A classic lemon olive oil cake, topped with bright, late summer grapes, roasted with brown sugar and fennel.

Baking with grapes is just so much fun. All through pastry school, we never touched grapes. We used lots of berries, created a bunch of cakes with bananas, and even played with tropical fruits like mango, pineapple, and passionfruit. But grapes, those were basically for snacking and really nothing else. The idea of creating desserts with grapes truly did not even cross my mind until I was working on the pastry team at Blackberry Farm. We were the most spoiled pastry chefs in the world and would daily get garden deliveries from both the farmers at the resort and other local farmers in the area. Produce deliveries were the highlight of the day and we’d smoosh together (obviously pre-COVID) around cardboard boxes of warm summer strawberries and peaches, snacking as we cleaned them and transferred them to sheet trays (where we would continue to snack off of them all through service…half of the good produce made it into desserts, the other half went straight into our bellies.

Then, in early August, our daily berry haul started to turn into grapes. We got baskets of dark, seedy concord grapes and moon grapes that looked like baby eggplants. They made the most stunning colored sorbets and were worked them into all kinds of desserts on the menu. My mind was blown. But then I returned home where I was greeted with sad, grocery store grapes meant for lunch boxes. Until we moved to Minnesota.

I’ve talked before about our cute little co-op across the street literally bursting with local, seasonal produce. I walked in a few weeks ago to find little satchels of bright, seasonal concord grapes lining the shelves and it took every single ounce of my willpower not to bring them all home with me that very minute. I did, however, start brainstorming about this little cake recipe.

how to make a roasted grape cake

For this cake, I really wanted to grapes to shine so we made them the focal point. A very simple, lemon olive oil was the perfect canvas for our little grape babies. We make the cake by simply whisking together flour, sugar, lemon zest, leavening agents and salt. I added a little semolina flour for a bit of texture, but if you don’t have it, you can just substitute more all purpose flour. Then we mix together the wet ingredients—eggs, buttermilk, lemon juice, and olive oil. The wet ingredients join the dry ingredients and are whisked until the batter is very smooth.

While the cake is baking, we roast the grapes. Simply toss the grapes in brown sugar, some crushed fennel seeds, and olive oil and transfer it to a baking dish. Let the grapes roast until they are beginning to blister and burst (like cherry tomatoes) and the liquid is bubbly. Then spoon the roasted grapes over the cooled and sliced cake and enjoy!

And, if you have any leftover grapes and juices, save them for spooning over ice cream or serving with a dollop of creme fraiche and some shortbread cookies. The flavors in this super simple dessert will impress all your friends, I promise!