“A sweet leavened cake without butter? That’s unthinkable."

It’s a sentence we’ve heard many times. And yet, at Pasticceria Filippi, we have worked on this for years.

Not to take something away, but to find a different balance.

Today our leavened cakes made with extra virgin olive oil are soft, fragrant and beautifully structured. Nothing feels missing: instead, you discover a different identity. Many people actually prefer them for their lighter texture, as well as for the increasingly common lactose intolerance. *

**It is important to clarify: our olive-oil cakes are not specifically formulated for people with allergies or medical conditions that require the complete absence of cross-contamination. Our production takes place in environments where other ingredients are present, so we cannot guarantee suitability for specific clinical needs.

We were invited by Paolo Massobrio to Sol2Expo in Verona, the event dedicated to extra virgin olive oil, to present this journey together with Renato Bosco, a master of savory doughs, well known for his focaccias and gourmet pizzas with an incredibly crispy crust. If in savory baking olive oil provides structure, elasticity and fragrance, in sweet baking it becomes softness, a delicate crumb and aromatic persistence.

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  A technical aspect (that really matters)
  
  Compared to butter, extra virgin olive oil:
  
  

  • has a different lipid composition (rich in monounsaturated fatty acids),
  • emulsifies differently within the dough,
  • helps distribute fats more evenly,
  • slows down staling, keeping the product soft for longer.

  
  In his work with doughs, Renato Bosco uses olive oil not only for its aroma but also as a functional ingredient: it improves elasticity, supports proper aeration and gives an elegant friability, never heavy.
  In sweet preparations, this results in a silky texture and a greater perceived digestibility.
  
  An ancient ingredient, strikingly modern Extra virgin olive oil has accompanied Mediterranean culture for thousands of years: a symbol of nourishment, light and ritual. Long before butter spread through Northern Europe, olive oil was the fat of choice in olive-growing regions.
  
  Bringing it back to the center of great leavened cakes is not a matter of fashion, but of territorial and cultural coherence.
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  Pasticceria Filippi uses Cutrera extra virgin olive oil, selected after testing several other producers.
  
  It proved to be the only one able to guarantee consistent quality over time, a crucial aspect in the production of naturally leavened products. The oil comes from a blend of olives grown in the Monti Iblei, in the province of Ragusa, a territory rich in centuries-old olive trees and particularly suited to olive cultivation.
  
  The quality of the raw material is supported by advanced processing technology: the mill operates at very low temperatures and the oil is stored under nitrogen, preventing any oxidation. 

  
  

  This results in an oil that is defect-free and perfectly stable, an essential characteristic in sweet leavened products, where even the smallest aromatic imperfections could emerge over time.
  
  Our olive-oil specialties:
  
  

  • our Strucà, soft olive-oil loaves that have gained an increasingly loyal following over the years the new
  • Dolce Margherita, an olive-oil variation of the classic Christmas
  • leavened cakes our other seasonal creations
  • our Bontà di Pasqua, made with 100% extra virgin olive oil:

  Now available in our online shop and at our retail partners.