 9” cake pan.

8. Bake for 35-40 minutes. Bake times vary based on each individual oven. Visual cues to look out for to know your cake is ready: the cake should be evenly golden brown and just starting to pull away from the sides of the pan. When gently tapped in the center the cake should spring back. To take it all a step further- a thermometer inserted into the center of the cake will register 200-205F when a cake is perfectly baked :)

9. Allow the cake to cool before un molding.

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RASPBERRY JAM

This is a pretty non-recipe recipe and you can totally use store bought jam here. When I make jam its very ratio driven based on however much fruit I have on hand. For raspberries I like to do about 45% the weight of the fruit in sugar and about .02% the weight of the berries in acid, lemon juice or some hoity toity ass vinegar. Also, always make more jam than you’re gonna need because it keeps well in the fridge and you can slap it on toast with loads of butter and a sprinkle of flakey salt and crack of black pepper.

INGREDIENTS

• 400 grams raspberries, fresh or frozen

• 180 grams granulated sugar

• 8 grams of lemon juice, about 1 tablespoon

DIRECTIONS

1. To the medium saucepan add the 400 grams raspberries, 180 grams granulated sugar and 8 grams of lemon juice. Stir with a rubber spatula to evenly coat the berries in sugar. Allow this to sit for 30 minutes for the berries to macerate, letting the sugar draw out the juices from the fruit.

2. After 30 minutes place the saucepan over medium heat, bringing the mixture to a boil..

3. Drop the temp to low and allow the jam to simmer, stirring frequently to avoid scorching the fruit/sugars.

4. Cook the jam until the simmering slows down, the bubbles will go from rapid to slow popping. The temp of the jam should be 215F.

5. Move the jam to a heat safe container. Allow the jam to cool to room temp before covering and storing in the fridge. The jam will keep for up to 3 weeks in the fridge.

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MIXED CITRUS MOUSSE

Use a mix of whatever juices you have from the citrus you zested earlier. I used the lemons and lime but skipped out on the orange I zested. Just because some of the softer, sweeter citruses do not come across and shine as bright in curd. You also only need 100 grams of juice total for this mousse. The mousse also uses a touch of citric acid to really make things really zippy, but totally optional if you can’t get your hands on any.

This is gonna make a touch more than you’ll need to top the cake if you go the springform mold route, but you can honestly eat it by the spoonful while waiting for the rest to set in the fridge.

This mousse has a soft yet stable set to it, thanks to the mascarpone in the whipped cream portion of the recipe. If you’d like something with amore stable set, you can add 1 teaspoon of powdered gelatin to a tablespoon of ice cold water to bloom and the bloomed gelatin into the warm curd before folding in the whipped cream.

INGREDIENTS

• 100 grams granulated sugar

• 100 grams egg yolks (approx 5 large egg yolks)

• 100 grams lemon and/or lime juice (approx the juices of 2 large lemons or 3 large juicy limes)

• 1/4 teaspoon citric acid *optional*

• 450 grams heavy cream

• 120 grams mascarpone cheese

DIRECTIONS

1. Place a pot filled with about 1” of water over medium-low heat and bring to a simmer.

2. In a medium bowl combine the 100 grams granulated sugar with the 100 grams of egg yolks whisking to combine. Add in the 100 grams of citrus juice. Whisk until homogenous.

3. Place the bowl with the lemon mixture over the simmering water.

4. Whisk the mixture constantly as it cooks to avoid scrambling. Cook until the curd reaches a zabaglione texture, it’ll be thick and will leave the traces of the tines of the whisk behind. The temp should be about 170-175F.

5. Remove from the heat and strain into a new bowl to catch any possibly scrambled bits of egg. At this point add in the 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid , whisking to combine into the curd. Cover with a bit of plastic to keep a skin from forming and allow to cool while you prep the whipped cream.

6. To a separate bowl combine the 450 grams heavy cream with the 120 grams of mascarpone cheese. Using a hand mixer, whip the cream on low at first to break up the mascarpone before kicking up to medium speed and whipping the cream to medium peaks.

7. The temp of the curd should be 85F or less before folding in the whipped cream to avoid melting the whip.

8. Once at temp fold the cream into the curd in 3 batches until fully incorporated.

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ASSEMBLY

If you don’t have a spring form pan to build this baddie in, you can totally just layer the mousse on top and smooth it into place with an offset. If made properly it’s nice, thick and maintains shape while you work with it.

INGREDIENTS

• 9” citrus olive oil cake layer

• Raspberry jam, about 1/2 cup

• Mixed citrus mousse

• Freeze dried raspberries, whole or powdered

DIRECTIONS

1. To a 9” spring form pan with a parchment round in the bottom, add the cake layer bottom side up. This will allow the jam to better enter the crumb structure of the cake.

2. Spoon the jam onto the cake layer, spreading it out into a thin and even layer with a small off set spatula.

3. Layer about 90% of the mousse over top of the jam, remember this is a little more than you’ll need to fill the cake pan here. Use an off set spatula to smooth the mousse out to an even layer, flush with the lip of the springform pan.

4. Cover the mousse with a layer of plastic wrap. Set the cake in the fridge to give the mousse time to set, a minimum of 4 hours but preferably… overnight. ok.

5. After the cake has set, remove the springform ring and carefully move the cake to a cake board/serving plate. Use a large off set spatula to help you move it

6. Before serving, dust the cake with a layer of freeze dried raspberry powder using a fine mesh sieve. You can buy the powder ready to go online, but in most grocery stores you can find freeze dried whole raspberries that you can pulverize in the blender to a powder for dusting.

7. Allow the cake to temper for about 10-15 minutes before slicing and serving for the best texture.

8. Enjoy!!

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Till next time bake chat baddies ♡