Part of my own personal ‘Iron Chef: Battle lemons’ series.
I have been wanting to make cake with olive oil for some time now, and the abundance of lemons gave me the perfect opportunity because the combination is terrific.
ingredients:
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 large lemon (zest and juice)
1 cup flour
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
powdered sugar for dusting
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep a mini cupcake pan with liners.
Using a microplane, grate your lemon zest directly into the one cup of flour and set aside. I like to sort of infuse my flour when cooking with lemons, to get the mixture going before I even start baking.
In a small bowl, squeeze all the juice out of the lemon and set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugar until thick and pale. On low, slowly add the flour mixture, then the olive oil, and finally the lemon juice.
You will get a beautiful glossy batter. Pour the batter into the prepped baking cups. Bake for 10-15 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
Once cool and ready to serve, dust the powdered sugar over the tops of the cakes. What you will have a nice moist, perfectly light cake, ideal for an afternoon snack. But my kids like them for breakfast!
Kid's lunches, simple dinners and a whole lot of geeky baking.
so. damn. cute.
These look SO yummy. I love tea cakes and will definitely be giving them a try sometime!
would there be a way to make this in loaf form? do you have any idea how the recipe would have to be adjusted? i dont have mini cupcake pans (or regular ones for that matter)!
@becca This would work in mini loaf pans really well. I’d add a few minutes to the cooking time, I’m not sure how many since I don’t know what kind of pans you are using, but just check with a toothpick test and you should be all good.
hmm ok. i pretty much just have a regular quickbread size loaf pan and an 8×8… we are poor college students afterall! i can do some investigation and try to borrow a pan from a friend, this recipe just looks amazing!
and ps thanks so much for your speedy reply!
Jenn, you always have great recipes. I tried this over the weekend (I’ve also got a million lemons at my house) and it came out just lovely.
Do you mind if I post the recipe on my blog, but link it back to your blog?
Your recipes all look fantastic- I can’t wait to try them- but I’m almost equally enamored of the Alice plate! Where did you get that?
I get all my plates at Fishs Eddy in New York – best place ever!!
http://www.fishseddy.com
I love your site Jenn! Where did you find those muffin liners?
These look delicious and I will definitely be trying them soon….might try to make them vegan because of my youngest daughters allergies. Thanks for posting this recipe!
love your creations! my dad has cholesterol problems so these should be great for him! just wondering whether the same recipe will work in normal sized cupcake cases instead of mini??
also where did you get the adorable patty cases?
thank you!
@britt
The recipe will work fine in regular sized cupcake liners.
I’m just wondering…how moist are they supposed to be? I made some, did the toothpick test, and let them cool. The centers are very olive oily compared to the outside. ARe they undercooked? They taste great, though…should they be one texture throughout? Thanks!