Lemon Olive Oil Cake
Everyone needs a vibrant, light, fluffy, moist lemon cake recipe up their sleeves. Easter is coming up and it wouldn't be complete for me without a beautiful, seasonal lemon cake. My Grandma Faye loved all things lemon so it was essential at our Easter Sunday dinner. Her recipe, albeit wonderful, uses a cake mix and I wanted to create one from scratch. You can't beat homemade!
Back in the day when I was competing in recipe contests, I found a contest where the grand prize was a trip to Italy! It had been at the top of my bucket list for years. I went straight to the kitchen and went to work! It was for Bertolli olive oil and since I assumed most people would go the savory route, I went to dessert. I wanted to create an Italian Lemon Cake using olive oil, reminiscent of the Tuscany countryside.
The result was a melt-in-your-mouth lemon cake that was not only super tender, fluffy, and moist but had a heavenly fresh lemon flavor as well.
This Italian Lemon Olive Oil Cake is the perfect lemon cake.
The frosting can make or break a cake. So many of the frosting found on bakery cakes are overly sweet. This lemon vanilla cream cheese frosting uses butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and grated lemon zest.
This creamy, silky frosting is the most ideal accompaniment to this fabulous Italian Lemon Olive Oil Cake. A zester makes it much easier to remove only the best parts of the lemon.
This cake does call for olive oil and the wonderful thing is that you can use canola, vegetable, or coconut oil as well. I have made this cake many, many times and have used both canola oil and coconut oil with much success. You can even use coconut oil and top the cake with coconut flakes.
My favorite cake pan is this one from USA Pan Bakeware Round Cake Pan, 8 inch. My favorite tool to use to frost a cake is definitely this Wilton angled spatula.
Click HERE to find all of my favorite essential kitchen products in one place.
If you love cake, here are some of the most popular cake recipes:
- Love at First Sight Chocolate Cake
- Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting
- Orange Cake
- Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Lemon Olive Oil Cake
- Southern Caramel Cake with Salted Caramel Frosting
- Coconut Cake
- Vanilla White Texas Sheet Cake
Italian Lemon Olive Oil Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
Italian Lemon Olive Oil Cake:
- 1 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil or Canola Oil
- 3 Eggs
- 1 ⅓ cup Whole Milk
- 1 Tablespoon Fresh Lemon Juice
- 2 Tablespoons Fresh Lemon Zest
- 2 Cups Sugar
- 2 Cups Flour
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon Salt
Filling:
- 1 cup Lemon Curd
Lemon Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting:
- ½ cup Butter softened
- 1 - 8 ounce package Cream Cheese softened
- 4 cups Powdered Sugar may need ¼ cup more depending on consistency
- 1 Tablespoon Fresh Lemon Juice
- ½ teaspoon Lemon Zest plus more for garnish
- 1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla or Vanilla Beans optional
Garnish:
- Lemon Zest
- Blackberries
- Mint
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- In a large mixing bowl, add oil, eggs, whole milk, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Cream for 2 minutes. In large bowl, add sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir into egg mixture and fold. Spray two 9-inch or three 8-inch cake pans with nonstick cooking spray. Place batter into baking pans. If using three 8-inch pans, bake for 20-26 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. If using two 9-inch pans, bake for 30-36 minutes. Cool.
To make frosting:
- In a large bowl, cream together butter and cream cheese for 4-5 minutes until light and fluffy, scraping sides of bowl often. Add powdered sugar, lemon juice, vanilla and lemon zest and cream together. Chill.
To assemble cake:
- Remove cakes from pan. Spread frosting on top of one cooled cake layer. Place other cooled cake layer on top and spread frosting all over. Garnish with lemon zest and fresh blackberries.
- Optional: Spread lemon curd on first cake layer and then top with frosting.
- Let chill for 20-30 minutes to let the frosting set up.
I can't wait to hear what you think of this Italian Lemon Olive Oil Cake. Find me on Instagram at @modern_honey.
Anna
An absolutely perfect recipe! I do reduce the sugar a bit and it doesn't make any difference. This cake makes everybody happy! It comes out great every time I make it! I also do not put the lemon ganache in it and just make it with the frosting and again it's everyone's favorite!
Amber
I have made this cake before and it was delicious. Although, I am wondering if we could substitute whole milk for a non dairy milk such as almond milk.. Has anyone tried that?
Mar
I have used unsweetened almond milk every time I’ve made this recipe and it always turns out amazing.
Monica
I made this cake for my family and it was a hit! Even my father in law, who never eats dessert, ate an entire slice. Highly recommend this recipe.
Kerry
How should this cake be stored and how long will it keep at its best for?
Meg
When you guys use olive oil, do you use EVOO… aka REAL olive oil, not a blend? Cold-pressed, olive oil? What brand? Curious…..
Thank you!
KC
Hi Meg!
I use EVOO whatever brand I have on hand doesn’t matter. Even the robust flavor. Amazing flavor and texture!
KC
Looks amazing!! Did you win the contest??
Alex
Seriously the best cake ever. People keep asking me for the recipe! I just printed out a second hard copy of this recipe as you never know when a website link expires and I can’t lose this cake recipe!! Thank you!!!
Netanya Perluss
The recipe turned out amazing!!! I added fresh raspberries to the lemon curd filling and on top as decoration and they were a big hit. I added more lemon zest and lemon juice than the recipe called for (approx. 2 lemons' worth) and loved the lemony flavor.
Carla Pagliarello
My family and friends lovooove this cake. The first time I made it was last March for my daughters wedding in our home. We were 20 people and everyone raved about it. Since then it’s been requested for every occasion including our granddaughter’s first birthday this weekend. I use the lemon curd every time. The only modification I’ve made is when icing the cake I do a small ring of icing before adding the curd otherwise it can bleed through the icing on side of cake. My gf is making it using mini Bundt pans with curd in center hole topped with whipped cream, amd I’m using three 6 inch pans to make a tall version for my granddaughter. Always turns out delicious. Thank you for inventing this yummy recipe.
Jen S
Thank you for this recipe- quick question
Do you use Meyer lemons?
Bee
I made this in a 9x13 pan and baked for 40 minutes. I used only 1 cup of sugar based on some of the reviews. It was PERFECT! No filling or icing (trying to cut down sugar)... still perfect!
Amelia
Beautiful cake and very light. I did decreased the sugar to 1 1/2 cups and only used 1/2 the frosting. I will be making it again.
Donna Brown
This cake was really good,I made this cake over the weekend and my family loved it.Thanks so much for sharing this recipe!
Ann
I love this cake! What adjustments should be made to make it in a bundt cake pan? One problem I have with your website, is that it jumps around a lot, and it is hard to stay on one recipe. I enjoy your recipes- but not the difficulty with using it. I am giving this feedback so that hopefully your website manager, or you, if that is the case, can look at this. Thanks so much!
Jen
I was asked to use this recipe to make a wedding cake for my brother in law’s wedding. I have practiced making it a couple of times before the big day and it is amazing! I added lemon curd in between the layers and everyone that has tried this cake so far has loved it. The first time I made it, the cakes stuck to the pans, but the second time I used butter and flour and parchment paper and the cakes came out so easily and didn’t stick to the pan.
Anton
Hi been making your cake every week just because my family and I absolutely love this cake! If I’m making a big batch of this, do I just simply x2 everything? How would you approach it? Thanks!!
Karla Tulk
Hey- wanted to make this cake while at a camp and have limited supplies. I forgot baking soda and all that is hear is bakers ammonia and baking powder. Any suggestions on how to still complete this cake with success?
Isobel Hughes
Can I make this cake a 3 layer 6” round tins?
Toni
Made this cake for friends 45 wedding anniversary…we all loved it!
Do you think this would work for cupcakes? Thought they would be great with the lemon curd inside! Please let me know what you think.
Thanks
Sneha
Thank you for sharing this recipe, I used 1.5 cups sugar, still it was quite sweet for us, next time planning to use 1.25 cups. Other than that, this cake was awesome.
Grace
This cake was seriously good and I sure hope it won the olive oil contest! I did it with a layer of lemon curd in the middle and icing on the top and sides. I found an olive oil lemon curd recipe that worked well. Also the recipe doesn’t indicate what type of flour to use - I used all purpose. I don’t love icing sugar in icing so I used just 3 cups instead of 4. It was a softer icing but I didn’t mind as it makes it easier to control (I really just don’t love a lot of icing). Thanks so much for sharing this recipe! I couldn’t sit down after serving it because people were already asking for seconds.
Sam
We just made this cake using gluten-free flour and Rocky Mountain Olive Oil EVOO - super heavy polyphenol stuff - and it turned out awesome!
Modern Honey
Love it! Sounds amazing. I haven't tried this recipe with gluten-free flour yet so I love to hear that it turned out well. Thank you for taking the time to write a review -- I appreciate it.