Raspberry olive oil and cream cheese dome

Raspberry olive oil and cream cheese dome

• 23 May 2025

For my friend Bianca's birthday, I decided to go all out and whipped up this Raspberry, olive oil and cream cheese dome. The cake was inspired by a recipe from Nicola Lamb's book, Sift, whilst the idea for the decoration came from 'Luna' a recipe from Nadine Ingram's book, Love Crumbs. 

This is not a cake you can make on a whim. The ganache, the cake and the filling all need to be made the day before you serve the cake but as long as you're methodical, it shouldn't give you too many problems. I am no expert with a piping bag, but I figured I had enough skill to decorate the dome.

Nicola's recipe made a 3 layer citrus, olive oil cream cheese dome sandwiched together with marmalade, mandarin segments and a whipped cream cheese filling. I wasn't sure the 5 year old twins would eat a marmalade filled cake so instead of an orange flavoured cake and syrup, I used lemon; I swapped the marmalade for a pot of rhubarb and raspberry jam and dotted the cream filling with some raspberries. I finished the cake with lemon scented ganache instead of Swiss meringue butter cream and decorated the cake with raspberries instead of flower petals and orange segments, seen here.

I didn't have the correct size tray so I baked the cake in two 8 x 12 inch trays. It meant my cake layers were thinner but I had so much cake, I could easily make a 4 layer cake. I needed to use more jam but I had plenty of the whipped cream cheese filling. As this was a birthday cake, I wasn't able to take photos of the interior of the cake except for one awful one taken on my phone. 

Here's the recipe for you, which makes a 4 layer 20cm dome. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Raspberry, olive oil and cream cheese dome - serves 10-12
Equipment
2 x 8 x 12 inch baking trays or one 39 x 27cm baking tray

A mixing bowl, at least 20cm wide at the top with a base of around 10cm

 
Olive oil cake
Zest of 2 lemons 
200g caster sugar
160g extra virgin olive oil
110g Greek yoghurt
3 whole eggs
110g plain flour
110g ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder 
¼ tsp bicarb soda 
¼ tsp flaky sea salt

Lemon syrup – this will make more syrup than you need
50g lemon juice
50g caster sugar

Whipped cream cheese
250g full-fat cream cheese
35g caster sugar
180g double cream
60g olive oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp fine salt

Lemon scented ganache
85g good quality white chocolate, finely chopped
320g pure cream
Zest of 2 lemons

To assemble
265g berry jam 
1 punnet (125g) raspberries

To decorate
1 punnet (125g) raspberries

Olive oil cake

Preheat the oven to 190°C conventional and line the baking tray (s) with baking paper.

Add the lemon zest to the caster sugar and rub in between your fingers to release the oils. Next, whisk in the olive oil, yoghurt and eggs. In another bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Whisk into the wet ingredients until smooth. 

If using one tray, pour the mixture into the lined baking tray and bake for 18-20 minutes or until firm and springy to the touch and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Move to a cooling rack, remove the cake from the tray and leave to cool completely. 

If making 2 separate cakes, pour half the mixture into one tray, bake for 18-20 minutes, then repeat the process with the second tray. If your oven is big enough to bake both cakes at the same time, rotate the trays half way through the bake time to ensure an even bake. The cakes can be made 1-2 days in advance and kept well-wrapped at room temperature.

Syrup
Heat everything together and bring to a simmer. Leave to cool. This can be made 1 week in advance and kept in the fridge. This makes more than you need.

Whipped cream cheese
Put the cream cheese and sugar in a bowl. Whisk until it is smooth. Add the double cream, olive oil, vanilla extract and salt then whisk until stiff and thick. Make this when you are ready to assemble.

The dome
Cut 1 x 20cm circle, 1 x 16cm circle, 1 x 12 cm circle and 1 x 9-10cm circle from the cake sheets. The leftovers are your snacks. Wet a mixing bowl then line the bowl with clingfilm - make sure it is at least 20cm wide at the top with a base of around 10 cm.

To build

Place the 10cm cake circle in the base of the bowl. Douse with the syrup, then spread 45g jam on top, followed by 100g of whipped cream cheese. Nestle a third the raspberries into the cream. Place the 12cm cake layer on top. Douse with syrup, then spread over 60g jam, followed by 150g of whipped cream cheese. Nestle a third the raspberries into the cream. Place the 16cm cake layer on top; douse with lemon syrup then spread over 75g jam, followed by the rest of the whipped cream cheese. Nestle the remaining raspberries into the cream cheese. Spread 85g jam on the final cake, then place on top, jam-side down. Lightly press down the top layer before dousing the cake with the lemon syrup. You will have some leftover syrup. Cover the top of the cake with the overhanging plastic wrap then chill the entire cake in the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Lemon scented ganache
Place the chocolate into a medium bowl and set it beside the stove, then place the cream and lemon zest into a small saucepan over medium heat and bring to the boil. Turn off the heat and allow the lemon to infuse for 20 minutes. Return the cream to the boil and pour it over the chocolate, then use a hand whisk to mix the ganache until there are no lumps of chocolate remaining. Refrigerate the ganache overnight.

Just before using, remove the lemon ganache from the fridge and give it a good whisk to incorporate any chocolate that has floated to the top and set. Whip the lemon ganache to medium-firm whip. As you are piping the cream onto the cake, it will naturally continue to set in the piping bag and so a firm whip may cause it to split. It's important that it's not too soft, either, as you won't achieve the definition in the piping.

To decorate

Put a plate/cake board underneath the mixing bowl and flip it over to release the cake so it is the right way up. 

Fit a piping bag with a closed star piping tip and scoop one-third of the lemon ganache into the bag at a time. Working with this small amount at a time will give you more control and prevent your hands from warning the cream, potentially causing it to become runny. Begin piping with a little spiral of cream to cover the top of the cake to get a feel for the weight of the bag and your own dexterity. Then decorate the sides by piping the cream in an upwards direction, letting go of the pressure in the bag on the approach to the top so that you can form little peaks. Turn the cake as you go until the sides are all covered. You can practice on something that isn't the cake first, just to establish a rhythm before piping on the actual cake. 

Refrigerate the cake but bring to room temperature before enjoying. The covered cake will last 3 days in the fridge.

I want you to ignore the quality of the phone image and focus on those layers. I have to say the cake was a triumph and the twinnies licked their plates clean.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian