Lemon Olive Oil Cake

I love this cake! It’s super simple, but can be made into a real Show Stopper!

The lemon & olive oil works really well together - just be sure to use a good quality olive oil because this will produce the best flavour.

Cream cheese frosting is great with this cake. When making cream cheese frosting I always buy full fat cream cheese, and I try to get the driest cream cheese I can - because this allows you to beat it without it becoming liquid. American style cream cheese is best for this, but that can be hard to find in stores in the UK. If you can’t find a dry consistency cream cheese, don’t worry. As long as you make the frosting in advance and leave it to set in the fridge, preferably overnight, it should be the perfect consistency to pipe or spread!

Ingredients:

For the cake:

4 eggs

200g golden caster sugar

200g plain flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

160g extra virgin olive oil

40ml milk

Zest & juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

For the cream cheese frosting:

250g unsalted butter, softened

250g icing sugar

500g cream cheese

Juice of 1 lemon

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180℃ - 160℃ fan, and grease and line two 8” sandwich tins.

Crack the room-temperature eggs into a bowl and and add the golden caster sugar. Using a free standing or hand held mixer, whip on high speed until the mixture is pale and has tripled in volume.

Once the eggs and sugar are whipped, gently fold in the lemon and vanilla, being careful not to beat out any air.

Combine together the plain flour and baking powder, and sift this over the surface of the egg mixture, fold in - once again being careful not to beat out any air. Now fold in the olive oil and milk - you guessed it...be careful not to beat out the air!

Turn the mixture out into the tins. Place in the pre-heated oven and bake for 30 mins. Or until golden brown, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Once baked, leave the cakes to cool in their tins for 10 mins and then turn them out and leave them until they are completely cooled.

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For the frosting

Using a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or by hand, beat the softened butter and icing sugar together until soft. Then beat in the lemon juice.

Add the cream cheese and mix until incorporated and smooth. Be careful not to beat too much otherwise your frosting will become too runny.

Leave to set in the fridge until needed.

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Remember to tag me in your bakes on Instagram! - @cameronolamnb