Lemon Olive Oil Cake, dairy-free recipe

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This dead-easy, dairy-free lemony Lemon Olive Oil Cake is one of, like, three dessert recipes I actually bake because I can't bake to save my loaf. In fact, the only other recipes for baked goods on this site are essentially variations on this Olive Oil Cake (links to those recipes included), and of course, banana bread.

At some point I will come full circle and bake an olive oil banana bread.

You can watch a short video of my making the cake here.

As a quick note, all of the Olive Oil Cake recipes I've shared so far are dairy-free, and it's partially by design because I don't usually keep milk, buttermilk or even yogurt on hand.

Everything else you need for this cake, you probably already have in your refrigerator and pantry.

What You Need for Lemon Olive Oil Cake

Because this Olive Oil Cake is something I decide to make on some random Wednesday afternoon, I want to be able to bake it right away without having to go to the grocery store to buy additional ingredients. I almost always have flour in the freezer and sugar because it doesn't go bad, and always have lemons, olive oil, and eggs, obviously.

Here is a list of the ingredients you need:

• flour
• sugar
• pantry leaveners like baking powder and salt
• eggs
• lemons
• good olive oil (obviously!)

Ingredients NOTES and RESOURCES for Lemon Olive Oil Cake

1. Flour. You can use any form of wheat flour for Lemon Olive Oil Cake. I used this brand of organic, unbleached, all-purpose flour. I have made this cake with half whole wheat flour and as expected, it works perfectly well.
2. Olive Oil. The point of this Lemon Olive Oil Cake is the olive oil, so use the best-tasting (to you) olive oil you can afford. For an olive oil cake, it's probably best to go with an olive oil on the deeper, fruitier side rather than on the intense, peppery side.  I like this California-grown olive oil, but it's also VERY expensive, so I am saving that for times when I am eating straight olive oil like as a dip for bread, and using this mild, organic olive oil for the cake.
3. Lemons: I generally use Meyer lemons for everything because that's what my Mom gives me from her trees, but for this Olive Oil Cake, I used organic regular yellow lemons because I like how tart they are for this cake. You can use Meyer lemons if you have them; the cake will be ever so slightly sweeter!
4. All other fresh herbs and produce from either the Santa Monica Farmers' Market on Wednesday, or Whole Foods Market when I can't find what I need at the farmers' market.

TOOLS and EQUIPMENT

There isn't any special tool or piece of equipment required for this cake. I used a springform pan because that's the type of pan I have that's the right size (8-inch). You can absolutely use a regular round cake pan that's well-greased to make removal easy. You can also use other shaped pans, see below in the FAQ.

 

Pro Tips and Tricks

• How much lemon juice and zest come from one lemon? On average, one large, very juicy lemon yields 1 teaspoon of lemon zest and about 3 tablespoons of lemon juice. So for this recipe, plan to use 2 lemons, but grab an extra just in case. You can never have too many lemons laying around your kitchen!
• How to Get the Most Lemon Zest and Juice : Zest the whole lemon first on a microplane grater. Your lemon will soften a little in your hands as you're grating. Roll the zested lemon on a countertop with some pressure to "loosen the juice" inside. Cut the lemon in half, then squeeze for juice. This way will help you get the most zest and juice from your lemons. No waste!
• Can You Use a Different Size Cake Pan to Bake the Cake? Yes! Because this Olive Oil Cake is so forgiving, you can use slightly different sized and shaped pans. A slightly larger 9-inch round cake pan will yield a thinner (flatter) cake, and needs to bake for a shorter time. Check the cake at 40 minutes.
• Can You Bake the Cake in a Loaf Pan? Yes! In an 8-inch loaf pan, bake the cake for a little longer. The cake will have a slightly deeper golden "crust" because it's in the oven for longer, but it's still cake.

Ingredients Substitutions

The recipe for this cake is called "fool-proof" because it is very forgiving in terms of ingredients and measurement precision. Here are the pro-tips:

• What Kind of Flour? You can use any form of wheat flour for Lemon Olive Oil Cake. This brand of organic, unbleached, all-purpose flour is the one I use. Because I don't bake that many things, nor that often, I don't keep all kinds of specialty flours. I have made this cake with half whole wheat flour and as expected, it works perfectly well. For gluten-free flours... glad you asked! See next...
• Can You Make it Gluten-free? Yes! Two baking-ready gluten-free flours my gluten-free experts friends have recommended are Measure-for-Measure by King Arthur and Pamela's, both of which you can substitute into recipes 1:1.
• Can You Make it Vegan? If you replace the eggs with an appropriate plant-based egg substitute, the cake will be vegan. That being said...
• Can you Replace the Eggs? I have not yet made this Olive Oil Cake with an egg substitute, either store-bought or something like ground flaxseeds. If you do, please let me know how it turns out!
• Can You Substitute Out the Olive Oil? The point of this cake is olive oil. If you want to use a different oil or melted butter, make a different cake. (That being said, you can absolutely substitute another oil or melted butter in this recipe, it will generally have the same texture, but just taste different.)
• Can You Use Other Citrus Besides Lemons? Yes! The lemon is for both flavor and acid to help activate the baking soda. Use any other citrus in the same amounts for the zest and juice. I have made this cake with oranges and blood oranges as well, and they both turned out great.

Olive Oil Cake Variations and More Recipes

If you, like me, store olive oil by the half gallon jugs but don't remember the last time you bought butter (it was probably back during Thanksgiving tbh), olive oil cakes will be your go-to cake. Try making these slight variations on Olive Oil Cake.

• Upside Down Orange Olive Oil Cake: line the parchment-paper in the baking pan with a single layer of razor-thin slices of orange. Pour batter over, and bake as directed. After baking, let cool in pan 20 minutes, then invert cake onto cooking rack or serving platter.
• Meyer Lemon Thyme Olive Oil Cake recipe, also dairy-free, slightly smaller in volume than the Olive Oil Cake in this recipe, baked in a Bundt or loaf pan.
• Rosemary Olive Oil Cake with Candied Rosemary recipe, dairy-free, baked in 8-inch round cake pan

Wine Pairing for Lemon Olive Oil Cake

My suggested wine pairing for this Lemon Olive Oil Cake is a late harvest Sauvignon Blanc. Specifically, the one from Merry Edwards is a sweet dessert wine with notes of "honeysuckle, candied ginger, toasted almonds and lemon meringue," so it's perfect with the flavors in the cake. If you have the bottle open while you're baking, you could even add 2 to 4 tablespoons of the wine along with the lemon juice!