Olive Oil-Hazelnut Cake with Lemon & Rosemary

Food Gifts, Sweets

DifficultyBeginner

Prep Time15 mins

Cook Time45 mins

Yields1 Serving

DifficultyBeginner

A decadent blend of olive oil and hazelnuts meets refreshing lemon and fragrant rosemary.

I’m not usually finicky about the steps because, trust me, this cake will taste great no matter what. However, you do have to be careful about one thing: getting it out of the pan. Why? Because there’s whipped eggs and sugar, which, when paired with heat, can make a meringue-like glue that will hold onto your cake pan for dear life. It’s essential to use parchment paper to line your cake pan and to grease the absolute heck out of it too. Also, use either an 8″ spring form cake pan or a baking tray (one which you’ll later cut and serve the cake from).

Why I Use...

Ingredients

4 large eggs

½ cup regular sugar

2 zest of two lemons

¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

½ tsp pure vanilla extract

2 tsp finely chopped rosemary

1 cup ground hazelnuts (hazelnut meal)

½ cup all-purpose flour (or rice flour)

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

powdered sugar (for dusting at the end)

Note:

The flowers on the cake are plastic, from a vintage bouquet, for decorative purposes only. Please do not ingest any florals or foliage unless safe to do so.

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Trace out the bottom of your 8" springform pan or tray pan onto parchment paper. Ensure when cut and placed to see if it fits, that it's trimmed enough so it lays flat.

Remove parchment, grease the pan, then lay the parchment back into the pan and grease it too (Just grease the whole damn thing, up, down and all around).

Whip the eggs and sugar, lemon zest and chopped rosemary until uber airy. Like, triple the size it once was (don't worry about over mixing, not possible!)

Then slowly stream in lemon juice, olive oil and vanilla extract while beating.

Add the ground hazelnut, flour, baking powder and baking soda. If using a gluten free flour, don't worry about over mixing. If you use AP flour, stir until ingredients are just incorporated (due to gluten in AP flour, overmixing can happen here).

Pour into prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes, or until the top no longer jiggles.

Remove from oven and let cool in pan. Just before serving, sprinkle the top of the cake with powdered sugar (shaken through sieve).

Purpose-driven Chef & Food Journalist