Olive oil cake

another good one - rave reviews even when I cooked (somewhat in fear) for professional cooks and caterers - is Alice Waters' olive-oil-Sauternes-peaches cake. http://books.google.ca/books?id=X-GcbWY-2vsC&pg=PT88&lpg=PT88&dq=olive+oil+sauternes+cake+chez+panisse&source=bl&ots=W1_NN4g7ZM&sig=npVUgcFnniWhtOLEwSoxymRXtTc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=9MOGVKqsDYGsyASbo4GgAg&ved=0CGwQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=olive%20oil%20sauternes%20cake%20chez%20panisse&f=false P.S. both the regular people and the professional cooks loved the cake.

Now this is what I admire about Food 52 at its best .. a genuinely collaborative coming together of truly accomplished bakers in the ranks. No egos. Genuine expert assistance. Simply excellent.

Suzanne, your cake sounds similar to revani, which would be another option for a moist, lemony cake.

I was on the hunt a few months ago for an olive oil cake and found a recipe that I adapted to include semolina, now it has orange as well as lemon in it but you can omit the orange and just add the lemon. It's moist and really good, you pour a soaking syrup on the cake while it's hot, it also contains yogurt here is the recipe http://food52.com/recipes/20617-citrus-semolina-olive-oil-cake

Oops. Major detail. Here’s Patricia Wells’ recipe:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Winemakers-Grape-Cake-104222

I’ve been making Patricia Wells’ Winemaker Grape Cake for years. It contains orange and lemon zest, but you could omit the orange and increase the lemon zest. I love this cake, and so does anyone who’s eaten it with me.

I love olive oil cakes, and my favorite to make at home is Kim Boyce's. Hers includes chocolate chips and rosemary but you could sub lemon zest and such instead. The recipe is for Olive Oil Cake and is in her book, Good to the Grain.