The name gives it away, but it’s true: Mina Stone’s olive oil cake is super fragrant with lemon, extremely moist thanks to extra-virgin olive oil, and the interior is as yellow as the sun. This recipe comes (fittingly) from her new cookbook, Lemon, Love & Olive Oil, which revisits dishes throughout Stone’s life, especially ones she learned from her Greek grandmother. “The most important thing I’ve learned from the women in my family is to cook with love, abandon, and an absence of fear,” writes Stone. Traditionally, Greek olive oil cake uses orange juice and zest, but on a day she ran out of oranges, Stone substituted in lemons and the rest is history. Or, er, this recipe.
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What you’ll need
9" Springform Pan
$17 At Amazon
Microplane Grater
$18 At Amazon
Citrus Juicer
$20 $15 At Amazon
Ingredients
10–12 servings
1½
3
1¼
1¼
2
2
1
½
½
Special Equipment
Preparation
Step 1
Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly oil pan with a pastry brush. Line bottom with a parchment paper round and brush parchment with oil. Whisk eggs, 1½ cups oil, and 1¼ cups sugar in a medium bowl until smooth. Add milk, vanilla, and zest and juice of 2 lemons and whisk to combine.
Step 2
Whisk flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a large bowl to combine. Make a well in the center and gradually pour egg mixture into well. Whisk, using circular motions to slowly incorporate egg mixture, until batter is mostly smooth (some lumps are okay). Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth surface. Sprinkle remaining 1 Tbsp. sugar over.
Step 3
Bake cake until top is golden brown and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cake cool before unmolding.
Step 4
Just before serving, dust cake with powdered sugar and top with more lemon zest if you have it.
Do Ahead: Cake can be baked 3 days ahead. Store tightly wrapped at room temperature.
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Leave a Review
Reviews (168)
Back to TopMade it exactly as in the recipe and turned out perfect! It’s delicious, moist, and not too sweet so I end up eating it no matter what time of day and it goes quick. My go-to easy but less traditional cake recipe.
Anonymous
Portland, OR
4/11/2024
Would love for this cake to show up in the Epicurious app that I pay for, the alleged home of all Bon Appetit recipes :( It look delicious and I would love to save it to my collection.
Anonymous
ATL
1/26/2024
This is a fantastic recipe as written. Do not overwork the batter to produce a spongier crumb. Absolutely delicious - moist and not too sweet.
Shannon K
Los Angeles, CA
12/30/2023
SUGAR-FREE AND SUPER-MOIST: I substituted monkfruit for all but the topping sugar and it was perfectly sweet and unctuous! I also reduce the oil by 1/2-cup to 1-cup (total). I increased the citrus to 3-lemons (total) for their juice and zest. And I only used ‘freshly zested’ lemon plus powdered sugar to finish the top for serving. If you zest the lemon too soon, it will dry out and become inedible. Candied lemon peel is even better - do it yourself with the zest of an additional lemon, monkfruit and water. Enjoy!
Dodger746
The Treasure Coast of Florida
9/20/2023
If you read the reviews and use less oil and more lemon, the result is a very moist and lemony summer cake. My family really enjoyed each bite. We have a beautiful Myers lemon tree and I'm mot sure about other varieties, but Myers are wonderful.
Sharon
San Diego, CA
4/10/2023
This was really lovely! Super moist and citrusy. I followed other reviewers' directions and cut olive oil down to 1 cup, and added an extra lemons worth of zest + juice. I didn't find that it took too long to bake, just about 45 minutes or so.
Anonymous
Seattle, Wa
3/3/2023
A keeper-I didn’t read the reviews but some were correct in the time it was raw in the middle after 50 min so took another 25. I added 1/3 almond flour to the 2cuos of flour total and I used cake flour. I used 2 large lemons and one orange and all the zest from the three. I also subbed 1 tsp of almond extract with 1 tsp of the vanilla. I used California EVOO and it was a phenomenal dessert everyone loved. Not oily tasting at all just moist, a beautiful crumb and refreshing.
Cheryl
Springfield mass
2/11/2023
One of the best cakes I’ve ever made! Recipe was easy to follow but I did tweak it a bit based on previous reviews. Went down to 1 cup of oil, juice and zest of 3 lemons. Room temp eggs and milk. Super moist cake was a crowd pleaser amongst my family! Great with fresh raspberries on top
Shi Shi
Boston, MA
12/28/2022
This was my first time making an olive oil cake and I didn’t know if I would like it. I followed reviewers’ comments/suggestions and good thing I did. Reduced oil to one cup and increased lemon juice to three. Results were spot on. A dense oily olive oil cake with good flavor. I baked it at 355 for 50min+5 min +5min+5 min. Finally done! I probably will not make it again because of the oily factor but the cake was very tasty.
Maria
Crozet, VA
12/15/2022
Excellent with 3 lemons and 1 cup oil. I whisked the lemon peel with the sugar first to extract more of the lemon oil. And to the commeneter who asked about subbing yogurt for the milk, I used half whole milk yogurt (not Greek) and half 2% liquid milk. Worked great. I decorated with the sifted powdered sugar, grated lemon peel, and a lemon twist in the center, surrounded by raspberries. It made a beautiful presentation.
pipercooks
Longmont, CO
11/27/2022
Can I make a suggestion regarding one reviewer who said the cake was too dense? I’ve made olive oil cakes like this and I’ve found if you sift the dry ingredients together and fold into wet with a spatula just until combined, using a gentle hand , then pour into cake pans you will achieve a more light, sponge like texture.
Susan
Green Valley, Az
6/12/2022
My husband and I really liked it, my daughter was so-so. It's super dense and moist and good balance of sweet and tart. Based on other reviews I modified as follows: 1 cup of oil (definitely was enough!), 3 lemons - I used Meyer lemons. I also mixed the flour - 1 cup regular and 1 cup whole wheat. Baked 50 minutes...like I said, we really liked it and I for sure would make it again. It's not a "typical" kind of cake so maybe some people might not enjoy it. I think it would be great with fresh whipped cream (next time) or even as a brunch cake with a glass of champagne :-)
Klar-E
Bay Area, CA
5/2/2022
Whole family loved it. I followed the suggestions here and used 1C olive oil and three lemons. I also mixed in a tablespoon of lemon paste just because I had it in the pantry. Baked exactly 50 minutes in a 9” springform. Simple, beautiful and tasty.
janedivided
Tampa, FL
3/29/2022
An amazing cake. I decorated it with crushed pistachio, lemon rind and rose petals
Izzy
Hudson Valley
3/13/2022
I absolutely loved this recipe. Followed the instructions to a T, but had to bake for 20 min longer (the cake was still jiggling a bit after 50 min). The end result was an incredibly rich, moist lemon pound cake-like cake that stores super well. The only change I would make next time is increasing the lemon juice and zest to 3 lemons, since I expected a stronger lemon flavour based on the title.
Anonymous
Ottawa
2/16/2022