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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
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Italian Lemon Olive Oil Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
Italian Lemon Olive Oil Cake:
- 1 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil or Canola Oil
- 3 Eggs
- 1 1/3 cup Whole Milk
- 1 Tablespoon Fresh Lemon Juice
- 2 Tablespoons Fresh Lemon Zest
- 2 Cups Sugar
- 2 Cups Flour
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon Salt
Filling:
- 1 cup Lemon Curd
Lemon Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 1/2 cup Butter softened
- 1 - 8 ounce package Cream Cheese softened
- 4 cups Powdered Sugar may need 1/4 cup more depending on consistency
- 1 Tablespoon Fresh Lemon Juice
- 1/2 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.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I can’t wait to hear what you think of this Italian Lemon Olive Oil Cake. Find me on Instagram at @modern_honey.
I prefer things less sweet so I only put in 1 1/3 cup of sugar and twice as much lemon juice and zest in the cake. Everyone loved it. I got four requests for the recipe and I included my variations. Th reports back were also positive. I am making it again today for m mother’s birthday.
Trying that for a dinner party! We love pronounced lemon flavor too.
Wow!! Just made this cake for my eldest daughter’s birthday. It was amazing!! Everyone loved it. I used lemon olive oil and it was truly one of the best cakes ever. Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful recipes.
I made this cake for a work party recently. It was a HUGE hit. People were raving about it. It’s really a great recipe. The only thing I changed was that I did a lemon glaze over the cake instead of a frosting. One of my three stepsons also says this is his favorite cake that I make. And I make a lot of cakes. This is a keeper and I will be making it again.
I made this cake on a whim and didn’t even ice it. It was eaten within 12 hours by the four of us in the house. So good! Will make again!
My friend asked for an olive oil cake for her 70th birthday party. I had never made an olive oil cake but found your recipe, read the many favorable reviews, and made it. So easy and so delicious! Everyone loved it! The birthday girl said it was the best cake she had ever had. A complete winner. People were fighting for the last piece. Thank you!
Can this cake be made in 6” tins 3 layers?
My daughter requested a lemon cake for her birthday. I can only speak to the cake at this point and not the filling for frosting but the cake was great. I halved the recipe to try it before the party. It was an easy recipe to follow and it took around 40-45 min in the oven. A lot longer then I thought it would. But the cake is light and the lemon flavor really comes through. Highly recommend.
I just made this cake, gluten free, and it came out Fabulous! I’m surprised I even though it was too sweet. Next time I’ll cut the cake sugar down to 1 cup. I made two 8″ cakes and cooked for 42 minutes in my convection oven. Since I didn’t notice it called for 3 8″ pans, I decided to cut my cakes in half so I had four layers. On the first layer I put just the lemon curd, the next layer frosting, the next layer curd and topped it off with frosting on the top and sides. Next time I won’t chill the frosting, it was too hard to work with so I had to bring it back to room temperature. Tis is a great recipe! I also used a jar of lemon juice from whole foods – organic fresh squeezed. The taste of the cake, frosting and curd cannot be beat.
Hi. I dont have a big oven that can fit in 2 pans. Can I put all the batter into a 9’inch pan and bake, then only slice it into 2 before assembling it? Would that be possible?
This cake is absolutely yummy, and fun to make. Before I tried olive oil cake, I thought it sounded crazy, but gosh it’s delicious! I either got the wrong kind of lemons, or I need a better zester, because it was hard for me to get enough zest, but I managed it without too many grated knuckles. 😉 Thank you for this wonderful recipe, my family loved it for Easter dinner.
I plan on making this cake for Easter and want to make it on Saturday. Does this cake need to be refrigerated?
P.S. I made your Chocolate Cake and it was so delicious and received rave reviews and a recipe request!
Thank you for your awesome recipes!