One Bowl Lemon Olive Oil Pound Cake
This post may contain affiliate links. Please check our privacy and disclosure policy.
Today’s recipe is the simplest one bowl lemon olive oil pound cake ever! Perfectly tender and moist crumb cake that’s perfect for brunch, or dessert!
Did I just say olive oil pound cake?
Oh yes, I did. Olive oil. This stuff isn’t just for making savory dishes. It pairs so beautifully with lemons and a few select spices. And we use just enough olive oil to make the pound cake incredibly moist and tender.
Today’s lemon pound cake recipe inspired by our upcoming trip to Italy!
Can you tell I’m already dreaming about consuming my body weight in cheese, pasta, and pizza? I’m knee-deep in researching the best places to eat, things to do, and what to see and as I do all of this, I’d love to hear restaurant recommendations or activities!
Don’t ask my husband how many times he’s caught me practicing random phrases in Italian that I had Google translate for me. As I put together our itinerary, I can’t help but take a peek at the menus of the restaurants I’m researching. And that brings to me to an important question. When is it too early to decide what you’ll be ordering at a restaurant? Would you say just over a month is too early?
I’m already pretty set on what I’ll be getting at quite a few places.
But as I look through these menus, I keep getting all these ideas, and before I’ve even tasted all these offerings, I’m over here already making us risotto. Just the other day I finished booking our stay on the Amalfi coast which lead me to lemons. I’m told I need to eat any and everything with lemons while I’m there! And then I thought what’s more Italian than olive oil pound cake scented with lemons?
Don’t even ask me what’s going to happen when I’m back.
Cake for breakfast?
Not only is it acceptable here at our house, but it’s also encouraged. It’s not something that happens all the time, but when I’ve got an olive oil loaf (or three to be accurate,) bad things are bound to happen.
Last week I made a few of these lemon olive oil pound cakes. The first one, I started it off with all your usual suspects, a little flour, baking powder, granulated sugar and then I decided that yogurt was the way to go with this one and while the pound cake was tasty, both hubby and I preferred the second version I made, which I’ll get to in just a second. The first time I made this lemon olive oil pound cake, I shared a picture over on insta, and within minutes I had messages from people asking for the recipe. This makes my heart so happy!
As the olive oil pound cake was cooling, I noticed that the center of the pound cake started to sink. Two things cause this to happen usually. 1.) the oven temperature wasn’t correct (it was either too high or too low for this type of cake) and 2.) too much leavening which caused the cake to rise rapidly but it couldn’t support the weight, and therefore it collapsed in on itself. WHAMP WHAMP. Even with this flaw, the olive oil pound cake was gone in less than 24 hours. I split the loaf with my parents, our friends, and left just enough for me to taste and ponder over how I was going to rework this.
The second time I made this, I reduced the baking powder and kept everything else the same. Again, it was a bust. Though delicious, it once again sank in the middle.
The third time I made this pound cake, I swapped the yogurt for milk and added a squeeze of lemon juice to it. I threw in a dash of nutmeg and a smidge of cinnamon just the way I had in the first batch and voila! The crumb on this pound cake was tender and rich. This olive oil pound cake will stay super moist for days and is light in texture. Not at all dense the way you expect an olive oil pound cake to be.
What you need to make a lemon olive oil pound cake:
- olive oil (of course)
- flour
- sugar
- eggs
- milk
- baking powder
- lemon juice and lemon zest
- vanilla extract
- a pinch of each: nutmeg + cinnamon
The spices are entirely optional for today’s lemon pound cake recipe, but I promise you, I’ll never make this without them because they make the whole house smell DIVINE.
Overall, this olive oil pound cake is:
- Made using ONE BOWL. I repeat, just ONE BOWL.
- Tender and moist on the inside
- Sweet, but not too sweet
- Going to become your go-to dessert recipe
- An edible house freshener? What I’m trying to say is that it makes your house smell like a little corner bakery
What totally got me was that Anees loves this olive oil pound cake too. I mean that says a lot considering there isn’t an ounce of chocolate or mocha flavored anything in here! Side note: I legit had a talk with him about trying lemon flavored gelato while we were in Amalfi. I mean, you MUST.
I say we make olive oil pound cake a regular breakfast item.
Perfect to grab and go!
If you like this recipe, you might also like:
One Bowl Lemon Olive Oil Pound Cake
Today's recipe is the simplest one bowl lemon olive oil pound cake ever! Perfectly tender and moist crumb cake that's perfect for brunch, or dessert!
Ingredients
- ¾ cup olive oil
- 1 ½ cup granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- ½ cup milk (I used 2%)
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- pinch of EACH: nutmeg AND cinnamon (optional but sooo good)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 tablespoon EACH: vanilla extract, lemon zest, AND lemon juice
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
- PREP: Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350ºF. Spray a 9x5 loaf pan with cooking spray (you can also line it with a piece of parchment paper and leave an overhang to act as a handle to help remove the cake from the pan if you’re worried about the cake sticking.)
- STIR: In a large mixing bowl, whisk the olive oil, sugar, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and milk. When combined, stir in the lemon zest, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Fold in the flour until *just* combined. If you overmix, the pound cake will come out tough.
- BAKE: Pour the prepared batter into your loaf pan and bake for 55-65 minutes or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean. Cool the pound cake for roughly 30 minutes on a wire rack. Remove from the pan, and let cool to room temperature (about another 30 minutes.) Sometimes, I like to serve this dusted with a light coating of powdered sugar before slicing and serving!
We are a participant in both the RewardStyle and Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, which are affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com and through RewardStyle.
80 Comments on “One Bowl Lemon Olive Oil Pound Cake”
Fabulous cake! Definitely has a longer prep time than “5 MINS”–but completely worth the time! Try it with lemon curd topping…heavenly
Wow, thanks for this recipe! It was so easy to make and such a great turnout. I made 2/3 the recipe, for a smaller loaf, and instead of cinnamon/nutmeg/lemon zest I added cardamom and a touch of almond extract. The point is, the recipe scaled well and the recipe is a versatile base for other flavours beyond pure lemon, and the texture was wonderful. I also added a glaze of icing sugar and milk. The cake tasted rich and delicious despite that there was no butter, only olive oil. It had a great crumb and was moist and satisfying. Thank you!
It is soooo good! I reduced sugar to 1/2 cup, but still sweet. Thank you!
I just finished eating a slice of this lovely cake and it’s so satisfying. I love finding recipes that use olive oil instead of butter and this didn’t disappoint. It was easy to make and I’m guessing it will disappear very quickly. I will be making it again!
I love this recipe! So much more delicious than a traditional pound cake and letting it sit makes a HUGE difference! I’ve made it a few times with some tweaks, I used the juice of a full lemon and adjusted the amount of milk to the total volume of liquid was the same and it worked just fine. The only thing was I used an 8inch loaf pan so I adjusted the oven temp and time a little. Thanks for the fantastic recipe
Made this recipe for the first time last evening, using one of the two Meyer Lemons produced by our little tree! My hubs and I both love it. It’s super moist and lemony inside, complimented beautifully by the warm savoriness (is that a word?) and depth of the olive oil. And that caramelized crust!! Today I’ll use our second and last Meyer lemon in another loaf.
I’d like to try and make it for my family, however a few members really won’t try desserts I make because of sugar. Can I use less sugar?
I’ve made this once and loved it. I’m going to make it a second time and I’d like to add rosemary to this recipe. Will that work and wonder about quantity?
Hi Nancy! It should work just fine, I’d fold it when you’re adding flour. I’m not sure about the quantity as this isn’t something I’ve tested before. Enjoy!
Made this once and absolutely loved it! I wanna make it today but wanted to know if adding chocolate chip will ruin the taste
Hi there! I suggest trying this recipe if you’d like to add chocolate chips, it’s pretty similar and made in one bowl 🙂
Hi! How much yogurt did you use when you swapped it in for milk? Thanks!
Hi Lily! The recipe with yogurt was not successful. I suggest using milk and not yogurt for this recipe!
Super moist. Very easy. Not too sweet. Definitely one I’ll be making again.
Hi there! So glad to hear that! Appreciate you taking the time to leave a review 🙂
I am interested to make this in gluten free flour as my partner is gluten intolerant. I am interested to try this recipe with sorghum flour rather than almond flour. Sorghum flour contains more protein than all purpose flour. Any suggestion if I should add more of certain liquid or reduce amount of flour? I understand that this is a tricky question.
Hi Miranda! I’m not very familiar with sorghum flour and not sure what I would change in this recipe to achieve the best results. I feel this type of change would definitely require additional rounds of recipe testing. My suggestion would be to maybe search for a pound cake recipe made with sorghum and compare the ratio of liquids/leavening agents they use to this recipe. Then perhaps playing around with the wet ingredients in this recipe to see if you can achieve similar results. Hope that helps!
Delicious and super easy!! This was a big hit with my family. Especially loved how the exterior developed a hard, almost crystallized crust. A very nice contrast to the moist lemony interior. Definitely going to make it again soon!
So glad to hear you enjoyed it; that’s my favorite part too 🙂
So simple that a novice baker like myself did it. Turned out very yummy, better and more moist on the second day. Prep time was a bit longer since zesting lemons can take more than 5 minutes, more like 15-20 minutes. I also misread and mixed together all the dry ingredients into the flour, which I folded in last. It turned out ok. If I’m in a hurry next time, I would probably leave out the lemon zest to save time and add more cinnamon or other spices (ie, cardamom) instead. Thanks for posting such a great recipe!
Glad to hear you enjoyed it, Tammy!
What a great recipe. My first ever lemon cake.. I’d Post an image but can’t see how. I iced with a cream cheese lemon icing. Definitely a keeper. Thanks so much
Love how you added cream cheese icing – sound fantastic! Unfortunately, there isn’t a way to add a picture here, but feel free to tag me on instagram if you shared a picture there, would love to see 🙂
Wonderful…I made this in a muffin pan…so good!
Just made this cake this afternoon, it was is satisfying and easier than I thought. I used fresh lemon rind & let it cool with melted pats of butter.
that sounds delicious!
This recipe was AMAZING! I can’t eat dairy so I was worried I would taste the olive oil, but this pound cake had the perfect amount of vanilla, lemon juice and sugar to create a wonderful flavor! I used a gluten-free flour blend and I did have to bake mine for 90 minutes, but I would definitely recommend this recipe. 🙂
So glad it worked out for you, Michele! Thank you for letting me know that GF flour also works and the bake time on it!
My husband tried to make mayonnaise (olive oil, eggs, and lemon) but couldn’t get it to emulsify. I didn’t want to waste a cup of fine olive oil (during the current pandemic) so I went searching for an olive oil cake and found your recipe. I used 3/4 cup of his failed experiment, added an egg, some zest, and the rest of the ingredients in your recipe and voila! It came out beautifully. Thank you so much!
How clever! I would have never thought to do that! Thank you so much for taking the time to comment 🙂
Delightful cake! Easy recipe, delicious results! I baked it for 44 minutes in an 8×8 aluminum pan (I don’t have a loaf pan) and it was perfect! I cut the cake in half and then each half in slices so, somewhat resembled typical pound cake slices? The flavor was subtle and the lemon just present enough. I may have pinched too lightly with the cinnamon and nutmeg and next time I will pinch a bit more as I didn’t really notice them at all. The crumb is moist and the outer edge holds up nicely. A winner of a recipe!
Thank you for letting me know that this recipe also works in a square baking pan, I know others were interested in this as well. A more generous pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg is never a bad idea in my book 😉 I so appreciate you taking the time to come back and comment!
I so enjoyed making this! I did substitute the lemon zest for extract. I
Very delicious! Mine looks just like your picture. Followed the directions carefully but used a square pan.
JR, did you use an 8×8 pan? Glass or aluminum? Any modification on the bake time? I’d love to make this cake but don’t have a loaf pan.
Loved it! Made it for Easter and served with fresh strawberries. Moist cake with just the right crisp crust and lemon tang.
Ok my original comment was “the crust was pretty burnt and the lemon flavor was barely there” but on second thought I don’t think this is a bad thing. I like that the lemon flavor is understated and not too sugary, and the hard crust gave it structure. It actually wasn’t really burnt. The texture of this really is the star of the show. It’s not crumbly at all, but bouncy.
I dont have fresh lemon can lemon juice or lemon extract used as a substitute foe the lemon zest and if so how much?
Yes, just swap the fresh juice for bottled lemon juice (the same amount) and sub in about 1/8 teaspoon of lemon extract for the zest! Hope you enjoy the lemon pound cake
Can I use whole milk?
That will work!
This is a truly amazing cake. Simply wonderful. Six days later, this cake is still moist and delicious — even without a drizzle or glaze. I chose to make this with some leftover citrus — Meyer lemons and limes — and it is just dreamy. Because I am a citrus FREAK, I increased the total zest to 5t total — my only modification. I will be trying this with all kinds of citrus! Even my citrus-averse relatives thought this cake was lovely. Thank you so much for this excellent recipe!
Wow, baked these and nailed it at the first try because this recipe is GREAT.
Modifications I made:
-baked muffins instead, still at 350F. Watch them after 15 minutes, until done.
-did gluten free blend. I halved the recipe, so only needed 1 cup of flour. I blended 40-50% rice flour, 40% teff flour, 20% almond flour. Sorry, I’ve just got a rough estimate! The texture on these is fantastic. Can’t even tell they’re GF. And, I like being able to make my own blend of GF flour.
-used macadamia nut milk; I recommend the fattiest alternative milk you can get for baking
-halved the recipe, used two whole large eggs
-shaved off 30% of the sugar and it was still a tad too sweet for me. Sweeten to your liking, but I like it less sweet!
Yum! Thank you!! Can’t wait to make these agin and again.
It doesn’t seem like very much lemon juice or zest. Can I add more?
Really really yummy. The flavors are beautiful. I’ve made olive oil cakes before, tried various recipes including ones that add orange juice, etc. But this pound cake’s flavor is my favorite. Something about the cinnamon and nutmeg, gives it a lovely twist. Love this.
Can I substitute milk with buttermilk? I am reading to make it now and am out of milk!
Sorry, I’m not sure whether buttermilk would make a good substitute in this recipe. If you decide to give it a try, I would love to know how it went!
Wow!…Easy, Delicious, Scarfed Down!
First time a cake I’ve made has come out super moist.
Great recipe. Easy to follow and great results.
This recepie is FANTASTIC! ???
I did 1 cup each Unbleached Flour & Whole wheat
Flour & did 1 cup sugar and added some wildflower
Honey. Used a Bundt pan and baked 40min.
AMAZING! Thank you for such an easy recepie!
(Added a lemon glad too?)
I am so excited to try this recipe, but I need to make it gluten free. Do you think swapping out the regular AP flour for a gluten free one-to-one flour would be ok?
Hi there! I’m glad to hear you’d like to try this recipe. Unfortunately, without further recipe testing it’s difficult for me to say whether that will work. In theory, the 1-1 baking mix should directly replace flour without hiccups, however I don’t feel confident saying yes as I haven’t tested it before!
Great recipe! I just made it with stevia (30 packets) and almond milk substituting for the sugar and milk and it turned out well – although cooked it only 45-50 minutes. I’m going to serve it for Easter dinner with a fresh raspberry sauce.
I made this Sunday afternoon. I had bought some Meyers Lemon and used that in the cake recipe! Just enough hint of lemon! Yum!!
And Perfect it came was. Halved the bake time by putting it in a regular square 9″ cake dish. Had guests and it was the perfect quick choice. Thanks for a great recipe.
Can you add poppy seeds or do you think it will alter the taste ?
Thanks so much !
I think that would be delish ??
Did you use regular olive oil or EVOO? How much difference would it make if you used EVOO?
Just regular olive oil, no need to splurge on EVOO. If EVOO is what you’d like to use, I don’t think it’ll make a huge difference in terms of taste here, should work just fine!
Hi Marzia,
Can I use Pastry Flour instead of AP flour? I have a ton and i’m trying to use it up! Thanks for your advise, I really would love to make this cake!!
Unfortunately pastry flour isn’t a good sub for all purpose here! All purpose flour gives this cake a tighter crumb and using a lower protein flour (such as pastry) would change the overall texture of the cake.
Wow. This sounds amazing. I can’t wait to try it. Do you think it could be made into muffins instead of a loaf? Just adjust the cook time?
I think muffins could work, haven’t tried it before though! And yes, I suggest adjusting the baking time. I’d keep an eye on it starting at 15 minutes! 🙂
Hi, any recs on the type of olive oil? Do you want to use a better tasting one so it stands out in the cake? Thanks!
Entirely up to you! If you enjoy the taste of olive oil, I’d use one that’s stronger and really stands out. I used a couple different mainstream brands when testing and we weren’t able to tell the loaves apart by much afterwards, so I wouldn’t say the flavor carries through too much at the end here!
This looks delicious! I’m on a limited diet due to my baby’s allergies– do you know if this can be made with an alternative milk, such as almond milk?
I haven’t tried it before, but I think almond milk should work just fine here!
What a great recipe! Just the right amount of tart and sweet. I wouldn’t even let being out of milk stop me from making this. I swapped in vanilla kefir and it turned out great!
Wow. What a perfect recipe! I was missing Italy and have been baking a lot lately and wanted to try my hand at an olive oil cake as I reminisced on a delicious one that was served to me upon my arrival in Pompeii, but I wanted to use my new loaf pan. It came out PERFECT. The lemon flavor is so light and just right, it’s so moist in the center, and the crust is just divine. I’ve never been so proud of something I baked! Thanks for making this recipe that I will he recreating for years to come!
Oven temperature? I cant find it anywhere! Cake now in at 170 fan……fingers crossed!
Please see step #1.
The recipe has the vanilla in the ingredients, but not in the instructions.
Please see step #2.
Great recipe. I used vegetable oil and eggs straight out of the fridge but thankfully it turned out perfectly. Simple, not too sweet and easy to make. Thank you.
A lovely, easy to make not too sweet cake that was great served with fresh strawberries. I put the vanilla in with the lemon zest as it is mentioned in the ingredients but not in the directions. Beating the eggs before adding and mixing the baking powder with the flour will make it even easier to mix. Thanks for a great recipe!
Hi Vivian! The lemon zest is mentioned and used in step 2, must’ve just missed it. I’m glad you enjoyed the pound cake recipe though, it’s one of my absolute favorites! 🙂
Thanks for such a great post shared here.
Let me try this.
Made this cake a couple of days ago, it was really lovely & super easy to make, I cut myself a decent slice with a few dollops of vanilla yoghurt, yummy indeed, thanks for sharing Marzia
Oh this looks delicious and so easy to make! And easy to source ingredients. Love your term “edible house freshener”. I’m excited for your trip to Italy… and it’s okay to plan your food choices before you even go! ?
Haha! Thanks Laurie! 🙂