Olive Oil Cake

This is a great little cake that whips up in under an hour with less than 10 minutes of work. I like to make it when I have last minute company, or people coming over for breakfast. It is sweet but not too sweet, simple and bright, wonderful served with berries and great all by itself. Be very careful not to over mix it, as the center will sink. You can use an electric hand mixer; however I usually whisk it up by hand which makes it much harder to over mix.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup almond flour

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/4 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Juice and zest of 2 lemons

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Confectioners' sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a 9 inch round cake tin with parchment paper. Add the sugar and eggs to a bowl and whisk until thick and combined. Slowly whisk in the olive oil, followed by the lemon zest, and then the juice. Whisk in the vanilla.

For a more reliable finish - mix the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl. I usually skip that step and dump them all directly in with the raising agents on top of the flour - and then sort of stir the baking powder and soda into the flour before stirring it all into the wet ingredients. Stir the flour into the the egg mixture until just barely combined. Immediately pour it into the the prepared cake pan - do not let the mixture sit - and put it into the oven. The baking soda reaction will start the second it hits the acidic lemon, and you want that reaction as much as possible to happen in the oven.

Bake for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees fahrenheit until golden and a skewer comes out clean. Let it cool for 30 minutes in the pan, then turn it out and dust with powdered sugar.