Christmas

Vegan & Gluten Free Lemon Olive Oil Cake

May  6, 2019
3
1 Ratings
Photo by Michelle Perry
  • Prep time 30 minutes
  • Cook time 1 hour
  • Makes 9in Round Pan
Author Notes

A modern take on the classic olive oil cake! Impress all of your friends with this delicious vegan and gluten-free recipe. —Michelle Perry

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Ingredients
  • Caramelized Lemon Topping
  • 5 Lemons
  • 3/4 cup Brown Sugar
  • 1/4 cup Vegan Butter, I used Earth Balance
  • Cake
  • 2 cups Bob's Red Mill 1:1 Gluten-Free Baking Flour
  • 1 3/4 cups Sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher Salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
  • 1 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 1 1/4 cups Almond Milk, Unflavored & Unsweetened
  • 3 Flax Eggs (1 tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp water= 1 flax egg)
  • 2 tablespoons Grated Lemon Zest
  • 1/4 cup Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice
  • 1/4 cup Grand Marnier
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line bottom of 9in round pan with parchment paper and grease sides of pan.
  2. Combine 1/4 cup vegan butter and 3/4 brown sugar in a pan and bring to a boil over medium heat while stirring constantly. Pour butter mixture into greased and lined 9in round pan.
  3. Cut lemons thinly and de-seed carefully with knife. Start by placing a small lemon slice in the middle of the pan on top of the butter mixture and create rings of lemon around center slice. Slices should overlap a bit. Ensure the whole bottom of the pan in lined with lemons.
  4. In a bowl, whisk the GF flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and powder. In another bowl, whisk the olive oil, almond milk, flax eggs, lemon zest and juice and Grand Marnier. Add the dry ingredients; whisk until just combined.
  5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan on top of lemon slices and bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes, until the top is golden and a toothpick comes out clean. Transfer the cake to a rack and let cool for 30 minutes.
  6. Place a large pan underneath rack to catch any butter drippings. Use a large plate to carefully flip cake and then place on rack. Be careful, butter mixture will be runny!
  7. Let cake cool and firm up for 2 hour. Slice and enjoy!

See what other Food52ers are saying.

3 Reviews

Liz I. January 5, 2020
I feel like I am the guinea pig for this recipe, because there's clearly something wrong here at least with amounts. The amount of batter does not fit in a 9" pan; I had enough left over to fill another 8" pan! Also, when I added the batter, the lemon slices all floated up. It's all in the oven now. I will write again when I see how it turns out.
Liz I. January 5, 2020
Ok, just took them out of the oven--25 minutes early. Lemons all at the top. I would post a picture if I could. The 9" one spilled over. The other one rose funny. Time will tell whether they taste good or not.
Liz I. January 6, 2020
OK, we ate it, and it was all right. However, an hour and twenty minutes would have been way too long; as it was, the "glaze" was pretty baked on to the bottom of the pan (despite the parchment paper). But what we could scrape together was tasty. And the version without any lemon slices (the extra batter) is quite tasty, though much plainer.