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This One Bowl Lemon Olive Oil Pound Cake is perfection! The crumb is tender and moist, and the flavor is just incredible.
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. And honestly, I’m just transported back to the Amalfi Coast all over again.
My intentions for this lemon olive oil pound cake was for it to be sweet, but not too sweet. Easily swappable if you wanted to use orange zest instead of lemon. And also, something a little different than my whole orange cake.
So this recipe starts the way most do, you’ll need flour, baking powder, and granulated sugar. But instead of using butter in the batter, if using olive oil. And I’ll tell you this: I’ve even swapped the olive oil for extra virgin Meyer lemon olive and this pound cake comes out perfect every single time.
First time a cake I’ve made has come out super moist. Great recipe. Easy to follow and great results.
How to make olive oil pound cake:
Ingredients for 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.
Making Olive Oil Pound Cake
- Preheat the oven and prep your pan. Start by placing a rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Spray a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.
- Combine the ingredients. in a large mixing bowl, whisk the olive oil sugar eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and milk. You could also do this on low speed in a stand mixer, but honestly, I use a whisk and a bowl and keep it simple. Since we aren’t using butter, we don’t need to cream anything. Simply combine the wet ingredients. Then fold in the fry ingredients into the mixture.
- Bake. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.Bake until the center is tested with a cake tester and comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the pan on the counter for several minute before attempting to remove. Dust with powdered sugar if desired.
Why I think you should make this recipe
- ONE BOWL. I repeat: one bowl.
- Tender and moist on the inside
- Sweet, but not too sweet
- Makes your house smell like a little corner bakery
Other dessert recipes to try:
One Bowl Lemon Olive Oil Pound Cake
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
- ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg optional but sooo good
- ⅛ teaspoon cinnamon optional but sooo good
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon 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 9×5 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!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like This? Leave a comment & rating below!
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! 🙂
Delicious. It’s the crumb that tastes so good! Because I had a bottle of expensive orange olive oil to finish up, I used it for this recipe with orange juice and orange zest in place of lemon.