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!
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.
How to make olive oil pound cake:
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)
- all-purpose flour
- sugar
- large eggs
- whole 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!
Loved it! Made it for Easter and served with fresh strawberries. Moist cake with just the right crisp crust and lemon tang.
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.
I so enjoyed making this! I did substitute the lemon zest for extract. I
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!
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 🙂
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!
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!
Wonderful…I made this in a muffin pan…so good!
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 🙂
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!
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 🙂
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!
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 🙂
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!
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 🙂
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!
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?
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 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
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!
It is soooo good! I reduced sugar to 1/2 cup, but still sweet. Thank you!
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!
Fabulous cake! Definitely has a longer prep time than “5 MINS”–but completely worth the time! Try it with lemon curd topping…heavenly
Made this a couple of times and love it. Was wondering if I could swap honey for sugar and if yes, how much?
Thank you!
This is delicious. I modified it by:
-switching out the flour for a gluten free flour blend that already has xanthan gum in it (the package specifically stated it is a 1:1 with wheat flour)
-adding an additional 1/2 teaspoon of xanthan gum with the flour
-using unsweetened almond milk
-cutting down the sugar to 1 cup
I baked it for 57 minutes and I think I would 55 min next time, as the edges came out a touch dry. Otherwise, this cake is excellent. I would even put in a touch less sugar next time!
Just made this to take to mom’s today!! So easy! So good!! Follow the recipe! I should’ve made 2!!!
Easy and delicious. I used only 1/3 of the sugar recommended – just over 1/2 cup – and it was to my liking. I did add both nutmeg and cinnamon.
I thought the cake was done baking very early but left it in after seeing the nice golden-brown crust in your photos – and I was rewarded with the delicious, crunchy crust! Will definitely make this again.
Ive tried this recipe many times and it was absolutely delicious. because i dont like my cakes too sweet, i only put about 3/4 cup of sugar. also replaced it with almond milk and used sunflower oil. Works fine for me!
I was looking for a simple lemon cake recipe. I came across your site. I just made it. Topped it with a cream cheese frosting with a touch of lemon juice. Just Divine! Thanks!
I had grandparents coming over for Sunday lunch at short notice today, and needed something speedy and delicious to make for dessert. I only had oil in the house, no butter, and a bowl of lemons, so this was my first choice recipe and it DID NOT disappoint! Gorgeous crunchy top, moist middle. Really lovely!
I topped mine with lemon curd icing which was great with it (lemon curd, icing sugar and water).
I will be making again for sure! Clean plates all round.