Olive Oil, Honey and Lemon Cake

I made this cake during Lent of 2025, when I was exploring Biblical foods. Other than lemons, this cake includes many foods that folks would have had access to in Biblical times, including olive oil, honey, yogurt, flour and eggs, which is one of the reasons I found it to be so particularly lovely. The other is that it is just so yummy. It’s very rich, very moist and quite dense. In my experimentation, I used a cream cheese frosting, thinking that the tang of the cream cheese would be enough of a counterpoint to the richness of the cake. It was delicious, but a little too much rich-on-top-of-rich, if you know what I mean. A friend suggested either a raspberry or a lemon glaze as a counterpoint, which I think would be delightful and I’ve included a recipe for a simple lemon glaze to drizzle over top of the cake.

I also like this cake because the cake batter can be made in one large bowl, saving a lot of messy kitchen clean-up; and it’s easy enough to make on a busy weekday–even if you decide to make the lemon glaze to go with it.

I guess what I like best about this cake is that it’s the embodiment of how food can make connections. In this case, with the past. Since our Biblical ancestors would have access to most of the ingredients in this cake, might they have actually made it? I can particularly see it being served with coffee in the morning for breakfast, or in the afternoon as a “pick-me-up.” Might it have been served alongside a hot beverage in Biblical times also? I’ll let you decide 🙂

Print Recipe

Olive Oil, Honey and Lemon Cake

Author: keriawilliams

Ingredients

Servings

• 1 cup full fat yogurt
• ²⁄₃ cup very good quality olive oil
• ²⁄₃ cup honey
• 1 tbsp grated lemon zest
• 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
• ¹⁄₂ tsp baking powder
• ¹⁄₂ tsp baking soda
• ³⁄₄ tsp Kosher salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325*

1. Line a 9" cake pan with parchment paper by folding a piece of the paper several times and cutting off the end until you have a circle that will snugly fit into the bottom of the pan. Grease the pan liberally with olive oil and lay the parchment paper circle in the bottom. Grease the top of the paper with olive oil and set aside.

   

1. In a large pan, combine the yogurt, olive oil, honey, thyme, vanilla and lemon zest.

   

1. Add the eggs and whisk them until they are fully incorporated into the mixture.

   

1. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

   

1. Stir until all the ingredients come together, but leave lumps. You're going for more of a cornbread batter consistency here than a smooth cake batter.

   

1. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake pan and give it a few thumps on the countertop to help the batter settle.

   

1. Place in the pre-heated oven and check after about 20 minutes to see how the bake is progressing. As you can see on my cake, it got a little darker around the edges than I wanted. I let the cake go for about 45 minutes, but every oven is different, so monitor it to get it to the perfect golden-brown! Once out of the oven, let it sit for a few minutes before trying to remove it. My cake pulled away from the edges beautifully and came right out--just be careful with handling--the cake is heavy and dense and wants to break apart.

   

Note

For an easy lemon glaze, squeeze 3 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice into a bowl. Whisk in about a cup of powdered sugar to start and more if necessary to create a glossy, pourable glaze for the cake.

And, as always--please use a very fresh, good quality olive oil. You can really taste it in this cake and it's wonderful--but trust me--if the olive oil has turned, the cake is ruined.