By now you are aware I have a love-hate relationship with cake. The love part is easy: it’s all about the devour (okay, and as of late, the cake smashing). The hate part comes with—well, sculpting it. But even with that, I have a foot on each side of the dividing love-and-hate line. As a result, this year I’m going to ask the magnificent one to please bless me with a deft caking decorating hand for my birthday.
Because come’on no one wants to hear me drone on about my cake carving skills paralleling those of a crying toddler whose crayon-fisting hand can’t stay in the lines while coloring. Yeah, I’m dramatic—spank me.
Dramatics aside, it’s a bit tiresome and frustrating, trying to get vision and reality to align at times. This as you can imagine happens beyond just caking. So in the bigger scheme of that mention, I would really love it if caking could just be taken out of that mix. You know, leave the blurry-and-shifting vision and reality line, to say things of consequence like: telling my Stanford bound 6-year-old that becoming a pro-basketball player is probably not in his future being that neither of his parent is breaking the vertical 6ft. minimum requirement.
Alright, I guess we should talk about the cake at hand, since I seemingly (more of that fuzzy vision and reality stuff) run a food blog.
The cake: A rustic two layer affair with a generous spreading of blackberry and lime jam in the middle and some honey buttercream in between and on top. Deliciously easy and simple to construct. No tips, no pastry bag–just you, an offset spatula and a little back-and-forth wrist action.

Black Tea Cake with Blackberry Lime Curd & Honey Whipped Cream
Ingredients
- Cake
- 2 tablespoons loose-leaf black tea
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 cup lime juice
- 2 tablespoons lime zest
- 1 3/4 cup sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
- Blackberry & Lime Jam
- 1 lb. blackberries, fresh or frozen (about 3 ½ cups)
- 3 tablespoons lime juice
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- Honey Whipped Cream
- 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
- 4 teaspoons cold water
- 1 cup heavy cream
- ¼ cup honey
Instructions
Preparation:
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line bottom of two 8-inch round cake pans with parchment paper and lightly cover with baking spray and a small amount of flour; tap out excess.
To make cake:
Place black tea in a coffee grinder or food processor and process to a fine grind. Sift ground black tea, flour, baking powder and baking soda into a small bowl; set aside.
Place milk, lime juice, and lime zest in separate small bowl and whisk to combine; set aside.
Place sugar and eggs in stand mixer bowl fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on medium high until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. With the mixer still running, slowly pour olive oil into the egg and sugar mixture and beat until emulsified, about 3-4 minutes.
Reduce mixer speed to low, and alternately add the dry ingredients and the milk mixture to the batter in 3 parts, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Mix just until combined (do not overmix).
Evenly divide and transfer the batter to the two prepared pans and bake at 350°F until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 35 to 40 minutes. Cool the cakes in the pans for 15 minutes, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.
To make Blackberry & Lime Jam:
Set aside a handful of blackberries for garnishing. Place remainder of blackberries and lime juice in a blender and process until pureed. Place pureed blackberry mixture, sugar and cornstarch in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until mixture boils. Remove from heat.
Push mixture through a fine mesh strainer and discard any solids and seeds.
To make Honey Whipped Cream:
Place a stand mixer bowl in the freezer to chill briefly in preparation for step 4.
Place water in a small microwave-safe shallow bowl and sprinkle gelatin on top. Let stand until gelatin has bloomed (about 5 minutes; mixture will become solid).
Place bowl in the microwave and heat on low for 10 seconds or until mixture dissolves to a syrup consistency. Set aside to cool slightly.
Place heavy cream in chilled stand mixer bowl and on medium-high speed beat until thick, about 2-3 minutes.
Turn mixer to lowest setting and add in honey and beat until combined, about 1 minute. With the mixer still running, slowly add in gelatin mixture and beat until stiff peaks form, about 1-2 minutes.
To assemble:
Transfer one of the cooled cakes to a plate and spread with ¼ cup of blackberry jam on top and then layer with half of the honey whipped cream. Top with the remaining cake and layer with ¼ cup of blackberry jam. Spread remaining honey whipped cream on top. Cover side of cake with remaining blackberry jam. Add blackberries on top of when ready to serve to prevent any bleeding.
Notes
NOTES:
- For the olive oil portion of this cake, make sure to use a very lightly flavored olive oil - nothing to strong in taste or you can use vegetable oil. If you use vegetable oil, keep in mind the cake will not have the bright yellow crumb and there's is a slight difference in taste—both are equally good, but the olive oil will give a slightly bolder flavor.
- The cake can be made with stabilized whipped cream or regular whipped cream. The only thing setting the two apart is the addition of the gelatin to give the stabilized whipped cream more form. To make regular whipped cream skip the gelatin and water.
- The blackberry lime jam can be made with or without seeds - your palate, your preference.
- The cake can be made two days in advance and kept covered and refrigerated.
- The jam can easily be made up to a week in advance and kept covered and refrigerated.
- The whipped cream should be made the day of serving as should the assembly of the cake.
Each element would be amazing…the Honey Whipped Cream, the Blackberry Curd…the cake itself. Combined..this is a masterpiece! Stunning images (as always!)
Pinned!
Argh! I feel you about cake aliment. The most frustrating thing for me is to create layers which are all even in diameter and height. Icing is a whole another story (more frustration there too).
I love the flavours of tart fruit with berries. Such a creative design too, the jelly coat on the out side is to dead for.
Beautiful cake- it sounds delicious!! Bookmarking this one for sure 🙂
Just beautiful! I am going to try it with gluten free flour. I hope it works.
Gorgeous pics as always! I am partial to a light shooting through coloured glass. My daughter and I made lemon curd today, with egg, so I am really interested to see how the egg free lime curd works. I haven’t seen it before, but it has to be easier than whisking like crazy so the egg doesn’t curdle. And yes I have done this many times!
best
AMx
So pretty. Every layer is a delicious one! Wow!
Every single element of this sounds so amazing. Together, they’re magic!
A fellow blogger referred me to your site. Amazing recipes and beautiful photographs! I will keep revisiting your site! Great work!
beautiful – perfect – and I’m positive it’s scrumptious!
This is so pretty! Love the black tea idea 🙂
The flavor combination of this cake sounds heavenly!
Gorgeous cake as always, Naomi! I love the idea of blackberry lime curd! Pinning!
Delicious… What unique combination of flavors marrying into one lovely cake!!!
this has to be the most beautiful cake I have ever seen… Your pics are making me drool!
Beautifully done, these flavors sound perfect together!
Yum! One of my favorite lip balms is blackberry black tea. Such a delicious flavor combo.
Ooh I love your flavour combination, I love blackberries and I really don’t use them enough. Going to have to make this as I’ve never made a cake with tea in either!
Wow! Looks sooo delicious!
ooooh what an outstanding beautiful cake!!!
More food porn for the eyes to feast upon. This looks like bliss on a plate. Yum-oh
What a great idea – LOVE recipes with tea in them! Wonderful pictures…
Your photographs always make me weep (mostly with joy plus a little bit of envy mixed in) but your writing always cracks me up. It’s a pretty good combination.
Your cake’s always look picture perfect! And this combo sounds like a hot summer morning in the south.
Yeah. This cake looks 100% amazing! Great job! 🙂
This cake sounds and looks fantastic!
This cake looks beautiful, Naomi. However, I can totally relate to your woes. Cake decorating is not my forte! Ah well, better a delicious cake than a beautiful one, no? (although you seem to have achieved both)
What a combination of flavours! As a fellow blogger, a friend recommended me to your site, she thought I would love it. And this recipe has definitely got me impressed. I would never have thought up this combo…well done. I’m going to make it for my uncles birthday. Thanks
Everything you do always look so stunning!! This cake sounds unbelieveable. I am always a fan of cakes with a whipped cream “frosting”. Pinned!
Utterly gorgeous, my friend! And I totally agree with you on cake decorating woes — though you’ve conquered it beautifully here 🙂
Thank you very much! the cake was delicious!
OMG, this was wonderful! Care must be taken selecting the black tea. I opted for a med-bodied loose tea from PCC Market, which is probably more potent and flavorful than your run of the mill black tea. The caffeine buzz afterwards was so intense it almost overshadowed the complex flavor delight. The whole applying frosting over the blackberry jam was a complete disaster. My creation had a “blackberry marble” finish. Oh well, the home critics care more about taste than looks anyways.
You always know how to make flavors sing, that blackberry lime curd sounds pretty amazing!
i’m pretty sure i’m the worst cake maker there is. which is why i only make them once or twice a year, only for me and the hubs, and we don’t show them to anyone 🙂 as long as it tastes good, it’s fine with me! decorating or making even layers is not my talent.
These flavors sound amazing! It is gorgeous!!
Beautiful! !!!
Such wonderful flavors…. N as always stunning pics 🙂
This cake was outstanding!! I agree w/ an above commenter that the black tea choice really makes a difference. I went w/ an English loose tea I had sitting around. The first bite of the cake was smokey then changed into sweet as I got to the jam. Great, great cake. I think the decoration was “rustic” and went well with my non-uniform fresh picked blackberries on top
Can these be made as cupcakes ? If so how long would I need to bake them ? Also if I leave out the lime juice will it effect the cake at all ?
I just made this cake for my sister’s birthday and it was wonderful!!! everybody likes it, so yuumyy
wow this cake looks absolutely beautiful! this will definitely be a must make for me
Omg! This looks too yummy. I so wanna try this 🙂 I also love your photography detailing.
I tried it! It was the showstopper of my afternoon tea party. Definitely one to make again, everyone LOVED it. The flavors of the lime and black tea were so subtle and unexpectedly complimentary and mixed with the honey whipped cream and blackberry lime jam.. WOW. Such unique flavors. You. Are. Amazing. Thank you!