This winter citrus olive oil cake topped with citrus cream is the perfect beautiful dessert to make for any occasion. If you are a long-time follower of Fig & Olive Platter, then you know that I love simple one-bowl cakes, and this cake is exactly that. All you need is a couple of ingredients and a bowl, and you got yourself a moist and fruity olive oil cake. You can decorate the cake with powdered sugar or elevate it with citrus cream, orange zest, and delicate flowers.
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Winter Citrus Olive Oil Cake topped with a Citrus Cream
Equipment
- 9" round cake pan
Ingredients
- 1&1/2 cup All purpose flour
- 2 tsps baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1/2 cup plain yogurt
- 1/3 cup of orange juice
- 2 tbps orange zest
- 1 cup sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 2 tsp Vanilla paste or extract if you have orange extract, you can use that too.
Citrus Curd
- 2 eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- 3/4 cup sugar ( if you want the curd to be less sweet, reduce to 1/2 cup)
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 1 tbsp orange zest
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp of cornstarch
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 tsp orange extract optional
Whipped Cream
- 1 &1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/3 cup of powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla paste or orange extract
Instructions
Citrus Curd
- In a medium size bowl, add the sugar and orange zest. Using your clean fingers, massage the zest into the sugar. Doing this will release the oil from the orange zest.
- Pour the mixture into a small saucepan and add the egg yolks, whole eggs, pinch of salt, orange juice, cornstarch and lemon juice. Whisk everything until well combined.
- Place pan over medium heat and stir constantly so the mixture heats up evenly.
- Continue to whisk until the mixture has thickened. The mixture has thickened when it coats the back of a spoon.
- Turn off the heat and stir in the butter.
- Pour the hot mixture through a strainer to remove any clumps and ensure the curd is smooth and lump free.
- Place a plastic wrap on top of the curd to prevent a skin forming. Place in the fridge to chill for about 2 hours or until it is set.
Citrus Olive Oil Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and line a 9” cake round pan with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, add the sugar and orange zest. Using your clean fingers, massage the zest into the sugar. Doing this will release the oil from the orange zest.
- Add the two eggs, vanilla extract and whisk for about 30 seconds to 1 minute until mixture is light and fluffy.
- Now add the olive oil, orange juice and yogurt. Mix everything together really well.
- In a separate bowl, sift in the dry ingredients : all purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in two parts and mix gently until combined. Do not over mix the batter.Tip: Do not over mix the batter. Just mix until just combined. I suggest using a spatula to incorporate the flour.
- Pour the batter into your greased and lined with parchment paper round cake pan.
- Place the pan on the middle rack and bake for about 35 minutes or until golden all over and when gently pressed , it springs back and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Once the cake is done, Allow the cake to cool for 10-13 minutes in the pan before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely. Optional Step: For extra moisture, you can gently poke some holes all over the top of the cake while it's still warm and spread either 2 tbsp of orange blossom sugar syrup or 1 Tbsp of olive oil over the cake.
Whipped Cream
- In a large bowl, beat the heavy cream with powdered sugar until medium stiff peaks form. Optional: You can add either vanilla extract or orange extract to the whipped cream.
Assembling the Winter Citrus Olive Oil Cake with Citrus Curd Cream
- The cake needs to be cooled completely before decorating. This is a very important step.
- Top the cooled cake with the whipped cream and using an angled icing spatula, spread the whipped cream gently. Dollop some chilled citrus curd over the whipped cream and using the spatula, spread it out. Be creative, see image for reference. Decorate the cake with dried oranges slices, orange zest, squeeze some blood orange juice for color, and delicate/ edible flowers.
- If serving this cake for an occasion ( dinner party, brunch, birthday etc. ), I love to place a bowl of orange curd on the table right by the cake for guests to have the option to top with extra orange curd. Enjoy!
Notes
Extra Moisture: For extra moisture, you can gently poke some holes all over the top of the cake while it’s still warm and spread all over with
- 2 tbsp of orange blossom syrup ( recipe here. ),
- 1 Tbsp of olive oil over the cake,
- a simple syrup, or
- brush all over with 2 tbsp of milk.
- Cake: Since this cake is made with olive oil, it keeps really well covered at room temperature. If you end up decorating the cake with the curd cream, store the cake in the fridge and take out of the fridge 30 minutes before serving so it can come back to room temperature.
- Citrus Curd: You can store any leftover curd in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
- Powdered Sugar : After the cake has cooled completed, sprinkle powder sugar.
- Orange Blossom Syrup: Poke the cake while warm and pour some orange blossom water syrup all over. You can find the recipe for the syrup here.
- Before baking the cake, top with sliced almonds and sprinkle some sugar and then bake.
- First, you’ll start by fluffing the flour a little with a spoon.
- Second, you’ll spoon the flour into the measuring cup, let the flour flow over a little and then,
- Third, you’ll use the back of a knife to level the top off.
Was waiting for this! Sounds absolutely amazing. Can’t wait to make it. Thank you so much😊
Sounds delicious! Do you think the flavors would work well if I added fresh cranberries to the batter?
I actually have an orange cranberry cake recipe : https://figandoliveplatter.com/orange-cranberry-almond-cake/ 🙂
If I don’t have corn starch for the curd, can I substitute it for flour? Can’t wait to make this!
Yes 🙂
I just made this and oh my goodness if is so wonderful. I reduced the sugar to 1/2 cup in the citrus curd as noted and also probably only put in 1/6 cup of powdered sugar in the whipped cream. The cake is SO moist, not overly sweet, and has a beautiful delicate citrus flavor. I’m going to make the cake alone (without the curd or cream) on a regular basis as a breakfast/snacking cake. A+ recipe.
This is so lovely! Do you know if this batter could also be used to make cupcakes? Thank you!
Hi! Yes, you can make cupcakes with this batter. 🙂
Hi I love your Recipes,
but for us in Europe its a bit confusing with the Cup system. I would appreciate it a lot if you would put the the recipes also in metric system on ur great website.
Thanx and regards from Germany!
Khalid
Would topping the cake with yogurt instead of cream also taste nice?
Hi! You can try yogurt instead, but I would sweeten the the yogurt with powdered sugar or honey. 🙂
Hi!
Is there a way to make this gluten-free? I would love to make it but it needs to be gluten free for certain people!
Hi! Yes, you can use almond flour or gluten free flour. But keep in mind the texture of the cake will vary from the original recipe but it will still come out great! 🙂
Gorgeous recipe. I was wondering, what would you recommend for dairy alternatives (replacing the butter, yogurt)?
incredible recipe, the cake is so so so moist, it’s amazing on its own will try with the curd and cream next time
I’m convinced this cake is capable of changing people’s lives it is so good. I made this for my sister’s wedding and she didn’t want to serve it to the guests, but once word got out how good it was, people were eating it with their hands! Thank you for sharing!
This was so delicious! Made it for Christmas and despite having an entire dessert table, nearly this entire cake went! I will say my cake was done at 29-30 mins and it did sink quite a bit in the middle(not sure why since it was completely baked) but I covered with whip cream and you could never tell! Definitely recommend and will be baking again!
Hi there! I’m in the middle of baking this cake an I feel that it’s cooked but it did sink a little bit in the middle but my toothpick was clean. Is that normal ? Thanks!
Hi, thanks for trying out the recipe.:) Did you happen to open the oven early when it was baking? Because doing that could cause the cake to sink in the middle.
Beautiful cake made for someone so deserving. Swirling the curd in w my finger was helpful. Adding fresh zest, dried flowers, and a few fresh flowers along with some halves of orange slices creates a lovely scene. The cream melts off the cake after a while, so best to keep the cake refrigerated up until serving. Only complaint is my cake was done 8 whole minutes early. If I had just waited for my oven to beep, it would have been ruined. Also an obvious tip, go to a local Greek or Italian market for the fanciest olive oil you… Read more »
Hey love this making it today but I don’t have yogurt can I use milk ?
I made this cake twice! First time I accidentally used too much baking powder and kept opening the oven door so it sank.
I remade it (only used half a cup of olive oil) and made sure to only open the oven door once it reached over 30 minutes to do a toothpick test. Turned out perfect!! Did not sink. Was beautiful golden colour. Can’t believe how easy the curd was to make!
A crowd pleaser for sure