Lemon Cornmeal Olive Oil Cake

I simply love the refreshing flavours of lemon in a cake and am always looking for a good recipe to make. I was immediately drawn to this Lemon Cornmeal Olive Oil Cake recipe when I first saw it on Liv Life - firstly its because I still have a huge bag of cornmeal sitting around from previous bakes and more importantly, it uses oil instead of butter. This recipe fits perfectly into my definition of a healthier cake recipe. 

I love how easy this cake is put together. It is bursting with fresh lemon flavour and has a wonderfully light and moist texture. The cornmeal added a very slight salty aftertaste which isn't very obvious yet complements the sweetness and sourish taste. The only thing about this cake is that one has to be very light and gentle when it comes to mixing the ingredients in or the cake may have some dense spots. 

The true test of how successful is a recipe is how much the kids and hubby enjoys it and they sure did! I almost immediately made another one because the first one was gone in a jiffy. 

Lemon Cornmeal Olive Oil Cake (9 inches)

Recipe from Livlife adapted from Epicurious and Abby Dodge

Lemon Cake:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup yellow cornmeal 
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk (I added 1 tbsp lemon juice to 1 cup of milk and let it stand)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon peel
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• 1/2 cup citrus olive oil (or any light olive oil)

Lemon Glaze:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 Tbs to 1/4 cup lemon juice (depending on how thick you want the glaze to be) 

Method

• Preheat oven to 350ºF (175ºC) and butter a 9-inch cake pan with 2-inch high sides.  Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper.
• In a large bowl combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt, whisking to combine.
• In a smaller bowl, combing the buttermilk, eggs, lemon peel, extracts and olive oil.  Again, whisk to combine.
• Pour the buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients, and with a light hand, gently fold the ingredients just until blended.  Abby specifically recommends folding, not stirring.   (Do not over-mix the batter, use light gentle folding, or the batter may lose its lightness and there will be some dense spots in the cake).
• Pour the batter into your prepared cake pan and place into the center of the oven.
• Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean and the cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan, 25-30 minutes.
• Remove the cake from the oven and run a knife around the sides.  Place rack atop cake in pan. Using oven mitts, hold pan and rack firmly together and invert cake onto rack. Remove pan from cake. Place another rack on bottom of cake; invert 1 more time so that cake is top side up.
• Allow cake to cool about 10 minutes.
• While cake is cooling, whisk together the Lemon Glaze ingredients to your desired consistency.  Liv prefers a thicker glaze, but add additional lemon juice for a nice, thinner drizzle if that is your preference.  
• Drizzle or spoon glaze over cake and if you can, allow the glaze to set.  If you can't wait, the cake is delightful warm with the sticky glaze, but a few hours later it's even better.

Note: I used a 8.5 inch tin and didn't use the lemon glaze. I served mine with some yoghurt. 

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs up organised by Doreen from my little favourite DIY and me, Bake for Happy Kids, hosted by Esther from Copycake Kitchen, at this post. 

This is for Made with Love Mondays by Javelin Warrior.