My husband is a sucker for lemon desserts, so when his birthday rolled around this year, I challenged myself to create a new cake recipe just for him. I decided to try my hand at a Paleo adaptation of a traditional Italian olive oil cake while giving it a bit of a twist. I remembered a delicious lemon rosemary cake that I once had at a bakery and felt the combination would work well with olive oil. That was a great guess because the final result was spectacular! This Lemon Rosemary Olive Oil Cake is probably my favorite cake recipe I’ve ever created. It’s moist and spongy with a large crumb and perfect flavor.
This cake recipe can easily be made into a coffeecake by baking in a bundt pan and glazing with a simple lemon juice and honey glaze (mix one part of each, heat and then brush over the cake surface immediately after removing from the pan, while it’s still warm) and skipping the lemon curd and frosting. The cake will take 50 to 60 minutes to bake in a bundt pan. This makes a lovely treat while skipping the fuss of making lemon curd.
Prep time: 20 to 30 minutes plus cooling and chilling
Cook time: 35 minutes
Yield: 12 to 16 servings
Lemon Curd
Ingredients:
- 4 eggs
- 4 egg yolks
- 2/3 cups honey
- 1 cup fresh lemon juice
- zest from 4 lemons
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup ghee or butter (or substitute coconut oil)
Directions:
- Whisk all ingredients together in a small saucepot. Place on stovetop over medium-low heat.
- Once the fat melts, stir constantly for 5 to 7 minutes until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat.
- Pour through a fine mesh sieve into a jar or bowl. Discard zest.
- Chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour. Curd will keep for several weeks in the fridge.
Lemon Curd Frosting
Ingredients:
- 1 cup coconut cream
- 2 teaspoons gelatin
- 3/4 cup chilled Lemon Curd (see above)
- 3 tablespoons honey
Directions:
- Bloom the gelatin in the coconut cream and then heat over medium-low heat in a small saucepot until the gelatin dissolves.
- Remove from heat and transfer to a jar or bowl. Chill until set, 1 to 2 hours.
- In a small blender jar or food processor, blend chilled coconut cream, lemon curd and honey until light and fluffy. Immediately frost cake, or blend again before frosting.
Lemon Rosemary Olive Oil Cake
Ingredients:
- 1 cup olive oil (the higher the quality the better)
- 3 eggs
- 2 egg whites
- 1 cup honey
- 2/3 cups coconut milk or cream
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- 2 cups cassava flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon very finely chopped fresh rosemary
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 325F. Grease and flour two 8″ or 9″ round cake pans or use silicone cake pans.
- Beat olive oil, eggs, honey, coconut milk ,lemon juice and lemon zest in the bowl of a standing mixer with the whisk attachment until creamy.
- Combine the remaining ingredients and fold into the egg mixture until fully combined.
- Pour batter into the prepared cake pans.
- Bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
- Let cake cool completely before frosting.
- Gently invert cake pans to remove (it can help to run a knife around the edge first). Spread remaining curd between the two layers. Spread the Lemon Curd Frosting over the top and sides. Decorate with fresh rosemary if desired. Serve!
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Looks gorgeous – this is going on the to-do list. One quibble – wish the weights of flours were listed in the recipes, makes it much easier for me to get same result @ home as u did in your kitchen. Thank you & looking forward to reading my copy of Paleo Principles.
Sounds yummy, but what can you use to replace the honey? There’s a lot used in the curd and the cake. I want to keep my blood sugar more balanced even when I indulge in deserts. Yacon syrup? Can I make a syrup of some sort using stevia?
Sarah doesn’t recommend using stevia, however, you may be able to simply reduce the amount of honey so there is less sugar overall. We haven’t tested any substitutions or reductions though. -Kiersten
So far every component tastes amazing. I’m hoping you can help with the frosting. This is not the first recipe that I have been challenged by the coconut cream for the frosting. At least I think that’s the problem. Everything has been chilled and when I put all of the frosting ingredients in the food processor it did not “whip up light and fluffy”. : ( Help. I really want to make this again for my daughter’s birthday in a few days. Thank you!
Did you chill your can of coconut cream beforehand and then separate the cream from the water? You could also try whipping it with a hand mixer. It’s possible that could get it fluffier than a food processor. -Kiersten
Thank you, Kiersten. I decided not to attempt it again for my daughter’s birthday but would like to try it in the future. I did not chill the can of coconut milk/cream simply because it was being heated anyway on the stove with the gelatin – would that make the difference? I was wondering if I got a little bit of milk mixed with the cream.
Chilling it helps to separate the cream from the water so it’s possible that since you didn’t chill it that the water content was too high. This makes it much less creamy. Hopefully this tweak will make the difference for you next time! -Kiersten
Kiersten,
Thank you for walking through this with me. I might give the frosting another go on its own before doing the cake and curd first (which by the way is dangerously delicious!). Thanks again!
– Richelle
Thank you – this looks wonderful! Do you think it could work to use “gelatin eggs” as egg substitutes in the cake? Thanks so much for any help that you can give!