Lemon Olive Oil Cake

I don’t know what it is about winter, but I love making summery desserts.  Maybe it’s the fresh flavours that remind me of things to come.  Momentarily, I am transported into the future as I bite into a slice of lemon cake.  Just for a moment it’s a breezy summer evening then in a flash I realize that breeze is actually the a gush of winter wind that I feel as my husband opens the front door.

Have I mentioned how much I dislike winter, no? But I’m pretty sure that I have hinted at it.  I get the winter blues, no amount of vitamin D will ever cure the winter blues.  As you also may have noticed I don’t do much blogging in the winter. It gets so dark quickly that I can’t take a decent picture that is blog worthy. But every once in a while I come back to my blog and tell myself to snap out of it and to post something new.

So here it is, my Lemon Olive Oil Cake.  It’s one of those recipes that I had wanted to try for a while.  This cake is definitely a keeper.  It comes together quickly and the result is a moist, tangy cake with a hint of olive oil.  The moistness comes from a simple lemon flavoured syrup. I was a little worried that it would be über greasy and the olive oil would monopolize the overall taste.  I was wrong on both accounts.  It’s topped with a lemon glaze which I thought it could do without, but my husband begs to differ.  The recipe actually didn’t call for the glaze, but I wanted to dress it up.

Lemon Olive Oil Cake – adapted from www.mindbodygreen.com

For the cake:

1 1/2 cups white all-purpose unbleached flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of sea salt
2 teaspoons lemon peel
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 cup good olive oil

For the syrup:

1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice

For the icing:

1 cup organic powdered sugar
3 tablespoons Meyer lemon juice (or regular lemon juice)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 inch spring form pan with olive oil, and flour the bottom of the pan.

In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the lemon zest and mix well.

In a large bowl, combine the yogurt, sugar, eggs and olive oil. Whisk until well combined. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and whisk again until both are incorporated.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool the cake for 15 minutes and then remove the sides of the pan. Prick the cake all over with a fork, whisk the syrup ingredients together, and then drizzle the syrup all over the cake.

Allow the cake to cool for another 30 minutes or so and then whisk the icing ingredients together. Using a  spoon cover the top of the cake with the icing.

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