Olive Oil Cake

Olive oil cake is super easy to make and really delicious. You won't even need an electric mixer. It's not too sweet and I've never had a dry one. It's also dairy free, and can even be vegan with the help of an egg replacer. :) This particular olive oil cake was made using lemon, but you can also do grapefruit, lime or orange! Any citrus fruit works perfectly with the olive oil.

Make sure you use a good quality olive oil - I'm using an extra virgin olive oil from Spain because Spanish olive oil is my favorite.

Ingredients:

• zest of 1-2 citrus fruits
• 1/4-1/3 cup of fresh squeezed citrus juice (this was two lemons for me)
• 4 eggs
• 3/4 - 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

This cake bakes at 350 F for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. You'll also need a small cake pan (I used a 10 inch spring pan) and parchment paper to cover the bottom of the pan for best results. :D The smaller the pan the taller the cake.

Steps:

1. Measure out the flour, salt and baking powder into a medium sized bowl and mix with a fork.
2. Zest your citrus fruit over the flour mixture (more is better!) and mix it in.
3. Juice the fruits, making sure you have at least 1/4 cup of juice.
4. Smear butter or oil on the inside of the baking pan, and line the bottom with parchment paper.
5. Whisk the four eggs with the sugar for a couple minutes until nice and frothy
6. Add in the olive oil while whisking
7. Add in the citrus juice while whisking
8. Add in the flour mixture and mix until the batter is nice and smooth - the flour has a tendency to clump here. You can either sift the flour mixture into the liquid mix or just beat the clumps out with a whisk. I did the whisk! This cake is super forgiving.
9. Pour the batter into your pan, tap it on the counter to knock out the air bubbles and pop it into the oven
10. Bake at 350 F for 45 F or so until cooked all the way through - mine took 50 minutes.
11. Let it cool for a few minutes, and then use a knife to go around the edges and free it from the pan. It should pop right out if you've used parchment in the bottom and greased the sides.

The cake will fall after it's baked and that's normal! It's a pretty dense, moist cake. Top it with powdered sugar or jam and eat up. :D

Olive oil cake is also in the category of food that's even better the next day, so I recommend baking it ahead of time. Back when I was living by myself for a while one of these cakes lasted me five days and got better every single day!