Chocolate Olive Oil Cake with Salted Maraschino Whipped Cream
Chocolate and cherry? For Valentine's Day?
I’m all about doing the most, but this cake is a good example of doing the semi-most. It’s for when you want to make something delicious, but are pinched for time or not feeling overly ambitious.
My general philosophy is that if you want to make a cake but don’t want to make frosting, make whipped cream. It’s a great way to introduce flavors and will be better than store-bought frosting 100% of the time.
So, this cake has 3 components:
The cake, which you’ll make from scratch without the use of a stand mixer. It’s a whisk cake.
The salted maraschino whipped cream, which you’ll whisk yourself and flavor it with the help of jarred cherries
And cherry jam, which you could make but absolutely don’t have to.
Homemade whipped cream and a good store-bought jam is what makes this cake easy to make but impressive when shared. I’m an especially big proponent of jam in the winter, when fresh fruit isn’t as abundant.
Chocolate Olive Oil Cake
You’ll need: two 8- or 9-inch cake pans, mixing bowls, a whisk!
Ingredients:
270g (2¼ cups) all-purpose flour
84g (1 cup) Dutch-process cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
210g (1 cup) granulated sugar
180g (1 cup packed) dark brown sugar
170g (¾ cup) extra virgin olive oil
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1½ tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
480ml (2 cups) hot black coffee
Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease two 8- or 9-inch cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper to ensure they come out of the pans.
2. Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl until combined.
3. In another bowl, whisk together the sugar, brown sugar, and olive oil until combined. It will appear a bit grainy, this is okay. Next, whisk in the eggs, vinegar, and vanilla for about 1 minute. It should start to appear smooth and thick.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, whisking just until you no longer see dry streaks of flour.
5. Add the coffee to the mixture in a slow, steady stream. Whisk until the batter is smooth - it will be quite liquid, this is normal, as cocoa absorbs moisture differently than flour.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes. The cake is finished when it bounces back slightly to the touch, and the edges start to pull away from the pan.
7. Cool in pan for 20 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Cakes can be assembled right away when they are completely cool, but if you’re baking ahead of time, wrap them tightly in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator for 1 day or in the freezer for up to 1 month. If freezing, move the cake to the fridge 24 hours before assembling.
Salted Cherry Whipped Cream
A stand mixer or handheld mixer will be most helpful here, but you can absolutely make whipped cream by hand. If you do, it will take about 5-10 minutes and take some good elbow grease. But it’s fun! And cool to see it go from liquid to cream!
2 cups heavy whipping cream (very cold)
¼ cup Amarena or Luxardo cherry syrup from a jar of maraschino cherries (Trader Joe’s has a good one! Then you can top the cake with the cherries)
¼ teaspoon almond extract (optional, if you’re like me and reeeeeeally like the maraschino flavor)
1 ½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
Instructions:
Pour the cold heavy cream into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the maraschino cherry syrup, optional almond extract, salt, and powdered sugar.
Beat on medium-low speed until the mixture starts to thicken, about 1 minute. Taste to see if you want to add more maraschino syrup.
Increase speed to medium-high and continue beating until stiff peaks form, about 2-3 minutes. Watch carefully - don't overbeat or you'll make butter! In the even that you overbeat it, add a few tablespoons of heavy cream and beat on low to slowly bring it back to whipped cream.
Assembling the Cake
You’ll need: Chocolate cake layers, salted cherry whipped cream, cherry jam* (from the store! Sue me!) and the fancy maraschino cherries
*If you taste your store-bought jam and it's too sweet, squeeze a tiny bit of lemon juice in the portion that you’re going to put on the cake. If you put it in the whole jar, just know that it will affect the shelf-life.
Spread half of the whipped on the bottom cake layer. It should be a thick layer and go right up to the edges of the cake. Next, spread about ¼ - ½ cup of the jam, just enough to cover the cream, and then some if you’re a big jam gal.
Place the second cake layer onto the first, then repeat with the rest of the whipped cream. Use the back of a spoon to create some swirly texture. Cream is going to seep out the sides of the cake, but that’s okay. We’re going for rustic here.
Finally, decorate with the jarred cherries. Remove 5-10 cherries from the jar and place them on a paper towel to remove some of the syrup. Place them on top of the cake to create something cute.
