Lemon Olive Oil Cake
This Lemon Olive Oil Cake is a cake I could eat every day…if I could eat cake every day, that is. It’s rich, not too sweet, tangy and has just a little crunch of cornmeal.
Table of contents
Why this is the Best Lemon Olive Oil Cake
Olive oil cake is, essentially, a chiffon cake. Chiffon cakes are oil based cakes. Because oil stays liquid at room temperature oil based cakes are soft and moist and have a very, very tender crumb.
If there’s too much oil in the batter the cake can have an oily, pasty texture that’s not at all pleasant. It’s imperative to have a balanced recipe. This is a balanced recipe.
To keep the style of the cake a little on the rustic side, I added just a little cornmeal to the batter for a little crunch and color.
To start the batter, the eggs are “ribboned” with the sugar. This builds a batter that bakes up with a very fine and tender crumb.
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
- AP Flour – All purpose flour has a medium protein content. Because of the oil and corn meal in the cake you need a little gluten from the AP flour to strengthen the cake structure.
- Corn Meal – There is just enough corn meal in the batter to flavor and cake and add the slightest crunch.
- Baking Powder – To keep the tangy flavor of the lemons front and center there is no acid-neutralizing baking soda in the batter. The baking powder raises the batter, but does not neutralize the acid.
- Lemons – I developed this recipe originally with Meyer Lemons. I’ve also made it with regular lemons. Use any citrus fruit, oranges, grapefruit, lime or blood orange will work. The number of fruits will vary based on how big the fruit is and how much juice it yields. Always use 3/4 cup of juice whichever fruit you use.
How to make Lemon Olive Oil Cake
See the recipe card for detailed measurements and instructions.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients and set aside.
- Add the lemon zest to the sugar.
- Add the eggs.
- Whip the eggs and sugar until the mixture is aerated and lighter in color. The batter should form a “ribbon” when it’s drizzled over the surface. (This is called “ribboning”.)
- Add the olive oil to the ribboned egg mixture.
- Add 1/3 of the flour to the batter.
- Add 1/3 of the lemon juice to the batter. Alternate adding the flour and lemon juice.
- Pour the batter into a prepared Bundt or tube pan.
- Bake the cake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes. Then turn the cake out onto a cooling rack to cool to room temperature.
Storage
The cake is good to eat the day it is baked but is actually better the next day. Lemon Olive Oil Cake will keep, covered, at room temperature for 4-5 days. The cake can be frozen for up to a month.
More Lemony Recipes
- Lemon Mousse Cake
- Lemon Shortbread
- Lemon Meringue Pie
- Meyer Lemon Bars
- Lemon Chiffon Cake
- Lemon Yogurt Pound Cake
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Lemon Olive Oil Cake
Ingredients
- 15 ounces all purpose flour (3 cups, see note)
- 3 ounces corn meal (½ cup)
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon table salt
- 18 ounces granulated sugar (2 ¼ cups)
- 1 pound lemons (about 5 (see note))
- 6 large eggs
- 10 ounces extra virgin olive oil (1 ¼ cups)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Coat a 12 cup Bundt or tube pan with pan spray, or butter and flour.
- Combine the flour, corn meal, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Whisk the dry ingredients together to distribute the baking powder, set aside.15 ounces all purpose flour, 3 ounces corn meal, 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon table salt
- Put the granulated sugar into a mixer bowl. Grate the lemon zest right onto the sugar and mix the zest through the sugar. Juice the lemons into a measuring cup, you should get about ¾ cup of juice. Set the lemon juice aside.18 ounces granulated sugar, 1 pound lemons
- Add the eggs to the sugar. Beat the eggs and sugar together on medium speed until the eggs aerate, thicken and lighten in color.6 large eggs
- With the mixer running on low, drizzle in the olive oil in a slow steady stream. Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the lemon juice, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.10 ounces extra virgin olive oil
- Take the batter off the mixer and mix by hand to ensure there are no lumps of batter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake until the cake springs back when lightly pressed or a toothpick inserted in the cake comes away clean, about 50-60 minutes. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Invert the pan onto a cooling rack and cool to room temperature.
- Serve sprinkled with a little powdered sugar
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I was really excited to find this recipe for lemon pound cake that actually has a lot of lemon juice and zest in the recipe. I followed the recipe and instructions exactly, baked it just until a toothpick came out clean, let it rest 10 minutes in the pan. I make a lot of Bundt cakes, and my batter is always very thick. This was not, but no matter. I was surprised to find that it turned out slightly dry, and it definitely needs a lemon cream cheese glaze, which I will add. It tastes good, although not as lemony as I expected, but that might be because I used Meyer lemons, which have are less tart. I usually put Greek yogurt in my Bundt cakes, and I’m wondering if you think that would work with this recipe. Overall, it made a pretty lemon cake.
Well, this is not a pound-style cake so perhaps your expectations were off. This olive oil cake is basically a chiffon style cake so the texture is different than a pound cake. Here’s a recipe for Lemon Yogurt Pound cake that may be closer to what you were looking for. The recipe can be baked in a Bundt pan.
Thanks so much. I have high cholesterol so I’m always looking for oil cake recipes. Have a question regarding sugar to flour ratio for cakes. How much sugar could I reduce without ruining the integrity of the cake? Instead of baking the lemon juice with the cake batter, I want to pour lemon syrup ( lemon juice+sugar or confectioner sugar) on the cake instead, like your lemon pound cake recipe.
Love this recipe! I used almond flour instead of corn meal and it was delish. Definitely better the next day. I only needed to use three lemons though to get enough juice.
Eileen, how would you recommend modifying this to make with oranges? My friends have given me a bag filled with fresh picked Valencia oranges from their tree and I’d love to bake a cake with them!
As long as you use the same amount of juice (3/4 cup) you can use oranges. You can use the zest from the number of oranges it takes to get 3/4 cup of juice.
I am new to baking and love the way you lay out the science of it all. I have baked a few of your cakes and they where all exceptional. I know I probably missed it but was wondering exactly how much zest to you use ?
I use the zest from all the lemons.