This time of year, Rebecca is always reminded of a supper club of sorts that she and her husband shared with their good friends in Plymouth. Their friends have since moved away to California, and in April four years ago - right before they moved in May - the group held dinner parties nearly every weekend to soak up as much time together as they could before the big move. For each dinner menu, they created a theme related to a certain global cuisine. One of Rebecca's favorite dinners in that series was the Spanish tapas night! It was so fun experimenting with familiar ingredients in very different ways, such as this Spanish Olive Oil & Lemon Cake recipe that she brought for the dessert. We're so familiar with using olive oil in savory recipes, but this ingredient is an absolute star in this lightly sweetened cake. Rebecca hopes you will give it a try!
| Servings: 8 slices |
Prep: 15 minutes
|
Cook: 50 minutes |
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups cake flour (180 g) (all-purpose flour can be substituted)
- ¼ cup finely ground almonds (30 g) (you can pulse raw almonds in the food processor until a powder but not a paste, or buy almond meal or almond flour)
- ¼ teaspoon of salt (1 g)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder (10 g)
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200 g)
- Zest from two lemons
- 3 large eggs
- ¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (60 ml)
- Scant 1 cup approx. 220ml of full fat unsweetened Greek yogurt
- ⅔ cup Spanish extra virgin olive oil (160 ml)
- Powdered sugar to top the cake
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C) and then grease and flour a 9 inch cake pan.
- In a medium sized bowl mix together the flour, ground almonds, salt and baking powder.
- Massage the lemon zest into the sugar by rubbing it with your fingers, allowing the sugar to become infused with the zest's flavor.
- In a separate bowl, beat the sugar and eggs on medium high (I use a hand mixer) for about two minutes (the mixture should have doubled in size and lightened in color).
- Now, whisk in the lemon juice and Greek yogurt on a low speed.
- Finally, add the olive oil by slowly drizzling it in while mixing on low.
- When combined, fold in the flour mixture by hand using a rubber spatula. Stop mixing as soon as everything is combined-- you don't want to over mix.
- Pour the batter into the greased and floured cake pan and bake about 50 minutes in a preheated (375°F/190°C) oven (or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with only a few crumbs).
- Take your cake out of the oven and let cool for at least 20 minutes before removing from the cake pan. Right before serving dust with powdered sugar.
Rebecca's Notes
- Begin watching and checking the cake done-ness at the 40 minute mark, as at 50 minutes the exterior of the cake gets a bit over-browned
- Consider using a 9" springform cake pan for those super sharp corners
- Recipe courtesy of Spanish Sabores