Lemon Olive Oil Cake

4.53 from 44 reviews

Not only does Olive Oil Cake keep well at room temperature, it actually gets better the first day or two after it's baked. This cake is so moist it doesn't need anything but sprinkle of sugar for a pretty finish.

Prep Time30

Bake Time1

Total Time1 30

Servings:18 slices

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.
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.
Add the eggs to the sugar. Beat the eggs and sugar together on medium speed until the eggs aerate, thicken and lighten in color.
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.
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

Notes

If measuring the flour by volume use the “dip & sweep” method. That is, dip the measuring cup into the flour bin, overfill it, then sweep away the excess.

You can use any citrus fruit in place of lemons. Oranges, grapefruit, meyer lemon, 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.

The cake keeps well at room temperature for several days.

Nutrition