Lemon Cornmeal Olive Oil Cake

Lemon Cornmeal Olive Oil Cake
Bursting with fresh lemon flavor, this cake mixes together quickly and completes with a beautiful presentation.  Sliced into perfect wedges, the glazed slices would be welcomed at any occasion.
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

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 ***

 

Preheat oven to 350º 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. 

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.  You can't go wrong here.

 

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.

 

Thank you Abby for one more wonderful recipe! 

***Liv Life Note:  While this glaze was made with kids in mind, I'm thinking a delightful and more adult version would substitute Limoncello for the freshly squeezed lemon juice.